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Scientists hope their doggy
computer program isn't
barking up the wrong tree.
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ver wonder what your dog is trying to say when it barks at the mail carrier or howls at the moon? Ask a computer! Scientists have created a computer program that can understand dog barks. The program can often tell whether a dog is happy, sad, or aggressive, just by listening to one bark. It can even match different barks to individual dogs!
Ethologist Csaba Molnár and his team of researchers at Eötvös Loránd University in Budapest, Hungary, set up the program by entering different dog barks and telling the computer which situation each bark was in response to. Once the program was the familiar with the different barks, Molnár set up an experiment to test whether the program worked.
The researchers recorded Hungarian sheepdogs barking in six different situations: when a stranger approached, when the dog got into a fight, when the dog prepared for a walk, when the dog was left alone, when the dog saw its favorite toy, and when the dog was playing with its owner. Altogether, the researchers recorded more than 6,000 dog barks.
A Beagle is Numero Uno
If Uno the beagle could talk, he would probably say, “Yippee!” Uno is the first beagle ever to win the best in show award in the Westminster Dog Show’s 132-year history. Judges picked Uno as the best dog out of the more than 2,600 dogs that competed. “He’s the most perfect beagle I’ve ever seen,” judge J. Donald Jones says.
When Uno walked onto the competition floor at Madison Square Garden in New York, the crowd went wild. Dog experts say that isn’t a surprise. Since 1915, beagles have been the only breed consistently ranked in the American Kennel Club’s list of the top 10 most popular dogs. Part of that popularity may be due to Charlie Brown’s famous beagle, Snoopy.
Still, Uno’s owner, Aaron Wilkerson, says the best in show award won’t go to his dog’s head. While Uno loves attention, there’s something he loves even more–his favorite toy: a little yellow rubber ducky.
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The program was able to identify the dogs’ situation for almost half the barks. It was most accurate for “fight” and “stranger” barks. Even more impressive, the program could tell which bark belonged to which dog. In past studies, people have had a “ruff” time distinguishing one dog’s bark from another. The program, however, correctly matched individual dogs with their barks 52 percent of the time. “This suggest that barks have individual specific features, but people are not sensitive to them,” lead researcher Csaba Molnár told Weekly Reader.
Molnár says the program may help improve dog–human relations—even during dreaded visits to the veterinarian. “If the veterinarians in the future measure [certain features] in barks of treated dogs, they might be able to gain information about the medical condition of dogs,” Molnár says.
The device could also be turned into a dog “translator” that can quickly tell pet owners how dogs are feeling. Now, if only researchers could invent a computer program that picks up dog poop!
Critical Thinking Questions:
If your pet could talk for one day, what would you ask it? Why?
Links:
To dig into a fun doggy memory game, go here.
For more about Uno and the Westminster Kennel Club’s other top dogs, go here.
Do you have a clue about canines? Try your paw at this doggy crossword and find out!
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