Adding Authenticity

I've done a couple of things to make the Animal Translation Project more convincing. I wrote a blurb for the video description on YouTube which included references to various papers on USV's and one on how rats hear. Below is the video description.

A quick look at the Animal Translation Project. This video explains the basic concept of the Animal Translation Project. This is the result of a 3 year long intensive study into ultrasonic frequencies and volcalisations of rats. Through meticulous research, observations, and technological breakthroughs we have created a device capable of decoding ultrasonic vocalisations and translating them into a form understandable by humans. We hope that this new technology will allow us to better understand animals which communicate with ultrasonic vocalisations and discover more about their perceptions and knowledge of the world around them.

References:

http://ratbehavior.org/rathearing.htm

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/dev.420110513/abstract

http://psycnet.apa.org/?fa=main.doiLanding&doi=10.1037/0033-2909.128.6.961

http://psycnet.apa.org/journals/com/112/1/65/

I also posted the video as a response to a couple of other videos - one of them was a video about the Bowlingual translator, and another was a response to Google's Animal Translation App.

I'm also going to ask my friends to comment on the video to add some authenticity.

Creating the Video

I filmed and edited my video last week. It went easier than expected but I did do a bit of editing because Zelda (the rat in the film) was very keen on exploring and spent a lot of the time I was filming wondering around the table and not doing what I had intended for her to do, but she did in the end so it was fine to edit the film down and compact it from 5 minutes to 2 and a bit. She decided to eat her treat in the box I had placed on the table which meant I got some great shots of her eating in the box. She was very well behaved and I'm glad I chose her to star in my film!

I wrote a small program in C# which was straightforward as it only used a few commands. The program displays the 'translations' in order. I decided to go for the look of a computer terminal to add to the 'sciencey' or 'technical' feel of the film.

Editing the film was fairly straightforward, apart from getting used to the software. I used screencasting software to capture my screen and used the captured footage to display the 'translations', which worked well and seems to be a bit more streamlined than if I was to have had the computer and program running and on the table.

The video / project is now viewable at http://christabriggs.co.uk/animaltranslator/animaltranslator.html

Rats and Thinking

One study states that rats "appear capable of reflecting on what they do and don't know". This type of thinking is known as metacognition - it is a "complex" form of cognition.

It has been found in primates but has not been extensively explored in other mammals.

The following describes the test that rats were given the choice to do to determine their metacognition abilities:

"If they bailed out of the test by poking their noses into one hole, they received a small reward of food pellets. If they opted in by nudging their snouts into another hole, passing the test resulted in a large reward of pellets, while failure yielded nothing.

The test played the rats noises that were either short (between 2 and 3.6 seconds) or long (between 4.4 and 8 seconds). The rodents then had to classify the recent noise as either long or short by pressing one of two levers. This choice was relatively easy if the noise was either very short or very long—for instance, 2 seconds or 8 seconds. However, the decision was far harder if the noise was easily confused as either short or long—for instance, 4.4 seconds."

It appeared that the rats were able to judge if they had enough knowledge to pass the test.

This means that on some level rats have similar knowledge reflection abilities to humans and primates.

Reference:  http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2007-03/uog-urs030607.php

Another study looked at if rats feel empathy - the understanding of anothers feelings. The test the untrained rats took part in let the rats have the option of freeing a restrained cage mate or eating chocolate. One researcher stated that “It said to us that essentially helping their cage mate is on a par with chocolate. He can hog the entire chocolate stash if he wanted to, and he does not. We were shocked.”

Another researcher said that “These rats are learning because they are motivated by something internal. We’re not showing them how to open the door, they don’t get any previous exposure on opening the door, and it’s hard to open the door. But they keep trying and trying, and it eventually works.”

Reference: http://www.sciencemag.org/content/334/6061/1427

These tests make me think that rats are smarter than we give them credit for. They show that rats are capable of complex cognition and empathy for other rats. Rats can also be trained, not unlike dogs, to complete small tasks for a reward. The public think of rats as pests, and indeed they can be in the wild, but they should also be made aware that rats are intelligent animals who can be great pets and have the capacity for relatively complex thought processes.

