‘Conversations’ with pets

Animals may not be able to talk, but this does not mean they cannot express themselves. Have you looked into the eyes of your dog or cat lately ? (I have a partially mute cat that does most of the “speaking” with her eyes). They may be telling you something. Dog or cat wagging the tail ? It could be a message to you. Barking or mewing ? Again, your cat or dog could be ‘talking’ to you, albeit in their own language.  

Did you know that cats have more than 100 vocalizations reserved exclusively for humans ? That dogs have different ways of barking to get your attention ? Remember, it is not always about food. A recent study found that for most cats and dogs, food is third or fourth in their priority list – they would rather enjoy your company or the warmth of a cozy chair first. Animals also communicate among themselves in the wild – whales, dolphins, primates and elephants are believed to be having their own unique ‘languages’ which still remain a mystery.   

Pet birds just parrot out the things they hear without any knowledge of context, but if you have a dog or a cat, you already know that they seem to understand most of what we say about them, even if they cannot talk back. They learn their names pretty quickly and respond to other instructions with a bit of training. Both species have been with us for more than 10,000 years (they are the only two meat eating species Man has managed to domesticate so far), but we still do not properly understand what they seem to be communicating despite working on it for centuries.  

A solution to this problem is apparently looming on the horizon, with a new ‘pet language translator’. There have been crude attempts in this regard, most noticeably in Japan where you can buy ‘Bowlingual’ and ‘Mowlingual’ translator devices for dogs and cats respectively. But these were not based on any scientific methods.   

The answer this time is Artificial Intelligence. AI seems to be good at deciphering Animal Languages and scientists are learning how to translate vocalizations and facial expressions of animals into something that humans can understand. Animal behaviour expert, Con Slobodchikoff is one of these researchers whose work may allow pets and their owners to effectively converse with each other using a pet translator in less than ten years.  

Slobodchikoff, from Northern Arizona University, has studied footage of dogs engaged in a range of behaviours, including growling, barking and howling, and used AI to understand how these animals communicate.  He hopes that with the help of machine learning, computers can help humans understand what a particular gesture of pets such as, the wagging of the tail, or growling really means.  

The base for this study is not even the domestic dog. The researcher, who has been studying North American prairie dogs for 30 years, found that the animals have their own language system that conveys complicated instructions and commands. The rodents also use calls that alert members of their group of incoming threats. Interestingly, these warnings include specific information about the predator such as, its size and coat colour.   

Over the years, the researchers recorded hundreds of hours of prairie dog calls using microphones hidden beside bushes and burrows. Back in the lab, a sophisticated artificial intelligence analyzed each recording by looking at how different frequencies and overtones stack on top of one another. 

This is how the team ultimately learned that the calls can be clustered into different groups with each cluster having its own signature set of frequencies and tones. They don’t just call out “danger”, they specifically seem to communicate that there’s a ‘human’ or ‘hawk’ or a ‘coyote’, term for which they have certain calls. The language seems so sophisticated that rodents can even differentiate between coyotes and domesticated dogs.  

Working with a computer scientist, Slobodchikoff developed an algorithm that converted the prairie dog’s vocalizations into English. He has since expanded his work to include studying the behaviours and barkings of domestic dogs. 

He founded the Zoolingua company to develop a similar tool to translate facial expressions, sounds and body movements of pets. Dogs are known to give out different yaps and yowls during play, aggression or when they’ve missed their owner who’s been away (though cats can remain aloof in the latter instance). “If we can do this with prairie dogs, we can certainly do it with dogs and cats. So many people would dearly love to talk to their dog or cat or at least find out what they are trying to communicate. A lot of people talk to their dogs and even share their innermost secrets,” the animal expert told reporters.  

The work is still at an early stage but this could pave the way for animals and humans having more effective communications in just ten years. His ultimate goal is to create a portable device that humans can pinpoint at a dog to translate barks and woofs into English words. A similar device could be made for cats who are more difficult to decipher in any case. If this becomes possible, humans will be able to know exactly what their pets want and would be more capable of dealing with animals in the future.  

It is still not clear whether such a device would be able to translate our languages to dog or cat lingo, but half the battle will be won if we can understand what they say. The only barrier could be the sheer number of languages we speak worldwide, but initially, such a device could be made available only for English. 

But, a two-way translator may also not be far off, since Google already has a device that can translate most human languages in real time. Give another 20 years and there will probably be no need to learn a foreign language, because AI can probably do it for you on the fly while visiting a strange land.  

By the same token, it may not be difficult to build a device that translates animal ‘languages’ to ones we can understand.  The prospect of learning what is on the minds of our dear pets about us is certainly appealing. We will just have to accept some of the negative sentiments too, though.