Japanese Electronic Dog Speech Translator

Funny idea but totally stupid! Dogs communicate much more with their body language and human companions should be able to read that without a silly device.!

clipped from www.telegraph.co.uk Japanese inventors have come up with a device they claim can detect a dog's emotion from its bark. The Bowlingual Voice, produced by Japanese toymaker Takara Tomy, is a talking gadget which analyses the acoustics of a dog's bark and translates the findings into human words. The gadget focuses on the detection of six emotions – including sadness, joy and frustration – alongside a recorded repertoire of spoken phrases such as "play with me". When the dog barks, the microphone records the sound and sends the data to the owner's hand-held device which then "translates" it into what the dog is apparently trying to say. A speech synthesizer audibly informs the owner of the dog's apparent intentions as well as appearing on the screen of the wireless hand-held unit. A new answering machine function can also record the dog's expressions of desire when owners are absent.