Tech lite: At home with Bowlingual, the dog bark analyzer

IDG News Service - Like most dog owners, Keiko Egawa thought she understood her dog pretty well.
When Harry, a 7-year-old Alaskan Malamute barked, growled or whimpered, Egawa could usually figure out what he wanted or was trying to communicate to her. But she was never completely sure. So last year, when Takara Co. began offering a device that supposedly interprets what a dog is saying, she jumped at the chance to try it.
She wasn't alone. More than 300,000 people in Japan have bought the $123 Bowlingual since it first went on sale in September, and things have gone so well that it will soon be launched in the U.S. and South Korea.
"I wanted to talk or understand a lot more," Egawa said, explaining why she got a Bowlingual.
Bowlingual consists of a collar eqipped with a microphone and a transmitter, plus a handheld receiver unit that gets data from the microphone and attempts to work out what the dog is saying.
The system works by analyzing and classifying a dog's emotions into one of six main categories: sad, frustrated, needy, happy, self-expressive and on guard, said Kennedy Gitchel, a spokesman for Takara in Tokyo. Within those categories, there are a number of set phrases of which the Bowlingual chooses one at random.
To be sure, owners shouldn't expect the device to turn their dogs into a modern-day equivalent of Lassie. Unlike the star of the 1950s TV show, who could convey in a few barks something like "Come quick, Timmy has fallen down Old Man Thompson's well again," users are much more likely to get something along the lines of "I want food" or "Get out of my face."
Simple as those phrases may be, Takara said they're all based on research the company has done with a local acoustics lab and researchers in animal behavior. Egawa said that more often than not, she feels her Bowlingual is in tune with Harry's feelings.
"I think it is correct about 70% of the time. The rest of the time, maybe it is correct but I am not entirely sure," she said. Egawa finds the Bowlingual most useful around the home. "I can understand what he feels or what he wants to say without having to see his face. Before we go to the park he always says he wants to play and after a walk he always says he is hungry."
The U.S. version of Bowlingual is scheduled to be launched in August and should hit South Korean shelves two months earlier.