On May 28, 2024, the interim presentation for the project “The Animal Whisperer” took place at the FHNW School of Business. It was initiated by Prof. Dr. Oliver Bendel, who has been working on animal-computer interaction and animal-machine interaction for many years. Nick Zbinden, a future business information systems specialist, was recruited to work on the project. He developed three applications based on GPT-4o, the Cow Whisperer, the Horse Whisperer, and the Dog Whisperer. They can be used to analyze the body language and environment of cows, horses, and dogs. The aim is to avert danger to humans and animals. For example, a hiker can receive a recommendation on their smartphone not to cross a pasture if a mother cow and her calves are present. All they have to do is open the application and take photos of the area. The tests are already very promising. Nick Zbinden is currently talking to three human whisperers, i.e. experts in this field who are particularly good at assessing the body language and behavior of animals and are particularly good at dealing with them. Photos – showing different positions of the ears or heads, for example – are also being described by them and then fed by him into the applications. The final results will be available in August 2024.
BY OLIVER BENDEL
