Meet C.H.A.T. (Cetacean Hearing Augmented Telemetry), an initiative between Georgia Tech researchers and Dr. Herzing of the Wild Dolphin Project that explores dolphin communication and behavior in the open ocean. Made in the school of Interactive Computing, C.H.A.T. is a wearable underwater technology that can produce repeatable artificial dolphin sounds. The way it works is that two sets of divers wearing the device swim alongside dolphins while passing items back and forth. One diver will use C.H.A.T. to emit a preprogramed artificial dolphin like whistle to ask for the item. The divers will repeat this process several times, all while the device is recording sounds underwater. The goal is to see if the dolphins will watch this behavior and begin to mimic one of the artificial whistles to ask for the item.

Find out more about the Wild Dolphin Project at https://www.wilddolphinproject.org/