Your Dog Can Talk to You with the Help of This Machine Learning Device

Everyone dog owner has, at one time or another, wished they could actually talk to their furry friend. Unfortunately, dogs lack the vocal cord development necessary to speak like a parrot, and the paw dexterity to use sign language like a chimpanzee. But, that doesn’t mean they aren’t thinking; they just can’t express those thoughts to us clearly. That may change soon, thanks to a device created by University of Illinois students that uses machine learning to give dogs a voice.

Inspired by the Disney film Up, the device relies on two relatively new technologies: EEG (electroencephalogram) brain wave detection, and machine learning. While EEG has been around for a while, it has been difficult to take advantage of in settings like this. An EEG headset can be used to monitor changes in brain wave patterns, but there isn’t much we can do with that information without knowing what it means. Researchers might detect changes in a dog’s brain waves, but they haven’t had a way to translate those changes into understandable thoughts.

That’s where the machine learning comes in. The readings from the specially-developed, 3D-printed EEG headset are monitored by an Arduino board. The Arduino then sends the data over serial to a Raspberry Pi. A machine learning algorithm running on the Raspberry Pi interprets that data, and then says what the dog is thinking via a voice synthesizer.

In short, this allows the dog to talk to you. The machine learning is key to the device’s operation, because it identifies patterns in what the dog is experiencing and what it’s brain waves look like. For example, the dog’s brain produces specific brain waves when it sees a treat, and other distinct brain waves when it sees its owner. These are still very crude representations of what the dog is actually thinking, but the technology could be improved to the point where your dog is able to actually talk to you.