People often talk to their pets, and of course, they would like to get feedback. Mutual understanding can help solve many everyday problems with our smaller brothers. Sure, many of our readers would likely want to have Dr. Doolittle's skills. Imagine what your dog would tell you if he could talk. And maybe you'll find out about it soon enough. Since AI advances by leaps and bounds, it won't be long before we can understand our pets through more than just their body language.
Earth Species Project (ESP): AI Can Help Understand Animals
Companies worldwide are introducing machine learning to handle the vast amounts of data about animals that modern sensors can now easily collect. Thus, it also makes it possible to decode our pets' language. For example, with the help of modern technology, scientists have already developed an algorithm that analyzes the grunting of a pig to determine whether the animal is experiencing positive or negative emotions.
The Earth Species Project (ESP) team hopes to decode nonhuman communication due to machine learning. This approach is unique since it focuses not only on interpreting the communication of one species but all at once. Although experts recognize that there will be a higher probability of rich symbolic communication between social animals, the goal is to develop tools that can be applied to the entire animal kingdom.
If you want more information about ESP, use the Trust My Paper writing service, where you can find an expert to help you with this issue, and we move on. ESP plans to create representations of animal communication, working with both individual species and many species simultaneously, and then investigate whether there is an overlap with the universal human form.
Animals don't only communicate by voice. Bees, for example, inform others of the location of a flower with the waggle dance. Such forms of communication will also have to learn to translate. For example, the ESP team tried to solve the so-called Cocktail Party Problem in animal communication. It means that it's difficult to distinguish which individual in a group of the same animals sings in a noisy social environment.
The AI-based model developed by ESP has already been tested on the distinctive whistles of dolphins, the cries of macaques, and the bats' vocalizations. Another ESP project involves using AI to create new animal cries with humpback whales as a test species. The new screams, made by splitting the vocalizations into microphones and using a language model to speak something similar to whales, can then be played back to the animals to see how they respond.
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There are a few more projects like the described one, but they all face one significant limitation: while many animals may have complex communities, their repertoire of sounds is much smaller than that of humans. As a result, the same sound can be used to refer to different things in different contexts. However, it is only possible by examining the context, which means that existing AI methods are insufficient.
In addition, scientists have doubts regarding the concept that the form of animal communication overlaps with human communication in a meaningful way. Applying computer analysis to the language we are so familiar with is one thing, but it may work very differently in the case of other species. Nevertheless, as we wrote above, AI development continues, and some of its tools allow us to get some information about our pets even now.
Pet-Commerce System
The essence of the innovation is that the computer program Pet-Commerce actively interacts with the animal, reading the manifestation of its reactions to the goods (such as food) demonstrated in the video. However, this software was developed on the platform of a well-known program recognizing people's faces. So the AI doesn't yet take into account the wagging of the tail, rumpled paws, and other reflexive movements, except for those reactions that are written on the dog's face:
- ️ Cautioned ears;
- ️ The direction of gaze;
- ️ When the dog squints;
- ️ Opening of the mouth;
- ️ Indifference or a desire to stop the session;
- ️ Hidden tongue and increased interest.
Of course, for a complete result, you need a webcam, which will record all these reactions and transmit them to the owner sitting next to the dog to confirm the payment of the selected purchases. The Brazilian online pet store Pets has launched this system. But, judging by its name, other pets are next in line to join the ranks of computer users: cats, parrots, and rats — most importantly, to collect and systematize a library of their reactions to images.
After all, not only programmers but also professional trainers, such as Leonardo Ogata, worked on developing this application. They used thousands of photos of different dog breeds, which were taken while demonstrating the dog's object of desire. In addition, moments of heightened interest were recorded in the electronic memory.
If the computer confirms that the animal's behavior coincides with the reference, the program adds the product to the cart, and the owner only has to pay for it. As you can see, this is quite a profitable pet business, which solves the issue of communication with your dog.
The New Era of Canine Science
A canine scientific approach helped create Pet-Commerce. Without knowing about the significant differences in the structure of the visual organs of animals and humans, the online store administration would never have succeeded in its endeavor. It turns out that canines can distinguish yellow and blue colors. In addition, they like to watch moving images but are indifferent to static pictures.
Therefore, by making the appropriate videos for each of their products, marketers could assemble a kind of online environment, which they could adapt and translate into understandable symbols for dogs. Perhaps this commercial endeavor will turn out to be the age of technology for dogs because some facts make you think seriously about it:
- It has long been observed that mongrels ride the subway and public transportation on their own;
- Some dogs even manage to drive a car;
- Dogs flew into space before humans did;
- Canines work in the police and rescue services and guard the border.
Conclusion
High-tech has permeated all areas of our lives. And soon, AI will not only help us to cope with routine tasks more efficiently but will also learn to understand our pets. Moreover, even today, you have the opportunity to please your dogs with severe technological solutions, which will allow us to coexist even more closely with them.
