The creators of the chatbot say it provides your dog’s perspective by interpreting more than 100 body signals and advising you on how best to respond.
Cheil Worldwide and pet healthcare company Woorien have launched a chatbot in South Korea that aids in the communication between people and their dogs.
“PetTalk” was designed to promote a “safe and harmonious community for 15 million dog owners, their dogs, and even people who don’t have dogs,” said Cheil.
According to the agency, PetTalk is based on the understanding that a dog’s primary means of communication is the use of body signals so it “interprets” those and gives advice on how the owner should respond.
For example, if you ask “Why do you keep yawning?” on PetTalk after seeing your dog yawning a lot, animated dog characters will appear on the screen to demonstrate the relevant body signal, and reply “I’m anxious and nervous right now.”
Image via Cheil Worldwide
The chatbot would give the advice to yawn back at your dog in order to convey a message of “As I see it, it is okay here” or “Now take it easy,” said Cheil.
According to the chatbot: “If you yawn at your disturbed dog, you can tell your dog “It’s okay, relax.” When your dog yawns while other dog barks, your dog is telling the other dog to “Take it easy.” If your dog keeps yawning, the owner needs to remove the stressful situation.”
Similar to communicating on instant messenger, the user can also receive advice from a pet behavior specialist by typing a query into PetTalk.
Cheil and Woorien plan to extend PetTalk’s content to phonetic languages and disease signals.
“As PetTalk is content built together with dog owners, we made it possible for the users to suggest additional languages or better expressions,” says Joon Jeong, Managing Director at Woorien.
“Based on the fact that a dog’s body signal is universal with no big geographical or environmental difference, we plan to launch PetTalk in other languages such as English and Chinese, too.”
On PetTalk, there are more than 100 animated body signals of the dog verified by vets and animal behavior specialists – from big movements such as raising one foot or showing their belly, to small gestures including eyes and ears movement and facial expressions.
“Based on the fact that a dog’s body signal is universal with no big geographical or environmental difference, we plan to launch PetTalk in other languages such as English and Chinese, too.”
PetTalk additionally uses A.I. technology incorporated into its search function. Since the phrasing of a question on the same body signal could vary from person to person, PetTalk is designed to have higher search accuracy when people search more.
PetTalk is available on Woorien’s pet solution app ‘Between Dog and I’ which is currently downloadable for free from Google Play and App Store in South Korea. The company plans to launch the app in other countries in the future.
Image via Cheil Worldwide
In conjunction with PetTalk, Cheil and Woorien plan to provide content about dogs via pet education videos on the app and by providing an in-depth explanation of body signals introduced in PetTalk by a pet behavior therapist via the YouTube channel ‘Between Dog and I TV’.
