Eötvös Loránd University in Budapest, Hungary. Here scientists have developed a semi-accurate tranlator for identifying dog’s bark. The experiment was carried out with 6,000 barks uttered by 14 dogs consisting of Mudis and Hungarian Sheep Dogs, in six different situations. These situations were:
>>Barks for strangers, when the owner was away.
>>Barks during fights
>>Barks for walks were recorded when owners behaved as if they were preparing to go for a walk with their dogs.
>>Barks for balls were.
>>Barks during playtime were recorded when owners played tug-of-war or similar games with dogs.
>>Barks made when dogs were tied alone.
After recording and digitizing the barks, scientists went ahead to create a program for analyzing emotional status based on vibrational changes in the barking sounds. This program was able give 43 percent accuracy on categorizing the canine emotions on the basis of barks. Although, a computer might be able give some accuracy on dog’s mood but it is not exactly the “canine language tranlation”.The scientists believe that no human could have judged dog’s mood with such accuracy. The 43 percent accuracy might seem a bit lunatic to dog owners/lovers, as they are more accustomed to knowing their dog’s behaviour but this accuracy is much better than 16%, which would have arisen due to probabilty (which applies more accurately to humans).
image courtesy: newmedia.funnyjunk.com