# OpenBMB shows a cat drinking monitor built with MiniCPM-V models

> Original title: 🐱 Who’s been drinking from the water bowl? MiniCPM-V helps keep track.

- Source: OpenBMB
- Published: 2026-11-05T13:30:08.000Z
- Bad Influence: https://badinfluence.news/items/cfirx6u7vigoih54nkmyforxs
- Original: https://x.com/OpenBMB/status/2118335055726805215

## Summary

OpenBMB says its ambassador @emwstudio built esp32-eye, an open-source monitor that recognizes individual cats and logs daily drinking events. The system runs MiniCPM-V 4.7 1B locally on a MacBook to detect whether a cat is in view, then calls MiniCPM-V 4.7 35B-A3B to identify the cat against reference photos. In a four-cat home test over three days, @emwstudio reports 89 manually checked drinking events with all cat identities correctly recognized.

## Post

🐱 Who’s been drinking from the water bowl? MiniCPM-V helps keep track.

Our ambassador @emwstudio built esp32-eye, an open-source monitor that recognizes individual cats and logs their daily drinking events, using MiniCPM-V 4.7, two ESP32-S3 boards, and a MacBook. 💧

From camera feed to daily counts, here’s how it works:
📷 Capture: An ESP32-S3 camera streams video from beside the water bowl to the MacBook.
⚡ Detect: MiniCPM-V 4.7 1B runs locally on the MacBook to check whether a cat is in view, filtering frames before calling the larger model.
🔍 Identify: MiniCPM-V 4.7 35B-A3B checks the scene and compares reference photos to identify the cat.
📊 Track: A separate ESP32-S3 AMOLED display shows live video and each cat’s daily count. The system also saves event clips with audio.

🐾 In a home setup with four cats, @emwstudio reports 89 manually checked drinking events over three days, with all cat identities correctly recognized.

A practical example of complementary models at work: an intelligent model handles frequent detection, while a larger model handles identity confirmation.

We love seeing our community turn MiniCPM’s visual understanding into creative tools for everyday life. What would you build? 💙

🎬 Watch @emwstudio’s demo on Instagram:
http://instagram.com/reel/De9kUrooQlR

🛠️ Explore @emwstudio’s project:
http://github.com/emwstudio/esp32-eye

🚀 Build with MiniCPM-V:
GitHub: http://github.com/OpenBMB/MiniCPM-V
🤗 Hugging Face: http://huggingface.co/openbmb/MiniCPM-V-4.7-35B-A3B

#MiniCPM #OpenBMB #ESP32 #OpenSource

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