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posted by NCommander on Wednesday April 02 2014, @09:22PM   Printer-friendly
from the so-long-and-thanks-for-all-the-fish dept.

A NewScientist article discusses how pattern recognition software is being used to help us better understand the communications of animals, including a program that can automatically translate dolphin whistles (but only if the meaning is already known):

IT was late August 2013 and Denise Herzing was swimming in the Caribbean. The dolphin pod she had been tracking for the past 25 years was playing around her boat. Suddenly, she heard one of them say, "Sargassum".

... She was wearing a prototype dolphin translator called Cetacean Hearing and Telemetry (CHAT) and it had just translated a live dolphin whistle for the first time.

It detected a whistle for sargassum, or seaweed, which she and her team had invented to use when playing with the dolphin pod. They hoped the dolphins would adopt the whistles, which are easy to distinguish from their own natural whistles and they were not disappointed. When the computer picked up the sargassum whistle, Herzing heard her own recorded voice saying the word into her ear.
...
Herzing is quick to acknowledge potential problems with the sargassum whistle. It is just one instance and so far hasn't been repeated. Its audio profile looks different from the whistle they taught the dolphins it has the same shape but came in at a higher frequency. Brenda McCowan of the University of California, Davis, says her experience with dolphin vocalisations matches that observation.

Since the translatable vocalization has only been used once, it could be nothing more than a fluke, but if we can teach dolphins new vocalizations with a specific meaning and they actually use them, then we could finally understand each other enough to start gathering the data needed for real communication with a non-human species, which would be an incredible achievement (and might finally force people to accept the fact that humans really arent all that different from other animals).

 
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  • (Score: 3, Interesting) by mendax on Wednesday April 02 2014, @11:07PM

    by mendax (2840) on Wednesday April 02 2014, @11:07PM (#25233)

    Interspecies communication is a fact with me. My evil black cat lets me know when she needs something. She tells me when she's out of food, when she's out of water, when she wants petted, when she wants to play, when she wants some of my Greek yogurt, and when she is pissed at me. And I am able to tell her when I want her to come to me so I can pet her. And as any cat owner can tell you, the cat is much better at communicating with her human pet than vice versa. While it's difficult to train a cat, the cat has no difficulty in training her pet human.

    --
    It's really quite a simple choice: Life, Death, or Los Angeles.
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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 02 2014, @11:31PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 02 2014, @11:31PM (#25244)

    I think that most cats understand just fine, they just don't care all that much what you want them to do.

  • (Score: 1) by Ethanol-fueled on Thursday April 03 2014, @12:30AM

    by Ethanol-fueled (2792) on Thursday April 03 2014, @12:30AM (#25266) Homepage

    Feeding a dog or cat human food -- Not. Even. Once. It has the same effect that introducing your human roommate to crack has -- you're completely at their mercy until their next hit. They'll chew up your baseboards, scratch up your couch, threaten you, shit on your bedroom doorstep, loudly beg all night; and all for that next hit that they'll be jumping all over you for next time you fire up that stove or bring in that bag.

    • (Score: 1) by datapharmer on Thursday April 03 2014, @12:51AM

      by datapharmer (2702) on Thursday April 03 2014, @12:51AM (#25273)

      That's not really true. We have a couple dogs and they occasionally get a bite of one of our snacks or a bit of human food and they are very well behaved. They know they have to wait patiently and quietly and it will be offered.

  • (Score: 2) by combatserver on Thursday April 03 2014, @01:54AM

    by combatserver (38) on Thursday April 03 2014, @01:54AM (#25289)

    Your cat is in my house. Oh, wait, that one is mine. Sorry.

    But seriously, no great wonder that the Egyptians worshiped cats--they seem to possess a level of intelligence beyond any other species, including ourselves.

    Example:

    I once went out to my back deck to read, and immediately noticed my cat sitting in the middle of the yard, under a long branch from a nearby tree. Parked on that branch was a large, black raven. The two of them barely gave me notice as they conversed.--there were obvious challenge/response implied by tone shifts, waiting for the other to finish speaking, emphasis on certain "words" (such as being accompanied by both a wingflap and an increase in volume) and they did so for nearly twenty minutes. There were long, thoughtful pauses. There was what appeared to be the only repeating of each others vocalizations--their parting sounds, as the raven flew off in a shared "goodbye". I had plenty of time to go inside and get my daughter to come watch the last ten minutes of the conversation.

    I have zero idea of what they discussed, as the entire exchange was in a series of sounds that I had never heard either species make--it is best described as being a mix of their normal "languages". My cat wasn't exactly making croaking noises like a raven, but rather a cat approximation of those noises.

    We are an arrogant species, thinking only ourselves capable of complex thought and action.

    --
    I hope I can change this later...
    • (Score: 2) by mendax on Thursday April 03 2014, @04:47AM

      by mendax (2840) on Thursday April 03 2014, @04:47AM (#25339)

      I forgot to mention that my evil cat performs trans-species communication in a couple other ways.

      Because she's a black cat, beautiful, and quite furry, she puts off these vibes which can be interpreted as being a form of evil. These vibes draw me to her, urging me to pet her. But if I'm not careful, those claws will come and and she'll take a swipe at me. I have the scars to prove it. And if that is not enough, she stole my soul years ago and refuses to give it back, making me her prisoner.

      --
      It's really quite a simple choice: Life, Death, or Los Angeles.
  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 03 2014, @02:49AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 03 2014, @02:49AM (#25307)
    My cats understand me perfectly.

    They just don't much care for humans in genral. Can't honestly say i disagree with them on that point either. We're loud, destructive, erratic, and far too busy to ever really relax.

    And if they had thumbs they wouldn't even tolerate us for very long at all. ( i understand they are making strides on this point. and in another 10,000 years will have the problem solved.)
  • (Score: 1) by kbahey on Thursday April 03 2014, @04:26AM

    by kbahey (1147) on Thursday April 03 2014, @04:26AM (#25336) Homepage

    Cat owner here ...

    My cat is addicted to the laser pointer. Several times every day, he will come near me, and sit staring at me constantly. He does not meow, does not touch me. Just stares at me.

    This is his way of saying "Come on, use that thing next to you".