(I am not a shill for Panasonic, I thought this was genuinely interesting. Source: Market Watch.)
Dolphin Prefers Toughbook over iPad
Dolphin Researcher Jack Kassewitz, His Team and Dolphins Chose Toughbook 19 and 30 as Ideal Devices for Speech-Recognition Research
SECAUCUS, N.J. & MIAMI, Oct 05, 2010 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- Panasonic Solutions Company, provider of collaboration, information-sharing and decision-support solutions for government and commercial enterprises, today announced that Jack Kassewitz from SpeakDolphin.com and his team conducting dolphin communication research chose the fully-rugged Toughbook(R) 30 notebook and Toughbook 19 convertible tablet for their project which aims to build a human-cetacean language interface. The decision was after a trial that pitted the Toughbook computers against the Apple iPad.
"Merlin, a young male bottlenose dolphin, was part of the trial that evaluated the Toughbook computers and the iPad," said Jack Kassewitz, President of SpeakDolphin.com. "He was more comfortable with the Toughbook experience, which offered greater screen visibility and sensitivity. We were able to hold the Toughbook notebooks closer to the water and our bodies, which makes the dolphin more comfortable and willing to interact and learn."
"Of course, we had to evaluate the devices too. From a field research standpoint, the Toughbook 19 and 30 are great because their screens are clearly viewable in direct sunlight, they work well in extreme temperature conditions, they are very water resistant and durable, and we were able to multitask with the devices. The Toughbook computers simply do their job, letting us focus on science," Kassewitz continued.
The Toughbook(R) computers with their sensitive and reliable touch screens are a crucial part of the interspecies language interface that SpeakDolphin.com is developing. The beginning phases of this project involve a cognitive game called "same/different" where a dolphin is shown an object in real life, such as a ball or flower pot, then asked to identify a photo of the same object on the touch screen. This process teaches the dolphin that images on the computer screen can be used to symbolize real objects.
The dolphins are learning to use the touchscreen and making the mental connection of symbols versus real-life objects. Following this phase, the team will add symbols for actions and dolphin sounds associated with each of the symbols.
SpeakDolphin.com is a non- profit 501 (c) 3 tax deductible charitable organization whose focus is on expanding communication between humans and dolphins with the scientific support of leading edge technology.
Toughbook & SpeakDolphin.com Images & Video
A video can be found on the Toughbook brand's YouTube channel:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SmiPDMt-ZTc
Images can be found on the Toughbook brand's Flickr page:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/panasonictoughbook/sets/72157625046193352/
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