New software translates the cat's meow

By CNETAsia Staff
CNETAsia
July 17, 2003, 8:37 AM PT

"I want food" "Pet me" "Screw you" New software translates cats' meows into human speech.

Japanese toymaker Takara looks set to herald a new age of communication between humans and felines with a device which converts a cat's meows into human speech.

The Meowlingual, a gadget which gives cat owners Dr. Dolittle-like powers of discerning their pets' emotions, will be launched in Japan this November, a company spokeswoman told newswire AFP.

This announcement comes a year after the firm introduced a similar device--Bowlingual--which translates a dog's woofs into words through voice-pattern recognition.

Bowlingual consists of a wireless microphone that is attached to the dog's collar and a terminal which analyzes and matches each bark with a set of pre-programmed phrases. The device detects feelings--including happiness, frustration and sadness--and displays the associated expressions on the terminal's LCD (Liquid Crystal Display) screen.

Meowlingual is expected to work in a similar fashion, although for the half the cost of its canine predecessor.

The cat language translator device has a price tag of 8,800 yen (US$75), significantly less than the 14,800 yen (US120$) dog owners pay for Bowlingual, the report said. Despite the higher price, Takara said demand for the Bowlingual has outstripped supply, with over 300,000 units being sold six months after its launch last September. Since then, the device has been launched in South Korea and is now geared for its U.S. debut next month.

The firm now hopes to equal this success and aims to achieve the same sales tally for the Meowlingual by 2004, according to the report.

"We do not have an immediate plan to sell the product (the Meowlingual) overseas but this could be a possibility," the spokeswoman was quoted as saying.