Audality and Artificial Intelligence (AI) Systems
Understanding Animal Language and Communication
22 March, 2022 by
Audality and Artificial
Intelligence (AI) Systems
Audality (R), Laura Krikorian

     The race is on to use Artificial Intelligence (“AI”) as a means by which to understand and interpret animal language and communication.  Today, vast pig farms and poultry farms account for billions of dollars in revenue from their respective industries worldwide. Elsewhere, conservationists are beginning to rely heavily on AI systems to learn and interpret whale songs, record bat sounds, and monitor frogs so these animals (among others) can be better protected from fatal ship collisions, wind turbine accidents, and other environmental hazards. As AI systems become more and more sophisticated and are applied to animal communications, the quality of the data collection must meet that growing sophistication.  In this respect, Audality’s technology is the optimal choice as a partner to AI analytics systems.

Let’s face it: the ability of AI technology to be relevant and effective is only as good as the data that it collects and analyzes.  In a recent article posted by abcnews.go.com, the latest studies on pigs reveal that their grunts do, in fact, fluctuate in tone and pitch in conjunction with emotions.  The welfare of pigs that are bred and raised on vast commercial pig farms is a major concern worldwide.  Using AI analytics, farmers can now monitor and understand positive and negative feelings expressed through the pigs’ grunts, which in turn will enable the farmers to improve the pigs’ welfare and identify actual situations that increase stress among the herd.  Software applications available in AI systems are able to monitor vocalizations in commercial pig herds, interpret the grunts and categorize them into more than nineteen different emotions/alerts, and notify farmers when their animals are expressing high levels of negative and anxious emotions.


Unquestionably, enhanced AI technology also should overcome the inherent difficulties associated with the collection of animal sound data.  In the Wall Street Journal article, “Artificial Intelligence and the Race to Master Animal Language”, it is noted that builders of AI programs as well as scientists “are enthusiastic about the enormous potential of applying AI to animal communication,” both as a way to learn more from our various animals and “as a way to sharpen the tools of artificial intelligence itself.”   Collection of animal sounds can be an arduous feat given the potentially tremendous physical area on some farms that must be monitored and the overall environment of the warehouse/installation. 

 Audio data is sensitive to both electrical and environmental noises. Therefore, the audio noise originating from a group of chickens, pigs, or other animal (in the form of clucks, chirps, grunts, or some other animal sound) can become lost within the other noise picked up in the audio collection.

The good news for our two-legged, four-legged, winged, scaled, feathered, and furry friends is that Audality’s technology can address the need for improved AI sophistication.  First, Audality’s wireless technology is able to collect audio data over an immensely large, wide physical space.  Second, Audality’s wireless technology is able to transmit this collected data as 24-bit, uncompressed audio over a very far distance to receivers. Notably, the size of the collection microphone attached to Audality’s transmitter means that the transmission will be high quality and will not degrade over distance.

Third, Audality’s transmitter module offers not only the high-quality microphone element, but also advanced features such as the ability to condition and shape the signal at the point of data collection. Thus, the audio that is collected will be the exact signal/data set that the programmers (and farmers) want, and nothing more; the quality of Audality’s audio is so superior that its digital processing system is able to filter out extraneous noises that are irrelevant to the purpose of the AI system.

Feel free to contact Audality to learn how we can enhance your AI needs and take care of your animals.

Audality and Artificial
Intelligence (AI) Systems
Audality (R), Laura Krikorian 22 March, 2022
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