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Woof! Computer Speaks Dog

Tracy Staedter, Discovery News

In a second experiment, the software correctly recognized the barks of 52 percent of individual dogs. A human's ability to do this was much lower, which suggests that there are acoustic differences to dog woofs that humans cannot discern.

According to veterinarian and applied animal behaviorist, Sophia Yin, animal vocalizations that sound similar on a cursory listening are very different upon closer analysis. In 2004, Yin and colleague Brenda McCowan published a similar study in the Journal of Applied Animal Behavior.

However, the computer they used employed statistical methods and not artificial intelligence to crunch the data.

"It might be that the method they're using is a faster way to analyze. Because we did statistical analysis, it took a long time. We had to keep running the machines overnight to get all of those barks analyzed," said Yin.

However the information is gleaned, discerning dog barks can give owners better information for dealing with the animal's behavior.

"People might just think, 'Oh he's barking again, we have to use an electronic collar on him,'" said Yin.

But if they can understand the context for the bark, they can find a better solution.

For future work, Molnár and his team plan to use the artificial intelligence software to compare the barks of various working dogs, such as sheep dogs and hunting dogs. A difference could provide some insight into the effect of artificial selection on the vocal communication of the dogs, he said.

Related Links:

Tracy Staedter's blog: What the Tech?

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