If there was a program that collected the barks, woofs, and whines of dogs along with a human description of what it means, could you process that data to create a sort of translator for dog speak that tells you the general idea of what they want? (e.g. hungry, glad to see you)
It would probably need an indicator for dog breeds since they will sound different. And obviously dogs don’t speak the same sort of language we do, but could general emotions be translated?
Think a little bit like those apps that (human) bird watchers catalogue bird sounds that are assigned to specific bird species. Many people have a good idea of what a dog wants/needs when they hear the noises it makes, so I can imagine something similar for dog owners. They record sounds of their dogs and what they believe it means, just as bird watchers do for mating calls.
Would this work at all? Or are the sounds of dogs too varying, even accounting for dog breeds? And how does its effectiveness change for cats and other noisy pets?
Most animals don’t use verbal communication. As an analogy, most humans don’t use sign language. Imagine if someone wanted to create a human translator that recorded what humans do with their hands and translate them into meaning. There would be a lot of noise there because most humans don’t talk with their hands, so most of it would be ascribing meaning that isn’t there. Sometimes the person is just itching their back, or just doing the dishes, etc, not trying to say something. Similarly, most other animals vocalise for other reasons, not because they want to make a specific sound to communicate something.