Scientists discover valuable information dogs give away when they bark

Scientists have recently discovered that the sound that dogs make when they bark actually gives away information about their gender and age.

Researchers from the Technical University of Madrid and the Eotvos Lorand University have developed a computer program which determines the sex and age of a dog through its bark, reports the Independent.

In the first of its kind research, scientists analysed 800 barks recorded from eight dogs in seven different situations, and developed complex algorithms that were able to predict the gender, age and context of the dog barking.

The algorithms from 29 acoustic measurements, such as the volume of the bark and its length and pitch, were able to recognise the sex of the dog 85.13% of the time and the age 80.25% of cases.

Image Credit: www.upm.es

Dr Tamas Farago said vets could use these techniques to help identify what is wrong with a dog and they are already working on an application for social robotics. He added that they can develop emotional sounds for robots based on dog barks that can be recognised by humans as it would be a way to create believable social robots.