Scientists Invent Device That Could Help Us Talk to Dolphins

Scientists from the Tokyo University of Marine Science and Technology have invented a new device that allows them to communicate with dolphins.

Scientists have invented a dolphin speaker that will help them communicate with dolphins. They claim that these speakers could produce all the sounds that dolphins make while communicating.

"I am happy if we can communicate with dolphins using the dolphin speaker," Live Science quoted Yuka Mishima, researcher at the Tokyo University of Marine Science and Technology, as saying.

Dolphins communicate with each other by producing sounds at different frequency, just like humans. Sometimes they produce sounds at very low frequency, these sounds could be below 20 kilohertz and sometime they produce sounds at very high frequency, which could more than 150 kilo hertz.

Dolphins produce different frequency of sounds by whistling and clicks, to not only communicate but also to check their surroundings.

Earlier researchers had developed several devices that could help them communicate with dolphins but unfortunately these technologies had some glitches.

Now, scientists have created a device that produces all the sounds that dolphins make while communicating.

This new device converts electricity into physical movement of the dolphins and vice versa. These components were capable of broadcasting both high-frequency and low-frequency sounds. The researchers precisely tailored the sizes of these components and the acrylic disk to create an extremely broad range of sounds, according to Live Science report.

Scientists are planning to broadcast sounds of the dolphins to the dolphins and then record their responds. Over time they believe that this device will help them know what dolphins are saying and later it will help them communicate with dolphins

"I think we have a lot to learn about dolphin vocalisations - their productions are complex," LiveScience quoted Heidi Harley, a comparative cognitive psychologist at New College of Florida in Sarasota, as saying. "There is still a lot of basic perceptual and acoustic analysis that needs to be done before we can make strong claims about how dolphins are using their vocalizations."

"We know very little about how dolphins classify their own sounds - we need more perceptual studies to find out, and this equipment may help us do that," she said.