Understanding confidence

Two different questions

A CatMind result can contain an observation and a possible interpretation. These should not be read as the same claim.

• Observation: what the system detected in the clip — for example, repeated body repositioning, a vocal event or the direction of the head.
• Interpretation: an evidence-aware explanation that may fit those signals — for example, seeking a response or reacting to something outside the frame.

Visual and audio evidence can support the first question more directly. The second depends more heavily on missing context, the cat’s history and what happened next. A clear observation can therefore sit beside a tentative interpretation without contradiction.

What the labels mean

These terms describe relative support inside CatMind’s analysis process. They are not calibrated medical risk scores, and a displayed percentage is not the probability that a cat has a particular motive or condition.

What can lower confidence?

Confidence may fall when the cat is only partly visible, relevant body parts leave the frame, the camera shakes, the scene is dark or blurred, audio is masked, or too little of the behaviour is captured. Modern video-recognition research likewise treats unstable body-part visibility as a core challenge rather than a minor cosmetic issue.

Ambiguity can remain even in a technically excellent video. Similar visible behaviour can occur in different situations. A cat approaching a person might precede play, food, access to a room, social contact or something unrelated that is outside the frame.

“Not enough information” is therefore a useful result. It prevents weak evidence from being dressed up as a confident explanation.

How to use the result

1. Start with the observable pattern and inspect the evidence CatMind lists.
2. Check the recording limitations before focusing on an explanation.
3. Compare the leading possibility with the alternatives.
4. Ask what happened immediately before the clip and what made the behaviour change or stop.
5. Record a separate natural episode if the behaviour repeats; do not repeatedly crop one source video into several apparent observations.

Why CatMind uses careful language

Validated feline pain tools are built for defined purposes and still require appropriate observation and clinical judgement. For example, the Feline Grimace Scale was validated to assess acute pain from five facial action units under a specific study protocol. CatMind’s general behaviour analysis is not that clinical instrument and must not borrow its certainty.

Professional feline guidance also places behavioural history alongside physical examination and diagnostic testing when medical problems could influence behaviour. That is why CatMind presents hypotheses, missing context and red flags instead of a diagnosis.