Bowlingual Voice: The gadget focuses on the detection of six emotions ? including sadness, joy and frustration ? alongside a recorded repertoire of spoken phrases Photo: AFP
The Bowlingual Voice, is a talking gadget which analyses the acoustics of a dog’s bark and translates the findings into human words.
Selling for only £129, owners get a microphone and a handset. The mic is worn round the dogs neck. This analyses the acoustic properties of the dog’s bark then transmits the information to the handset, which then’translates’ these signals into a range of spoken phrases such as ‘Play with me’
A previous less sophisticated version of the Bowlingual Device was apparently bought by over 300,000 people in Japan when it was introduced 7 years ago, so the makers are no doubt hoping for similar, or better, sales figures for the new upgraded device.
Personally, I think I’ll give it a miss. I’ve managed quite successfully so far understanding my dogs barks without any help from the Japanese.
Now if they could invent a device that would transfer the acoustic pattern of a stranger dog’s bark – one that is probably not so considerate as to be carrying a microphone around it’s neck – into useful phrases such as ‘Don’t move’ or ‘Run like fuck’ then they might have a wider market for their device.
