A team of British and U.S. researchers has just announced that they’ve imaged the first high definition imprints of sounds that dolphins make in water. The scientists, associated with a project called Speak Dolphin, are constructing a library of these images and sounds so that, in future, they can verify that the same sound is always repeated for the same object. In short, they’re putting together a dolphin dictionary. (Credit for all images: Sonic Age Ltd. and SpeakDolphin)

The sound imaging is made possible through an instrument called the CymaScope. It, in turn, produces “CymaGlyphs,” or the reproducible patterns that are expected to form the basis of a lexicon of dolphin language, with each pattern said to represent a dolphin “picture word.”A CymaGlyph of a baby dolphin vocalization.

Certain sounds made by dolphins have long been suspected to represent language but the complexity of the sounds has made their analysis difficult. Previous techniques, using the spectrograph, display cetacean (dolphins, whales and porpoises) sounds only as graphs of frequency and amplitude. The CymaScope is said to capture actual sound vibrations imprinted in the dolphin’s natural environment-water, revealing the intricate visual details of dolphin sounds for the first time. The CymaGlyph patterns may even resemble what the creatures perceive from their own returning sound beams and from the sound beams of other dolphins.Mother and baby dolphin.

Researcher John Stuart Reid thinks the technique is comparable to deciphering Egyptian hieroglyphs. ”Jean-Francois Champollion and Thomas Young used the Rosetta Stone to discover key elements of the primer that allowed the Egyptian language to be deciphered. The CymaGlyphs produced on the CymaScope can be likened to the hieroglyphs of the Rosetta Stone. Now that dolphin chirps, click-trains and whistles can be converted into CymaGlyphs, we have an important tool for deciphering their meaning.”Reid’s colleague, Jack Kassewitz of the Florida-based dolphin communication research project SpeakDolphin.com, added, “There is strong evidence that dolphins are able to ’see’ with sound, much like humans use ultrasound to see an unborn child in the mother’s womb. The CymaScope provides our first glimpse into what the dolphins might be ’seeing’ with their sounds.”The team has recognized that sound does not travel in waves, as is popularly believed, but in expanding holographic bubbles and beams. The holographic aspect stems from the physics theory that even a single molecule of air or water carries all the information that describes the qualities and intensity of a given sound. At frequencies audible to humans (20 Hertz to 20,000 Hertz) the sound-bubble form dominates; above 20,000 Hertz the shape of sound becomes increasingly beam shaped, similar to a lighthouse beam in appearance.Reid further explained, “Whenever sound bubbles or beams interact with a membrane, the sound vibrations imprint onto its surface and form a CymaGlyph, a repeatable pattern of energy. The CymaScope employs the surface tension of water as a membrane because water reacts quickly and is able to reveal intricate architectures within the sound form. These fine details can be captured on camera.”

Regarding the possibility of speaking dolphin, Kassewitz said, “I believe that people around the world would love the opportunity to speak with a dolphin. And I feel certain that dolphins would love the chance to speak with us - if for no other reason than self-preservation. During my times in the water with dolphins, there have been several occasions when they seemed to be very determined to communicate with me. We are getting closer to making that possible.”

In case your whistling and chirping are rusty, dolphins are adept at sign language too.