Article published In: Vocal Interactivity in-and-between Humans, Animals and Robots
Edited by Mohamed Chetouani, Elodie F. Briefer, Angela Dassow, Ricard Marxer, Roger K. Moore, Nicolas Obin and Dan Stowell
[Interaction Studies 24:1] 2023
► pp. 66–86
Full-duplex acoustic interaction system for cognitive experiments with cetaceans
Available under the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) 4.0 license.
For any use beyond this license, please contact the publisher at rights@benjamins.nl.
This article was made Open Access under a CC BY 4.0 license through payment of an APC by or on behalf of the authors.
Published online: 28 August 2023
https://doi.org/10.1075/is.22039.ryc
https://doi.org/10.1075/is.22039.ryc
Abstract
Cetaceans show high cognitive abilities and strong social bonds.
Their primary sensory modality to communicate and sense the environment is
acoustics. Research on their echolocation and social vocalizations typically
uses visual and tactile systems adapted from research on primates or birds. Such
research would benefit from a purely acoustic communication system to better
match their natural capabilities. We argue that a full duplex system, in which
signals can flow in both directions simultaneously is essential for
communication research. We designed and implemented a full duplex system to
acoustically interact with cetaceans in the wild, featuring digital
echo-suppression. We pilot tested the system in Arctic Norway and achieved an
echo suppression of 18 dB. We discuss the limiting factors and how to improve
the echo suppression further. The system enabled vocal interaction with the
underwater acoustic scene by allowing experimenters to listen while producing
sounds. We describe our motivations, then present our pilot deployment and give
examples of initial explorative attempts to vocally interact with wild orcas and
humpback whales.
Article outline
- Introduction
- Interactive playback experiments (Figure 2A)
- Phantom echo (Figure 2B)
- Animal telecommunication (Figure 2C)
- Human–Animal interaction (Figure 2D)
- Pilot experiments
- System
- Field test
- Results and discussion
- Echo suppression performance
- Human experience of underwater soundscape
- Vocal interactions with orcas and humpbacks
- Conclusion
- Ethical statement
- Acknowledgments
- Author contributions
- Conflict of interests
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