If you’ve ever wondered at the answer to that age-old question, ‘Who’s a good boy?’, you might a little closer to finding out.

Thanks to advances in technology, animal owners will soon be able to talk with their dogs with the use of a pet translator – at least, that’s what a report from Amazon suggests.

The internet retailer is supporting research into the technology which they say could exist within 10 years.

Futurologists at Next Big Thing, the body who carried out the study, says there is a growing demand for such a product – and that existing research suggests it’s possible.

‘Innovative products that succeed are based around a genuine and major consumer need,’ Next Big Thing’s William Higham told the Guardian.

‘The amount of money now spent on pets – they are becoming fur babies to so many people – means there is huge consumer demand for this. Somebody is going to put this together.’

His report for Amazon refers to scientific research by North Arizona University professor Con Slobodchikoff, who claims prairie dogs’ sounds are distinct and decipherable – and he believes the sound of other animals will be too.

Slobodchikoff says that prairie dogs communicate in a ‘sophisticated language’.

‘They have words for different species of predator and can describe the colour of clothes of a human, or the coat of coyotes or dogs,’ he says.

The biologist is so convinced that his findings around prairie dogs will apply to other animals too – including cats and dogs – that he is fundraising money to work on a pet translation device.

But despite the obvious attraction of speaking with dogs, Slobodchikoff warns that a chat with your cat might not turn out quite the way you’d like.

‘With cats I’m not sure what they’d have to say,’ he says. ‘A lot of times it might just be: ‘You idiot, just feed me and leave me alone.’

If you are curious to know what your cat is saying and you can’t wait a decade, Amazon already sell a Human-to-Cat Translator.

The free app, however, might not be the quite the dream yet, with one reviewer saying: ‘My cat got very confused and I had to stop using it.’

Source:
courtesy of METRO

by Charles White

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