ニュース

2025年9月17日

Anicom Holdings, Inc.

Anicom Group Secures U.S. Patent for AI System that Analyzes Pet Emotions from Video
– Taking a step closer to a world where we can truly understand animals –

Anicom Holdings, Inc. (Head Office: Shinjuku, Tokyo; President & CEO: Nobuaki Komori; hereinafter “the Company”), whose subsidiary Anicom Insurance, Inc. holds the No.1 share in the pet insurance market in Japan*, is proud to announce that it has obtained a patent in the United States, as of September 16, 2025 (local time), for its AI-based system that determines animal emotions from video footage (U.S. Patent No. 12,417,655). This follows its previous registration in Japan (Patent No. 7330258).

“I wish I could better understand how my pet is feeling.”
This is a common wish shared by pet owners around the world.
We believe this U.S. patent represents an important step forward in realizing deeper, more meaningful communication between pets and people—not only in Japan, but globally.

*“Market share calculated based on the number of contracts held by each company in 2024, according to Fuji Keizai Co., Ltd., 2025 Comprehensive Survey of the Pet-Related Market.”

[Reference] May 14, 2024 – Company Press Release　(Japanese only)
“Patent granted for AI-based system that determines pet emotions from video”
https://www.anicom.co.jp/news-release/2024/20240514/

About the Technology

Animals cannot speak as people do; they express emotions through behavior.
If these expressions can be interpreted accurately, it opens new possibilities for pet owners to communicate with their pets more smoothly and deeply.

This system uses AI to analyze video footage of pets to detect their behaviors—tail wagging, yawning, or growling in dogs; or dilated pupils and forward-pointing ears in cats—and infer emotional states like happiness, affection, alertness, or anger.

The AI also identifies the species (Dogs, Cats, Birds, etc.) and breed (e.g., Toy Poodle, Chihuahua, Shiba Inu, etc.), allowing the system to adjust its interpretation based on behavioral-emotional patterns specific to each breed. For instance, an American Shorthair cat raising its tail was determined to be showing a sign of happiness or affection.

Toward a World Where We Can Truly Communicate with Animals

The medical world has made progress in digitizing and standardizing all aspects of tests that are easily quantified. However, surgery, which most significantly impacts a person’s life, is heavily dependent on the surgeon’s technique, and standardization and generalization have not progressed in this area. No two cases are the same, and surgeons are protective of their own techniques. Furthermore, legal and privacy constraints in human medicine pose a major barrier making it difficult to generalize technology.

Veterinary medicine also faces challenges. Through repeated inbreeding over their long history, dogs and cats have become attached to their owners, becoming “the cutest animals in the world” to them. However, this inbreeding has negatively impacted the “software” of dogs and cats, for example, their immune system and nervous system have become vulnerable. While organs such as the heart and kidneys (i.e., “hardware”) are relatively easy to quantify and diagnose, the immune system and nervous system are invisible, and abnormalities occur with no ability to quantify precisely, making them difficult to treat until now.

Using our proprietary statistical analysis of over 25 years of pet insurance data, Anicom Group has been working to visualize and quantify these less tangible areas of animal health.

Now, with the help of AI, we aim to further aid the evolution of veterinary care by:
• Visualizing immune responses
• Quantifying surgical performance
• Standardizing advanced techniques

Our goal is to move beyond the idea that advanced care must come at a high cost and instead facilitate the co-evolution of insurance and medical care to create new value for animals and their families.

Benjamin Hoff wrote in The Tao of Pooh (1982):
“Lots of people talk to animals. Not very many listen, though. That’s the problem.”

This emotion analysis system is the first step in truly hearing the “voice” of animals—voices that, until now, have remained unheard.

“One of the most important aspects of living with animals—and of veterinary care—is listening to their ‘unspoken voices.’ Harnessing the power of AI, our Group is dedicated to conveying those voices to pet owners around the world.”

■Related Releases (Japanese only):
[Feb 5, 2021] World’s First Patent for Predicting Disease from Pet Facial Images
https://www.anicom.co.jp/release/2020/200205.html
[Apr 23, 2025] Launch of “World Smile Expo” – Showcasing Dogs’ Smiles Judged by AI
https://www.anicom-sompo.co.jp/news-release/2025/20250423/