If you want to get inside of your pet's head, the tech hasn't arrived yet, but one company hopes to have it trending in the right direction.

Los Angeles-based FluentPet has developed a series of tiles it claims help four-legged companions communicate with their humans. Through training, they can learn to associate various tiles with words they've learned over time and then use their paws to press them.  

The tech has been a hit on platforms like TikTok, where tons of "talking dog" videos have gone viral.

There are a wide range of options to select from when it comes to purchasing the tech. Test kits start out around $35 with the most expensive option, They Can Talk Kit, being priced around $230. 

The company also recently launched FluentPet Connect, which integrates the tile button system into an app. This helps keep pet owners connected to their pets at all times. If a person isn't home, their pet could send an alert, similar to a text message.

The system is available for an additional $69.99 but is compatible with tiles that have already hit the market.

However, devices like FluentPet and the studies that have been done with their subjects do face skepticism from scientists. Clive Wynne, the founding director of the Canine Science Collaboratory at Arizona State University, explained that rather than language comprehension, the dogs are being conditioned.

“This is one of the most basic forms of learning in the animal kingdom," Wynne told the Washington Post. "The dog forms an association between an action and an outcome that it desires.”

Share:
More In Business
Facebook Froze as Anti-Vaccine Comments Swarmed Users
Last spring, as false claims about vaccine safety threatened to undermine the world's response to COVID-19, researchers at Facebook found they could reduce vaccine misinformation by tweaking how vaccine posts show up on users' newsfeeds.
NYT Report on Amazon Details Company's Handling of Paid and Unpaid Leave
A report in the New York Times published Sunday called 'Inside Amazon's Worst Human Resources Problem' details the company mishandling paid and unpaid leave for some of its workers for more than a year and a half, following an email sent to Amazon founder Jeff Bezos from a new mother who works at a warehouse in Oklahoma, which then led to an internal investigation at Amazon. Seattle tech correspondent for the New York Times Karen Weise joined Cheddar News' Closing Bell to talk about her report and what the Amazon investigation found.
Load More