Other Attempts at Animal Translation

There have been a couple of other attempts at animal translation. Probably the most notable one is the 'Meowlingual' by Takara Tomy. There is also a counterpart for dogs called the 'Bowlingual'.

The Bowlingual has a slightly different setup, with a hand held LCD display and a wireless microphone which attaches to the dogs collar. The microphone records and transmits the sound of the dog barking to the hand held LCD display, which analyses the bark against a database of barks. The bark is placed into a category such as assertive, happy, and needy, and then the emotion is displayed on the screen as an image.

Google set up an April Fools joke which produced an animal translation application for Android smartphones. The video they produced shows the app working to translate what a pig and a donkey are saying. Google made the video very convincing and in the theme of their other videos.

A link to Google's project can be found here: http://www.google.co.uk/intl/en/landing/translateforanimals/

Deciding on a Background

In part of my video I have the desktop of my laptop visible - so I decided to make a background which shows that I'm not a student but a scientist working on a big project. I spent a bit of time in Photoshop trying to come up with something original. Here are some of the designs I came up with...

The design at the bottom is the one I chose in the end. You can't really see it in the video but I thought it would add a nice touch. My favorite part is the little rat I drew. It seems to make the text seem a bit more 'logo' like. The swirly shapes in the corners are meant to tie in with the Victorian theme of the poster I made a while back.

Hannah sent me some interesting links which are related to my work.

Art for Non Humans - http://vimeo.com/8969881

Interspecies - Can artists work with animals as equals? - http://www.artscatalyst.org/projects/detail/interspeciescornerhouse/

In this project, four artists were asked to create projects working with animals. Kira O'Reilly's piece seems to look into human and animal relationships / interactions. In this exhibit O'Reilly spent time with a pig called Deliah to "explore shared animal / human intimacies". I

Webpage

I've completed my webpage for The Animal Translation Project. It can be found at: http://christabriggs.co.uk/animaltranslator/animaltranslator.html

I have placed a video as a placeholder while I plan and make my own video.

I hope it is convincing - I decided to go for minimal information to let the video do the talking. My URL would give it away if people continued to investigate but I hope that initially people will be convinced by it, I guess that will depend on how good my video is.

Viral Marketing

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2008/jul/09/digitalmedia.television
 
The American TV show Dexter launched an interesting viral marketing campaign advertising the show in the UK. People recieved text messages on their mobile phones which stated: "Hello (name). I'm heading to the UK sooner than you might think. Dexter.", and then receive an email which linked to a video, made to look like a news report, about a recent chain of murders. The video would then use on-the-fly manipulation to add the recepients name in blood on a wall. After complaints, FX, the company behind Dexter in the UK, stated that they did not send the messages, but they were sent by a friend of the recepient, and suggested they asked their friends to find out who sent it. The site used to send the messages and emails can be seen at the following link. www.icetruck.tv

An article from The Guardian about the campaign: http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2008/jul/09/digitalmedia.television

I plan to set up a small viral marketing campaign in the form of a webpage. The page would have a video with a brief description of the technology, leading the reader to believe it is not a fictional project but leaving them wondering if the animal translator is real or not.

A New Plan

My rat detector doesn't work. I spoke to Simon recently and he gave me a great idea - what if the rat detector was a rat translator? I'm going to run with this idea and start researching about things that rats do, and what they are really (maybe) thinking. I have an idea for an old fashioned Victorian advert which I really want to make. I need to find a computer which can handle Photoshop. (Edit - done)

I probably ruined some of the components by soldering so slowly and overheating them.

Making a Poster

I decided to make a poster for my 201 project. It's meant to be in the style of a Victorian poster.

Here's how I did it.

I created a cream background. I applied clouds over the "paper" and added a border.

To give the "paper" an aged look, I increased the colour levels in the clouds and applied more clouds over a corner of the page and increased their colour levels.

Added text and an image!

About Bat / Rat Detectors

As scientists have used bat detectors to listen to rats, I thought I would try to build my own. A bat detector is a piece of equipment which detects ultrasonic noises and then converts these noises into something that we can hear. By using a detector you can find out if bats are nearby.

