Ever wondered what your dog is saying when he barks? A Japanese toy company has invented a device it claims will be able to detect your pooch’s emotion from its bark and then translate this into human words.

Called Bowlingual Voice, the talking gadget can detect six senses: sadness, joy, alertness to danger, neediness, happiness and frustration. It also has a recorded repertoire of spoken phrases such as ‘play with me’, ‘leave me alone,’ and ‘I feel sad’.

The device, which was unveiled at the International Tokyo Toy Show 2009, is said to work best on adult dogs. The £129 gadget, produced by Takara Tomy, has a microphone that is placed around the dog’s neck and a hand-held unit-operating device for pet owners to carry.

When the dog barks, the microphone records the sound and transmits the data to the owner’s wireless hand-held device, which then ‘translates’ it. A speech synthesizer reads out the dog’s intentions, which also appears on the screen of the gadget.

An answering machine function can also record your pet’s expressions of desire when owners are absent. The model was first created seven years ago by Dr Matsumi Suzuki and sold more than 300,000 units, but the latest version will be the first to include sound.

Available at the shops in Japan, there are no plans to launch an English version, so dog lovers in the UK will need to rely on body language instead.

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