By Kim Tae-gyu
Staff Reporter

Where is the limitation of the cell phone that seems to be converging almost all functions imaginable? Now the handheld gadgets can interpret the barking sound of dogs.

KTF, Korea’s second-largest wireless operator, said Thursday the company is embarking on a new service, which enables dog owners to communicate with their pets through a mobile handset.


A dog owner demonstrates a bark-analyzing service through her cell phone in a street in Seoul, Thursday. Korea Times

Similar to human voice recognition, the new offering matches barks with digital patterns of various barks preprogrammed into the cell phone to decipher growls and yelps.

The dog interpreter-equipped phone analyzes voiceprint of the pooch’s unique sound into six emotional states _ happiness, sadness, joy, desire, threat and self-expression.

Then the phone shows the feelings in the form of 90 sentences, 15 for each emotion, on the monitor like ``I love you,’’ ``I am irritated,’’ or ``I will sulk if you don’t play with me.’’

``Each pronouncement might not represent the exact mood of a dog, but at least we can know whether man’s furry best friend is frustrated, happy or angry,’’ KTF manager Cheon Kang-gueon said.

KTF subscribers can enjoy the services by downloading programs through the wireless Internet connection or at the outfit’s Web site, www.magicn.com, at 1,000 won (about $1).

After registering a dog’s name, age, gender and breed, the owner should record the pet’s barks for about 10 seconds in compliance with an automatic response system (ARS) instruction.

Then, the phone will demonstrate the result of the analysis, which is carried out by a KTF wireless server and each analysis would cost 200 won.

Originally, Japan’s third-largest toy maker Takara introduced such services first in 2002 through a dog translator-only terminal, called Bowlingual, in collaboration with the Japan Acoustic Laboratory and mobile content developer Index.

The product was a hit with about 300,000 snapping up the pricey canine mind-reader with a price tag of about $100 in the debut year and later Japan’s runner-up mobile carrier KDDI brought the feature into cell phone based on an embedded chip.

However, KTF is the first in facilitating the services on a cell phone based on a wireless environment, not a chip incorporated into the handset.

In addition, KTF advanced the technology of communicating with a dog a step further by including a function of speaking to the pet with a speaker phone.

``After gauging the moods of a dog, people can respond with six sorts of feelings by playing pre-recorded barks and this is the first in history. Now it is real two-way communication although it is still in its nascent stage,’’ Cheon said.

He said more than 1,000 subscribers have downloaded the canine translator program ever since the company started offering it on May 1.

Domestic mobile content maker infravalley, which imported the new system from Index, said it would contact other carriers of SK Telecom and LG Telecom to launch similar services.

voc200@koreatimes.co.kr