Researchers aim to translate dog sounds with AI

Ever wonder what your dog is trying to say?

- Miriam Fauzia, Tribune News Service

Ever wonder what your dog is trying to say? Well, a University of Texas at Arlington researcher is aiming to turn barks, howls and whimpers of man's best friend into intelligible speech - a kind of Rosetta Stone of woof.

Computer scientist Kenny Zhu has built what he says is the world's largest video and audio catalog of canine vocalisations. In papers published this year, Zhu and his colleagues at the university report potential phonemes - the smallest units of sound - and word-like patterns that could one day be turned into full sentences understandable to humans.

"The ultimate goal is to make a translator where you can talk freely with your pet," said Zhu, a professor of computer science and engineering at UT Arlington. "We can already do instantaneous communication between human languages. Perhaps in the future we can do the same with animals."

Al interprets dog: Humans have long wanted to talk to animals, and in the last century, scientists have tried: from teaching great apes sign language and English to bottlenose dolphins.