Upload Immortality
What would happen if a cat’s consciousness is reproduced in the future?
How can humans communicate with the replicated digital entity?
This project explores the concept of digital immortality through a virtual cat that lives forever in the digital world. Inspired by a real cat, Ronny, its memories and experiences are recorded via brain scans and reproduced through algorithms. Over time, viewer interactions help shape the cat’s evolving consciousness, blurring the line between virtual and reality. While brain science suggests that mind uploading is theoretically possible, its full realization remains a distant goal. This project serves as an artistic and technological exploration of parallel existence and human connection in the digital realm.
Why Cat?
Consciousness uploading explores the idea of separating brain information from the body, allowing it to be transferred or replicated digitally. Pets, especially cats, provide long-term emotional support, making them ideal subjects for this exploration.
In the movie “The Matrix”, a black cat glitch symbolizes the blurred line between reality and simulation. Similarly, Schrödinger’s cat experiment suggests that observation can influence reality, aligning with the project’s theme of digital consciousness and the fluid boundary between the virtual and real worlds.
Scientific Research
Mind uploading feasibility
Consciousness signals are transmitted through the release and uptake of neurotransmitters in neurons, and some leading computer scientists and neuroscientists predicted that computers programmed in certain ways will have the ability to think and even gain consciousness.
Replacement on neurons
The continuous replacement of existing neurons with a particular electronic component enables the computerization of human consciousness.
Reproduction-transfer
The information is transferred to a computing device by scanning the features of the brain
The possibility of digitizing a cat’s awareness
The physical structure of the human and cat brain is very similar, with the cerebral cortex having similar lobes.
The possibility of consciousness development
Situational observations revealed that the behavioral patterns of cats correspond to emotions; they are likely to develop a sense of autonomy based on the way human society develops
Meows are particularly interesting for a number of reasons:
1. They seem to be rare in cat-to-cat interactions and in cat colonies but they are typical of cat-to-human interactions
2. Undomesticated felines rarely meow to humans as adults;
3. Meows made by feral and human domesticated cats show different acoustic parameters, suggesting they are shaped by close relationships with humans;
4. It has been suggested that meows may be a product of domestication and socialization humans, and have a less relevant role in intraspecific communication.
Various studies have shown that humans can correctly categorize vocalizations different species according to their emission environment and emotional content.
CAT Characteristic Research
1. Motion
I observed the tail movements of a real cat and combined it with the research data to correspond the different tail movements and emotions of the cat.
2. Voice
3. Sound
a. Distribution of the meows that were correctly assigned to their emission context on PC 1 and PC2.
b. Distribution of 11 descriptors of the emotions perceived bt the interviewed participants on PC1 and PC2.
Ideation
Background settings
With the further development of digital immortality technology, all the life experiences and memories of the cat are uploaded to the database through brain scans, and its consciousness is gradually reproduced through algorithms.
Reproduced digital cats roam the virtual digital world and the digital scenes will be presented as projected images.
This recreated digital cat will eventually become more and more like a real-world cat, with the border between reality and reality blurred.
Interactive settings
The head and tail of the digital cat can now break through the virtual space through the physical device and interact with people
Technology
Data Collection Methods:
Video sampling to inverse the skeleton movements of the animal to achieve the goal of collecting behavior.
Techniques utilized:
Open source training set based on DEEP POSE KIT For the analysis of animal micro-individual behaviors, such as sampling the movements of the animal’s limbs, the animal’s behavioral patterns are learned by training the model. And ultimately imitate the learning target to make the corresponding action.
Interaction Process
1. Interaction Framework
2. Interactive Details
Case Study
Matrix Robot
MIT – inFORM
A team of researchers from the MIT Tangible Media Group has developed a new human-computer interaction technology
The device is based on a deformable 3D surface called inFORM, which simulates physical touch on electronic components.
Soft Robot
1. Disney lab – a soft robotic hand and arm system
The six degree of freedom arm has two inflatable force sensing modules that passively absorb shocks and provide contact force feedback. The arm has an inflatable outer cover which surrounds the arm’s underlying mechanism and the force sensing module. An internal projector projects the display onto the inside of the cover, where it can be seen from the outside.
2. Robot tentacle/trunk with Arduino
The center of the tentacle is made of a flexible tube. For movement, I used threaded nylon wires through the holes between each conjunction and wired them back to the motor.
Prototype
A. Cat Head
A – Test 1: Original cat head mechanical construction test
cell version
advantage: free retractability
disadvantage: low precision with wood, small range of movement lengths
A – Test 2: Cat head mechanical construction test
square matrix version
advantage: amplifies the movement of the rack and pinion unit
disadvantage: presence of friction lengths
Model Iteration
Experimented with different materials and structures to assemble the cat head robot
B. Cat Tail
B-Test 1:
Original cat tail mechanics test: Jointed drive version
disadvantage: low flexibility, stiff movements only unidirectional movement
B-Test 2
Cat tail mechanics test by wire: Multi-directional version
advantage: more flexible movement
disadvantage: unidirectional movement only
B-Test 3
Wire-controlled cat tail mechanics: Unidirectional version
advantage: very flexible movements; multi-directional, S-shaped movements
Experimented with different materials and structures to assemble the cat tail robot
Technological Realization
A. System Architecture
Cat Head
The processor at the heart of the control system is an Arduino Mega as host, 4 Arduino UNOs work with the host via /2C serial communication to control a total of 5 16-way servo control boards. The output section also has a 10*10 WS2812 light array connected to the Arduino MEGA, a PAJ7620 gesture sensor and a VLX350 distance sensor connected.
Cat Tail
The tail control system consists of an Arduino UNO, a gesture sensor connected to the serial bus to receive data from the distance sensor at the same time. The output is controlled by a servo fast control board with 4 MG90s servos to control the in-line control system to complete the flexible movement of the tail, with 15*1 WS2812 to achieve the final performance effect
B. Programming
Connecting to PC
The communication between the host computer and the PC is done via the I2C protocol and the UE4duino plug-in is used to read the information and complete the linkage.
How to control the servos in the Cathead Matrix robot to make dynamic expressions?
Change from virtual model to realistic mechanics, using depth rendering channels and multiple quantization sampling to divide the whole picture into 5 blocks to control the angle and animation of the 5 rudder units
C. Unreal Engine Scene Animation
Final Work
Digital immortality is further developed by a cat whose entire biography and memories are uploaded into a database via brain scans and gradually reproduced through algorithms to create its consciousness. The cat roams the digital virtual world and when people interact with it using gestures, its head and tail cross the boundary between the virtual and the real, giving feedback on the viewer’s movements through two physical robots.
Viewers can choose to stand aside and observe the digital cat playing freely on the screen, or walk near the head or tail of the cat to interact with it. When the viewer makes at least six different gestures to the digital cat, it will make different movements and express its emotions through the physical robot.
Implementation of digital scenes and animations with Unreal Engine, in the same step as physical installations through projection.
In the digital scene, the cat can walk, run and jump freely. When people interact with the digital cat through gestures from the front and back view, it extends its physical head and tail to show different emotions and movements
