Teaching dogs to talk is easier than you think

Source: wreg.com --- Sunday, May 22, 2016
Missing Attachment Missing Attachment atlanta— If dogs could talk, Melody Jackson knows what they would say. Or at least, what she’d like them to say. Jackson, an associate professor at the Georgia Institute of Technology, has developed technology that is giving dogs a voice, an ability she says is crucial for search and rescue, bomb detection and therapy dogs. The dogs wear vests equipped with sensors that can send either audible cues or text notifications to a smartphone. Jackson earned her Ph.D. in computer science from Georgia Tech in 1998 and has trained assistance dogs for nearly 20 years. Now she’s putting her two passions together. Jackson’s research team, which includes professor Thad Starner and research scientist Clint Zeagler, has created high-tech vests for canines for a project called FIDO, which stands for “Facilitating Interactions for Dogs with Occupations.” The program is sponsored by The National Science Foundation and also the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, better known as DARPA. The vests have been approved by Jackson’s 8-year-old border collie, Sky. “He actually has helped us design a lot of these sensors, by telling us what works and what doesn’t work,” she says. “So, he’s sort of our first line of testing before we go out to the rest of the world. He’s a very critical part of our design team.” The vest has side sensors that the dogs trigger with a bite or a nudge of their nose. They’re trained ...