C.A.A.T. =’s Computer Aided Animal Training.

Sometime ago, I decided that I wanted to appear on ‘The David Letterman show.’ My goal was to submit a pet video for evaluation so that I could be in the show’s segment titled “Stupid Pet Tricks.”

I know, who would do it? I just thought that it would be fun, and I always learn new things from my crazy ideas.

My concept was to have an aquarium fish train itself to run a maze. I called it “Project Little Star.” I would then go on the show with a white lab coat on and my trained fish. I can hear David asking me, “Who would spend so much time and effort to train a fish?” “Well, I would Mr. Letterman.” (Audience laughter.)

I decided on the parts that I needed and made a sketch of my set up. I would need:

• A computer
• A frame grabber and camera
• Auto fish feeder
• Light
• Interface board
• Aquarium
• Fish
• Monitors
• An interactive program for fish training

Here is the sketch that I originally made and my actual set up below.

A lot of thought went into this crazy idea, that by the way never happened. The programming was beyond my capabilities, but in reality it could be done.

The camera would monitor the fish movements. Each time it got close to a maze hoop, a light would flash and the auto fish feeder would drop in some food. The amount of reward would be based on how good the movement was. The rewards would be varied so that the fish would not just keep making the same movement.

Eventually, the fish would train itself to run the entire maze.

So this was all for a stupid pet trick, but I believe that the concept could have some real world application. This idea could be applied to seals or dolphins to train themselves in rescue techniques, say for a downed plane in water or a sunken ship.

Sometimes the best laid plans of mice and men, or humans and fish just don’t work out!