RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Full-duplex acoustic interaction system for cognitive experiments with cetaceans
JF bioRxiv
FD Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
SP 2022.05.27.493738
DO 10.1101/2022.05.27.493738
A1 Rychen, Jörg
A1 Semoroz, Julie
A1 Eckerle, Alexander
A1 Hahnloser, Richard HR
A1 Kleinberger, Rébecca
YR 2022
UL http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2022/05/29/2022.05.27.493738.abstract
AB Cetaceans show high cognitive abilities and strong social bonds. Acoustics is their primary modality to communicate and sense the environment. Research on their echolocation and vocalizations with conspecifics and with humans typically uses visual and tactile systems adapted from research on primates or birds. Such research would benefit from a purely acoustic communication system in which signals flow in both directions simultaneously. 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 leaving room for technical improvements addressed in the discussion. Nevertheless, 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.Competing Interest StatementThe authors have declared no competing interest.