If we could understand, what would they be saying right now?

Second to us, scientists reckon that dolphins are the most intelligent animals on the planet.  They can learn up to 100 human words but previous attempts to converse with them have been primarily one-way – our way. But we may soon be able to decipher the chirps of dolphins, then create and project an appropriate response, all in real time.

A project called Dubbed Cetaccean Hearing and Telemetry (CHAT) is being undertaken by Denise Herzing, founder of the Wild Dolphin Project, and Thad Starner, an artificial intelligence researcher at the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta. The end-goal of the CHAT program is to “co-create” a language that uses the natural sounds of wild dolphins, which can then be employed to talk with our finned brethren.

CHAT have been working on a two-way communication system since 1998. It is a prototype device that includes a “smartphone-sized computer” and two hyrdophones, which can detect the sounds of dolphins. Ultimately, a diver can carry the device in a waterproof case that will be strapped to the chest. When the hydrophone pics up dolphin chatter, an LED in the diver’s mask will light up. The diver can then use an on-board Twiddler, a kind of keyboard-mouse combo, to respond to the dolphin.

Testing will begin around next month and will involve projecting eight choice “words” to a group of wild Atlantic spotted dolphins — for example, “seaweed” — and figuring out if the dolphins mimic the words.

[Source: Digital Trends]