They have a limited range of around 25 to 30 meters. Many bat detectors are able to detect a range of ultrasonic frequencies. When using them with rats, they work best within a couple of feet, as bats are far louder and generally bigger than rats. Using a bat detector inside can also be problematic as electrical appliances create lots of ultrasonic background noise.


http://bclee.net/ratdet.html

Putting It Together

Over the weekend I started to make my bat / rat detector. I made a few mistakes like soldering the wrong components into the board but fortunately I had ordered extras so I didn't have to give up when this happened! It was fairly easy to melt the solder again and remove the wrong components. I just hope that I haven't overheated any components while soldering, some had 8 contact points through the board and I was pretty slow at soldering, and metal conducts heat very well. If I have runied some components, I hope I have enough spares to do them again.

All I need to do now is connect the headphone jack and mount the circuitry into the case. I used a dremel to drill holes into the case for the headphone jack and the ultrasonic transducer / microphone.

This is the printed circuit board that I used. In this picture I've already added  two [small components].

This picture is showing the soldeing process. You stick the 'prongs' of the component through the cirucit board and then use the soldering iron to heat the area around the component and then melt the solder onto the area.

Here is the board with nearly all of the components added. [list them]

Here is the back of the board which shows the soldering.

Here is the case with the circuitry in place. I drilled holes in the case using a dremel for the headphone jack and the transducer.

Rat's Laughter

This video is what first inspired me to look into listening to rats ultrasonic vocalisations.

It has now been proven that rats laugh. We cannot normally hear this though, as it is at a high ultrasonic frequency of around 50 kHz. Younger rats seem to be more susceptible to laughing, and they are generally more playful than older rats. It also seems that some rats are more playful and ticklish than others. The rats who enjoyed tickling would also seek out the human hands which had tickled them in the past. They also laughed less when around the smell of a cat, when too hungry, or around bright lights (rats prefer dim lights). In adults, it also seems that females prefer tickling to males, and that it is difficult for an adult rat who has never been tickled to start enjoying the behaviour. When young rats get to choose between adults, they prefer to spend time with the adult who 'laughs' more.

It seems that rats laughter is distinct from their other ultrasonic vocalisations. They talk to each other, and only sometimes do we hear these vocalisations - for example when play fighting. By using a piece of equipment to listen to their usually unheard noises we can find out more about them.

In the paper called "Tickling-induced 50-kHz ultrasonic vocalization is individually stable " by Mallo et al. they mention that they studied low frequency vocalisations of rats:
and predicts behaviour in tests of anxiety and depression in rats

"We also studied the emission of low-frequency USVs in the

range of 20-kHz, that have long been associated with negative

events and stimuli and 50-kHz USVs and hence the emotional messages they carry

are mutually exclusive or not, the associations between the two

types of USVs were assessed, and no correlations were found."

This shows that rats also have lower frequency vocalisations which are different to their higher frequency ones, and carry different meanings.

http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/bering-in-mind/2010/08/03/laughing-rats-and-ticklish-gorillas-joy-and-mirth-in-humans-and-other-animals/

http://www.onesci.com/w/wix/images/0/0a/Tickling_Rats.pdf

This project needs a question / problem and an answer / solution.

My essay looked at bioengineering, biomedical developments and Sci-Art, and I was particularly interested in the examples which looked at animals and ways to help animals.

I have started to look into small biomedical engineering projects to find inspiration for my own project. Some projects were to make fairly normal devices, like a digital thermometer or hearing aid, but some sounded more interesting and unheard of.

One of these is an emotional stress indicator, which is a device that shows when the user is experiencing a high level of stress. It does this through LED's and beeping when the stress level is high. It works on the idea that the resistance of the skin is lower when stressed, and higher when not. This is due to the blood supply to the skin. The device would work by using pads attatched to the skin to monitor resistance levels.

Another project was a sleep inducer, which aims to help people suffering from insomnia. The idea behind the device is that geo-magnetic fields can be used to help make an environment which will aid sleep. The device generates these geo-magnetic fields.