Latest Kanzi Stories

Lawrence LeBlond for redOrbit.com - Your Universe Online Bonobos have recently had their DNA mapped by scientists, revealing they are much closer genetically to us than previously believed. Perhaps this striking similarity these gentle beasts share with us is no more evident than when it comes to their capability to learn tasks such as learning sign language and creating tools. Researchers from the University of Haifa in Israel have found that bonobos can learn to make stone tools just...

Des Moines, Iowa -- You may have more in common with Kanzi, Panbanisha and Nyota, three language-competent bonobos living at Great Ape Trust, than you thought. And those similarities, right at your fingertip, might one day tell scientists more about the effect of culture on neurological disorders that limit human expression.Among humans, pointing is a universal language, an alternative to spoken words to convey a message. Before they speak, infants point, a gesture scientists agree is closely...

Throughout history, human beings have used the whistle for everything from hailing a cab to carrying a tune. Now, an orangutan's spontaneous whistling is providing scientists at Great Ape Trust of Iowa new insights into the evolution of speech and learning.In a paper published this month in Primates, an international journal of primatology that provides a forum on all aspects of primates in relation to humans and other animals, Great Ape Trust scientist Dr. Serge Wich and his colleagues...

Smartphone Show -- Futuremark, creators of industry standard graphics performance software, today unveiled Kanzi(TM), a graphics engine that allows manufacturers to add visually stunning 3D user interfaces to mobile phones and other embedded devices. Futuremark is previewing a next generation mobile UI prototype developed using Kanzi, running on Texas Instruments' OMAP(TM) 3 application engine, to selected audiences at the Smartphone Show from October 21-22. As well as effortlessly...

Linguistic tools used to analyze human language applied to conversation between scientist and bonoboWhat happens when linguistic tools used to analyze human language are applied to a conversation between a language-competent bonobo and a human? The findings, published this month in the Journal of Integrative Psychological and Behavioral Science, indicate that bonobos may exhibit larger linguistic competency in ordinary conversation than in controlled experimental settings.The peer-reviewed...

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) -- Dr. Sue Savage-Rumbaugh sounds like a proud mother when she speaks about her brood of bonobos, eight ultra-intelligent apes that will take part in unique language research meant to shed light on their nature and maybe our own. The first two bonobos will make the 16-hour road trip from the Language Research Center at Georgia State University to their new $10 million, 13,000-square-foot home near downtown Des Moines later this month. All eight - three females and five...