There are few universal truths about cats, but we hold these to be self-evident: Cats are assholes, cats do not give a shit about you, and cats will be cracked out for hours over the tiny, uncatchable dot of a laser pointer.
Now La Fabrique DIY has a solution to extending your joy over that third point with this Arduino-controlled laser pointer toy.
Thanks to some clever programming, the mechanized arm moves to a new location “pseudo-randomly” every so often within a box you define (so your cat won’t go jumping out a window after its prey). The code “aims to reproduce the behaviour of an insect landing somewhere for a bit and then flying off,” according to the Github description.
The complete instructional breakdown is available with step-by-step photos over on Imgur and free code posted to Github, complete with a suggested mod for owners of particularly out-of-shape felines, but the bottom line is this: If you are marginally more bored than your cat, you can knock this out in an afternoon.
Just be sure to mind the step about lowering the laser’s brightness, for everybody’s sake.
H/T the Verge
