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Steve April
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6/4/2010 3:41:07 PM
Dolphins And IPADS
Dolphin Communicates Using iPadSUSANNA BAIRD, AOL
(June 4) -- Merlin the trend-setting dolphin has become the first of his species to use an iPad.
Dolphin researcher Jack Kassewitz of the nonprofit SpeakDolphin introduced the iPad to the young bottlenose who lives at the Dolphin Discovery dolphinarium in Puerta Aventura, Mexico. (Merlin may be the first living being in Mexico to use an iPad -- Apple isn’t introducing the gadget to Mexican markets until next month.)
Kassewitz hopes touch-screen technology will spur an advance in his efforts to create a shared dolphin-human language system. After nearly a decade of research, "it became clear to me that dolphins do have a language," said Kassewitz, who came to dolphin studies after years in other professions.
"The problems [in deciphering it] centered principally around the technology to acquire the information, acquire the language and process it fast enough to respond to it," he told AOL News. "It’s just in the last two years that we started looking at computer technology that makes it available."
Tablet computers have been around for decades ("pen computers" were all the rage in the early '90s), but only with the introduction of the Microsoft tablet PC in 2002 did the notion take off in its current iteration.
From a dolphin’s perspective, tablet computers are perfect. Dolphins can activate touch screens with their rostrums (beaks). Current tablets are fast, portable and, with the addition of a waterproof case, able to be used poolside. Kassewitz made a final tweak, adding a bright yellow border to further attract the eyes of curious dolphins...
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