Richard Collins: Using AI to interpret dog barks
Similar to humans, animals make extensive use of verbal and non-verbal forms of communication, including a large range of audio signals
He that loveth danger shall perish therein — The Book of Sirach
Big cats were the star circus performers of my childhood. A hush of expectation would descend on the audience as the steel cage was erected around the ‘ring’. The fearsome beasts would enter through a tunnel and the lion tamer, cracking his whip noisily, would call his charges to order. The cats would stroll around, growling occasionally, and jump through hoops. They seemed to enjoy performing — a respite perhaps from the tedium of captivity in dreary trailers. Finally, the ring-master would turn his back on the huge pussies and bow, arms outstretched, to the applauding crowd.
Was having an armed man standing by the cage really necessary, or part of the performance?
Thus, a ghost of the ancient Roman arena lived on. If big cats failed to perform for the Emperor, their trainer might be fed to them. Animal taming was a dangerous profession both inside and outside the ring.
Thomas Macarte, from a well-known circus and music-hall family, was born in Cork. Walking past a cage In Liverpool in 1862, a lion seized his left arm which had to be amputated. Macarte continued performing as a one-armed tamer, but it’s said that he needed a stiff drink before entering the arena. He was attacked and killed in the ring in Bolton Lancashire in 1879.
There were women trainers. Although often nervous, Claire Heliot would walk around the ring, carrying an adult lion on her back. Attacked during a performance in Copenhagen in 1907, she was seriously injured. She retired from the circus and became a hairdresser. Heliot Steakhouse, in Leicester Square, is named after her.
Trainer and beast needed to work together. He, or she, had to interpret the cat’s body language and vocal signals. Such circus acts are now banned but the urge to confront dangerous animals lives on, a risk-taking behaviour tempting fate. Freud believed that we have a death-instinct, known as ‘Thanatos’ — the opposite of Eros, although the founder of psychoanalysis didn’t use the term.
Researchers at U-M Artificial Intelligence Laboratory are decoding canine communication using AI to better understand what a dog's bark conveys about its feelings. @Michigan_AI's Rada Mihalcea and Artem Abzaliev spoke with @BBCWorld about this research: https://t.co/rHpdVDQlAg pic.twitter.com/jeGg5HRQeT
— University of Michigan (@UMich) June 12, 2024
Aggressive dogs, wolves in sheep’s clothing, have taken on the role of captive dangerous beast. You never quite know whether a dog is barking in anger or out of playfulness. Like the animal trainers of old, dog owners need to understand what their charges are ‘saying’. But is dog-language sufficiently well understood?
Researchers at the University of Michigan are trying to deepen that understanding. They recorded the vocalisations of 74 dogs of different sizes ages and breeds, in a various contexts. A new technology is being deployed — Artificial Intelligence (AI).
The project didn’t have to start from scratch. Voice-to-text and human language-translation software is already widely used. AI technology, the researchers suggest, can upgrade such systems to work with dog language. Machine-learning algorithms can identify patterns in large data sets. The meaning of growls and tonal nuances, they believe, can be interpreted reliably.Â
"Advances in AI can be used to revolutionize our understanding of animal communication," says researcher Rada Mihalcea.
Should proficiency in canine language interpretation be required of would-be dangerous dog licence holders?
CONNECT WITH US TODAY
Be the first to know the latest news and updates
