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