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posted by LaminatorX on Tuesday November 04 2014, @09:02AM   Printer-friendly
from the man's-best-friend dept.

North Carolina State University researchers have developed a suite of technologies that can be used to enhance communication between dogs and humans, which has applications in everything from search and rescue to service dogs to training our pets.

“We’ve developed a platform for computer-mediated communication between humans and dogs that opens the door to new avenues for interpreting dogs’ behavioral signals and sending them clear and unambiguous cues in return,” says Dr. David Roberts, an assistant professor of computer science at NC State and co-lead author of a paper on the work. “We have a fully functional prototype, but we’ll be refining the design as we explore more and more applications for the platform.” The platform itself is a harness that fits comfortably onto the dog, and which is equipped with a variety of technologies.

http://news.ncsu.edu/2014/10/bozkurt-dogs-2014/

http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/xpl/articleDetails.jsp?reload=true&tp=&arnumber=6914468 [Paywalled]

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  • (Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 04 2014, @09:04AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 04 2014, @09:04AM (#112906)

    For when you do it doggy style, literally.

  • (Score: 3, Informative) by zocalo on Tuesday November 04 2014, @10:03AM

    by zocalo (302) on Tuesday November 04 2014, @10:03AM (#112913)
    I can see the focus is more on working dogs than anything else, which is fine and makes a lot of sense given that it can take a lot of time and effort to train a dog, so anything that reduces that and enables a longer and more productive working life has to be good. This could be a boon for things like providing guide dogs for the blind that are often heavily subsidised by charitable contributions as reducing training time and therefore cost will enable far more dogs to be placed with needy recipients. The advantages for other fields, such as security/law enforcement, rescue dogs, and so on are also fairly obvious.

    For regular pets though, I'm not convinced whether I'd want to use one of these or not although I'm sure that many would. Part of the fun (and challenge!) of any relationship is learning to understand each other and pets that are capable of reciprocating that understanding are no exception to that. Having a computer tell me what my dog is thinking based on a canine behavioural scientist's interpretations seems like a rather lazy way of building a relationship and, I suspect, might make the payoffs seem less rewarding.
    --
    UNIX? They're not even circumcised! Savages!
    • (Score: 2) by Reziac on Wednesday November 05 2014, @02:27AM

      by Reziac (2489) on Wednesday November 05 2014, @02:27AM (#113128) Homepage

      I'm a pro dog trainer with over 40 years experience across thousands of dogs. If this tech works, I expect it will produce the same sort of Great Leap Backward as other "modern" training methods, if not worse.

      The whole concept of dog training is for the dog to go beyond hardwired and instinctive behaviors and responses. Indeed, we've spent tens of thousands of years breeding for traits that let the dog go above and beyond mere species-level instinct. Fundamentally, we've bred the "selfishness" out of dogs. Dogs now willingly work for us, not for themselves. (Frex, a good retriever loves to fetch that bird, but also willingly gives it up to his master, even if not well-trained -- often even if not trained at all.) This has also affected how they "communicate".

      If you read the dog at the level of a hardwired response, you're reading the minimum common denominator from a species that because breeds and individuals are so diverse (far more than in any other species) has a wide variation in even "instinctive" behavior (ask any herding-dog trainer about that). So it's not going to work except on very primitive-instinct-driven dogs. Which are the exact opposite of desirable, but the tool will tend to select for animals that give "good results".

      I've watched this happen in the 25 years or so that "clicker training" and food rewards have been in vogue -- these methods have selected for dogs that are self-oriented (which is to say, selfish), and more inclined to be either aggressive or nervous (too much fight or flight). That's wild-animal behavior, the very thing we've spent tens of thousands of years selecting against.

      --
      And there is no Alkibiades to come back and save us from ourselves.
  • (Score: 2) by wonkey_monkey on Tuesday November 04 2014, @10:04AM

    by wonkey_monkey (279) on Tuesday November 04 2014, @10:04AM (#112914) Homepage
    • (Score: 2) by bob_super on Tuesday November 04 2014, @04:45PM

      by bob_super (1357) on Tuesday November 04 2014, @04:45PM (#112993)

      It's a pretty new concept, only 5850000 answers [google.com] for the english query.
      I would expect the Japanese equivalent to return about two billion products...

  • (Score: 3, Insightful) by Dunbal on Tuesday November 04 2014, @11:49AM

    by Dunbal (3515) on Tuesday November 04 2014, @11:49AM (#112926)

    They'll never replace the communication you instantly understand when you feel a sudden cold wet nose pressed against the side of your leg...

  • (Score: 2, Informative) by srobert on Tuesday November 04 2014, @02:19PM

    by srobert (4803) on Tuesday November 04 2014, @02:19PM (#112953)

    A few weeks ago, my lab, Booker, passed away. In in his 11 years, I never needed any special tech to communicate with him. He was completely unambiguous. "Let's play", "Let's go for a walk", "The mailman is here and I don't like it", "I'm scared of the fireworks", "Can I have some bacon", "I love you".

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 04 2014, @02:35PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 04 2014, @02:35PM (#112957)

      i know, right? i can't imagine how this will benefit anyone other than the inventors and manufacturers of this technology. man has been training dogs for hundreds, if not thousands, of years. one of the great things about using dogs is that they are an abundant and cheap resource. if you have to strap tech-gear to each one that costs hundreds of dollars, they aren't cheap and abundant anymore.

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 04 2014, @04:54PM

        by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 04 2014, @04:54PM (#112997)

        Americans spend $61 billion on their pets annually. [usnews.com]
        "Cheap" hasn't been the operative term for at least a decade.

        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 04 2014, @07:39PM

          by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 04 2014, @07:39PM (#113025)

          compared to children or other potential human laborers, animal laborers are dirt cheap.

        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 04 2014, @07:43PM

          by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 04 2014, @07:43PM (#113029)

          also, note that i used the phrase 'benefit anyone'. yes, there are suckers born every minute that will buy this for their pets. i doubt it will do them much good.

          • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 04 2014, @08:02PM

            by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 04 2014, @08:02PM (#113037)

            Ah another one of those people who hide behind completely ambiguous escape clauses.
            Some people think discussion is to increase understanding among the group and then there are those like yourself who think discussion is best used for public masturbation - most people will just roll their eyes but a few of them will watch rapturously and may even applaud.