Scandinavians invent ‘No More Woof’, a mind-reader for dogs

In a nutshell: “No More Woof” wants to pimp out your dog with a Raspberry Pi so that it can finally speak its mind. No More Woof (NMW) is a product designed by a team of Scandinavian researchers called NSID (Nordic Society for Invention and Discovery) who brought us things like the iRock — a rocking chair that charges your iPad and the indoor cloud, Nebula 12. This time around, NMW claims to be the first device to “translate animal thoughts into human language.”

No More Woof is a small gadget that uses the wonderful power of a RaspBerry Pi and Electroencephalogram (EEG) technology to analyse animal thought patterns and translate it into human language using a loudspeaker.

Now, your dog won’t be able to partake in intricate philosophical debate per say but fitting your hound with this mind-reading helmet will supposedly let it say things like “I’m Tired”, “I’m Hungry” and other things like saying “Who are you?” when it sees a new face.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CweAeshjObA

Using an EEG, basic impulse brain signals such as feelings of anger, curiosity or tiredness are easily distinguished and picked up and can then be translated into preprogrammed sentences. For now, the product is still in its early testing phase but shows room for some truly interesting stuff.

Talking about future applications for NMW research, the team wants to use the device for more complex thoughts such as “Who is that woman, she looks nice!” and to let hurt or disabled pets control artificial limbs or other appliances. What might seem a bit of a leap, the team further notes that the Holy Grail would be two-way communication. Apparently a similar device can be hooked up on humans translating our thoughts to dogs.

The design of the NMW device looks something like a Google Glass for your dogs-head-kind-of-gadget which is pretty impressive to say the least.

Earlier this year, we’ve seen Facilitating Interactions for Dogs with Occupations (FIDO), are already on track to improve the way dogs communicate with people.

In an attempt to raise money for this exciting project, the team is raising money on Indiegogo.