A Computer That Can Translate A Dog's Bark
Robert Paul Reyes
January 16, 2008
Computers are ubiquitous -- without this greatest invention of the 20th century civilization would fall apart. Computers do just about everything for us, except brush our teeth in the morning.
However there are some things that don't require the assistance of a computer. Case in point the following story from the Daily Mail:
"What would a dog say if it could talk? 'Stranger', 'fight', 'walk', 'alone', 'ball' and 'play', according to scientists who have developed a computer programme to translate dog barks.
The special programme analysed more than 6,000 barks from 14 Hungarian sheepdogs in six different situations.
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."
We don't need a computerized language analyzer to interpret the mood of a dog. If I'm jogging past a barking Pit Bull; I don't need a Klingon voice analyzer to know that he's saying: Keep moving cupcake or I'm going to jump this fence and take a bit out of your behind.
We certainly don't need a computer to help us understand what our own pooches are saying. Man's best friend is very smart and very adept at conveying his feelings to his master. My Chow has a special whine that he employs only when he wants to go outside to take care of business. He growls only when another dog or stranger invades his personal space, and he has a limited repertoire of barks --each with a meaning that is understood by me.
Scientists should stop wasting time and money inveneting foolish things like a computer program to translate dog barks. How about creating something useful like a computer program to translate a woman's words? A guy needs to know when "I will call you soon" really means "I will call you when a virus wipes out every male in the world except for you."
However there are some things that don't require the assistance of a computer. Case in point the following story from the Daily Mail:
"What would a dog say if it could talk? 'Stranger', 'fight', 'walk', 'alone', 'ball' and 'play', according to scientists who have developed a computer programme to translate dog barks.
The special programme analysed more than 6,000 barks from 14 Hungarian sheepdogs in six different situations.
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."
We don't need a computerized language analyzer to interpret the mood of a dog. If I'm jogging past a barking Pit Bull; I don't need a Klingon voice analyzer to know that he's saying: Keep moving cupcake or I'm going to jump this fence and take a bit out of your behind.
We certainly don't need a computer to help us understand what our own pooches are saying. Man's best friend is very smart and very adept at conveying his feelings to his master. My Chow has a special whine that he employs only when he wants to go outside to take care of business. He growls only when another dog or stranger invades his personal space, and he has a limited repertoire of barks --each with a meaning that is understood by me.
Scientists should stop wasting time and money inveneting foolish things like a computer program to translate dog barks. How about creating something useful like a computer program to translate a woman's words? A guy needs to know when "I will call you soon" really means "I will call you when a virus wipes out every male in the world except for you."
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