New computer program lets you understand what your dog is saying

I would be willing to bet that most of us who own a dog(s), swear that our canine friends litteraly "speak" to us at times. Some of us have even grown a strong tellepathic bond, that defies rational thought. Whatever the case may be whether verbally, tellepathicaly, or through body language. Our pets/friends communicate to us. I know this is not news to any of us. But what I did find interesting was some of the new developments that have come out in relation to actually understanding what they are saying.

In a series of tests the team of scientists, from Eötvös Loránd University in Hungary led by Csaba Molnár, discovered that a computer could recognise whether a dog was in a stranger, fight, walk, alone, ball or play scenario.The barks were tape recorded and then digitized on a computer, which used software to study their differences.

The computer correctly identified the different situations 43 per cent of the time. Although it was not a high success rate it was far better than human recognition, the researchers said.

The computer was most accurate in identifying the "fight" and "stranger" contexts, and was least effective at matching the "play" bark.

The results appear in the journal Animal Cognition, and suggest that dogs have acoustically different barks depending on their emotional state.

The researchers also performed a second test, in which the computer identified individual dogs by their bark.

The software correctly identified the dogs 52 per cent of the time, again much better than the human result, suggesting there are individual differences in barks even though humans are not able to recognize them.

The team also plans to compare the barks of different breeds to discover what they have in common.

Source

This is cool. Hopefully this technology gets some worthy interest and attention. Perhapse over time with the aid of computers it would be possible for a human to completely understand what a dog is verbally saying to you.
Better yet maybe we can learn their verbal language

Hey great find. Just because we cant understand them doesn't mean they arn't saying something or at least expressing themselves in one way or another. Thanks for bringing this to light.

Amazing really,for years and years people have always wondered what there pets are saying to them,we're now the first steps of doing this.
Imagine in 10 years time it will be nearly perfected (average time frame guess).
The guy who made it even said it will improve and update as time goes on

oh what an age we live in

How does anyone who has owned dogs for any length of time not know what they are communicating? I can recognize at least four distinct barks, all accompanied by their own particular body language. There’s the playful yap, the high pitched alert, (meant to be heard over long distances,) the forceful bark of dogs sorting out their pecking order, (which usually means stop trying to mount me jack ass), and the low growl or snarl that means I’m about to chomp you good. There’s also one more that I’ve only heard once when a tornadic storm was passing nearby, and I guess you would call it the panic bark. Then there’s a hundred subtle ways they let you know how they’re feeling, and that they know how you’re feeling. What’s next, a computer program that let’s you know when your wife wants to talk about feelings? Or that your mother in law disapproves of you?

edit for sp

[edit on 20-1-2008 by resistor]

Originally posted by resistor
How does anyone who has owned dogs for any length of time not know what they are communicating?

I agree with that 100%

Dumb (as in dumb animals) means unable to speak -- not unable to communicate. That should be as obvious as day.

I would bet that most animals can understand humans MUCH better than they let on. We don't know this usually, because animals have no will or motivation to talk back or respond, because of their verbal limitations.

What is more, I theorize that carnivores have much higher ability to communicate than herbivores. (Okay -- that's out on a limb, I know.) I contrast dogs with horses here....

Finally, I think it is completely clear that animals feel the same sense of pain, pleasure, excitement, fear, anger, curiosity, as we feel. Precisely so.