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Some animals prick up their ears to get messages across, so Karola Baumann of
Düsseldorf believes that we could communicate better with animals if the
beasts could see us pricking up our ears. In WO 98/21939, Baumann and colleagues
describe a device that will transform the wearer into a latterday Doctor
Dolittle. A skullcap has two short “masts” at either side over the ears, each
carrying a large replica of an animal’s ear. These ears can be moved as the
human “talks” to an animal, so the beast’s attention is, Baumann claims, grabbed
and held.