Thanks to Panasonic’s recent loan of three Toughbook computers to SpeakDolphin.com, Dolphin Researchers, Jack & Donna Kassewitz, are introducing the touchscreen computers to the dolphins in their research program. "The Toughbook’s screen brightness and water resistance are important for our project. We’ve seen the videos of trucks driving over Toughbooks and glasses of water being poured on the keyboard and the Toughbook keeps right on working—so we think these computers can handle dolphins."

The Toughbook computers will be part of language interface between humans and dolphins. The beginning phases of the 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 is to teach the dolphin that images on the computer screen can be used to symbolize real objects. Donna Kassewitz explained, "The dolphins have to get the hang of manipulating the touchscreen and also make the mental connection of symbols vs. real life objects. Then we’ll add symbols for actions and dolphin sounds associated with each of the symbols. We feel confident that both the dolphins and the Panasonic Toughbooks are up to the task."

One of the dolphins in the research program, a young male bottlenose named Merlin, already has experience with touchscreen computers. "Now with the Toughbooks’ interconnectivity we are better able to record the dolphin sounds and analyze them in real time" said Jack Kassewitz. "Thanks to support from Panasonic and donations from the public through our website, we are making progress in this important research. We believe both dolphins and humans will benefit from an interspecies language interface. We need all the support we can get towards this goal."