Hi-Tech Gadget Reads Dogs' Minds

Friday, August 17, 2001 - JAPAN

"Outlook not good.  Induce vomiting."

Well, now is your chance to indulge in another novelty item that promises just as much prophetic wisdom, courtesy of your dog.  Japan's third largest toy-maker, Takaro Co. Ltd., has just announced the completion of the "Bow-Lingual", an electronic device that claims to gauge a dog's moods, desires and polite conversation by interpreting the timbre of his/her bark.

A microphone attached to the dog's collar records an audio voice print and then beams the waveform via infrared signal to the "emotion pager", a handheld liquid crystal display that shows how the dog feels.  The emotion pager then categorizes the input under one of six headings, such as "happy", "sorrowful", "annoyed" or "frustrated".  From there, the device further interprets the message and displays an appropriate phrase from over 200 stored vocabulary words.

Photo: Reuters

Example phrases include: "I can't stand it", "How boring" and "I'm arf-ully lonely. Please play with me more".

The Bow-Lingual, which will retail for 12,800 yen ($103 USD or £73), is due to appear in Japanese toy stores by February 2002.  (Hmm, that's about 20 years too late—can you imagine if they could've put Son of Sam's dog on the witness stand...?)

Masami Ochiai, president of co-developer Index Corp., expects sales of 200,000 units and is already considering marketing the gadget overseas.  He is also investigating the potential of developing the product in conjunction with mobile phones.

Editor's note: I can see it now...
"It's your dog again on line 1.  She says, 'I'm hungry.  I'm hungry.  I'm hungry.  I'm hungry.' "

Takara company spokesperson Yoko Watanabe hails the Bow-Lingual as "a way of communicating with a living thing, an animal that is part of our everyday lives."

On the other hand, Dr. Roger Mugford, a psychologist who specializes animal-human interactions, said the canine communicator ought not to be necessary. "If a dog owner is so uninformed about his pet that he needs a computer to interpret what it wants, then he should not be a dog owner."

Wags don't need no stinkin' translator!

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