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Talking to Your Cat or Dog
By
Jen Chung
Published Jul 17, 2003
Modified Mar 6, 2008
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By
Jen Chung
Published Jul 17, 2003
Modified Mar 6, 2008
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Oooh, yet another reason Gothamist needs a pet: Japanese toymaker Takara is going to follow up its popular Bowlingual dog translator with a cat translator - the Meowlingual. The Meowlingual will translate cat's purrs and meows into things like 'I can't stand it' - but reports say that exact phrases haven't been finalized yet. The Meowlingual is also cheaper than the Bowlingual - 8,800 yen/US$74 versus 14,800 yen/US$125 - probably because the dog has a remote device it can wear where as cat owners will have to hold the translator up to the cat and "hope it says something."
While Takara makes some cool things, like an at-home soft serve machine (Gothamist always wanted one!), Takara's English Bowlingual site is great. It tells you why the Bowlingual works, how it works, plus has sample translations: When you see a squinty eyed, tongue-waving face on the screen, you dog is "needy" and that could mean "We need some quality time together"; the "frustrated" face could mean "Please listen to me." Wow, as constantly try to interpret what people are thinking, Gothamist thinks we need a Manlingual and Girllingual to translate the feelings of people we date. Or can we use the Bowlingual or Meowlingual models?
[Via Gizmodo and Yahoo! News]
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Jen Chung
Jen Chung is a former WNYC and Gothamist editor.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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