Listen to your dog’s thoughts

Do you sometimes wish you could understand what your dog wants to say? Your dream may just be realised soon. A Swedish company has launched a crowd-funding campaign to develop a canine headset that will...

Do you sometimes wish you could understand what your dog wants to say? Your dream may just be realised soon. A Swedish company has launched a crowd-funding campaign to develop a canine headset that will translate what man’s best friend is thinking into spoken English.

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No, it’s not a joke, and no, its inventors are not barking mad. A small research lab called NSID that is based in Sweden believes that it can monitor, isolate and translate a dog’s thought patterns.

So far, NSID claims it can identify the pattern for “I’m hungry,” “I’m tired”, and “who are you?” And, following this early breakthrough, the team is seeking $10,000 (`6,20,000 approximately) from a crowd-funding site, Indiegogo, to help it develop an EEG headset that can monitor your pet’s thought patterns and then relay them as spoken words via its integrated speaker.

So far spoken translations are only available in English, but the team is developing versions that speak Mandarin, French and Spanish, too. NSID also hopes to be able to isolate, identify and translate further doggy thoughts as the project progresses.

But for now, an early-bird pledge of $65 (`4,000 approx) will get initial backers a single sensor version of— No More Woof, which will be able to identify and translate three thought patterns, which its creators hope to ship in April next year. Meanwhile a pledge of $300 (`18,500 approx) will secure a two-sensor version of the device for translating ‘four or more’ thought patterns.

This isn’t the first time a project has sought to reveal what your furry four-legged friends are feeling or thinking: in 2002 the Bowlingual gadget was awarded the Ig Nobel prize and in 2009 toymaker Takara Tomy brought it to the Japan market.