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rfmcdonaldWhen I visited Toronto's Carbon Computing this afternoon with ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
talktooloose, I saw my first iPad. I'm not a particular fan of Apple: apart from its restrictive, manipulative treatment of intellectual property, my Windows-based computer works just fine, thank you very much. Still, I was impressed by the iPad's elegant aesthetics and its power; I can see why some people would find it quite useful, and enjoyable. Ours isn't the only species that can find it useful.
talktooloose, I saw my first iPad. I'm not a particular fan of Apple: apart from its restrictive, manipulative treatment of intellectual property, my Windows-based computer works just fine, thank you very much. Still, I was impressed by the iPad's elegant aesthetics and its power; I can see why some people would find it quite useful, and enjoyable. Ours isn't the only species that can find it useful.Dolphin researcher Jack Kassewitz is using an iPad loaded with apps, some custom-built, to interact with a 2-year-old dolphin named Merlin — the first steps toward creating what Kassewitz calls a symbolic language, one that will not only allow humans and dolphins to interact more easily but also potentially lead to a universal translator for humans.
“For several years, we’ve recognized that part of the problem in creating an artificial language between humans and dolphins has been the speed of acquisition of the human brain; it’s just not up to competing (with that of the dolphin),” said Kassewitz, president of Global Heart, a non-profit firm heading up the dolphin research.
The dolphin’s “acoustic range is so broad and ours is so limited, and our speed to react to their sound is so slow, I think we were just plain boring,” Kassewitz said.
Kassewitz turned to computer hardware, which can process information much faster than the human brain, special software for recording real-time data, and underwater microphones.
[. . .]
Kassewitz chose the iPad because it’s lightweight and touch sensitive. The other key advantage: The iPad is fast, thanks to Apple’s A4 CPU, and has lots of apps — including SignalScope, which turns the iPad into a high-tech oscilloscope for capturing recorded sound.
To make it dolphin-friendly, the iPad was encased in a waterproof bag called the Waterwear, a transparent, plastic casing made by Tokyo-based Tunewear, and given a yellow border, which Merlin seems to like.
