Cat Academy is making the world's very first library of free-to-use Cat Memes designed specifically to help people learn. Cute Cat Pics have been scientifically proven to improve cognitive function, and the internet itself is proof that they grab people's attention better than almost anything - and as Dr Johnson said, memory is the art of attention. So Cat pics improve our cognition and grab our attention. They are the perfect tool for learning!

1. Cat Meme creation guidelines
Wednesday, 26 June 13

2. Cat Academy is building a free-to-use
resource of cat pics that are designed
to help people learn
We are also making the first iPhone
app that uses this resource - to teach
foreign languages
Basics
Wednesday, 26 June 13

3. Each cat picture is designed
to teach one word or phrase
Our first target is
to find cat pics for
2000 words and
phrases
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4. The pictures should bring the phrase to
life, and should be clear and memorable
Where possible, they should be funny.
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5. The pictures are always shown square
They have
to be at
least 640 x
640 pixels
Always, always square!!!
They can also
appear much
smaller
They can also
appear much
smaller
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6. Two rules of thumb for creating
good pics
1) The pics have to clearly tell the
story of the phrase they’re teaching
2) The pics have to be clear and distinct
even when shown very small.
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7. 11) The pics have to clearly tell the story of the phrase they’re
teaching
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8. The quality of the pictures naturally has to
be very high.
They key thing is that they tell the story of
their phrase very clearly.
“I like to drink water with my sardines”
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9. “I don’t want to have a shower”
A good way to tell whether the pic is doing the right job is
to ask, does the meaning of the phrase/ caption play on the
most obvious and notable part of the scene?
Win- because the key
feature is the cat ready for
a shower.
“I don’t like”
Fail.The photo is poor
quality, and could mean
anything.
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10. A good way to tell whether the pic is doing the right job is
to ask, does the phrase/ caption play on the most obvious
and notable part of the scene?
“I have to sleep”
Fail.The key feature is
that the cat is on top of
the man, asleep.
A better caption would
be “I’m the boss”
“What time is it?”
Win- because the key
feature is that the cat is
looking at a clock.
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11. 2
The pics have to be clear and distinct when
shown at different sizes.
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12. Large Medium
Small
On the app, the cat pics appear in big,
medium and small size (see below).
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13. The scene should be relatively uncluttered, with clear
foreground action, and a distinctive configuration.
Fail.
Win.
Too indistinct.
No clear “pop”
(or narrative)
Easy to recognize
when small
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14. Good ones are easy to “read” when
small and look clearly different from
each other.
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15. “There are four cats in the restaurant”
Ok- still nice and clear
Oh dear.Too little contrast,
unrecognizable when small.
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16. It’s frequently necessary to crop photos and
treat their colours to bring out their goodness
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17. How to get
involved
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18. 1) Find some phrases from the google doc linked above
2) a) Take photos of your cats to illustrate these phrases
or
2) b) find photos from other sources that are available
under Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported
License
3) Submit the photos using the box below
Submit Memes
4) email ben@catacademy.com saying which sentences you
have submitted
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19. Thanks!
Wednesday, 26 June 13