Project Dug: Students Are Developing A Talking Dog Collar
March 6, 2019
"Squirrel!"
"Hey, I know a joke! A squirrel walks up to a tree and says, 'I forgot to store acorns for the winter and now I am dead.' Ha! It is funny because the squirrel gets dead!" ~ Dug the dog
Students at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign are attempting to make the talking dog collar featured in Disney's "Up" a reality.
Dug the Dog / Credit: Disney
Eight students are constructing a brain-computer interface that reads and vocalizes the thoughts of a Labrador retriever.
They have appropriately named the project, "Project Dug".
"Project Dug is an exploratory effort to extract actionable signal from a custom electroencephalogram (EEG) cap being built for a dog named Alma," says Bliss Chapman, who handles signal processing and logistics for the project.
"We validate whether our captured signal is actionable by classifying whether Alma sees a treat just using her neural response."
How does it work?
Credit: Bliss Chapman / GitHub
In order to classify EEG signals in response to a visual stimulus, the students face many challenges. For instance, the response has to be in real time.
Check out the team's progress in the video below.
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