Experiments with Whistling Machines

This text describes a series of experiments performed with a machine capable of synthesizing human whistles and canary song. We call this device The Universal Whistling Machine (U.W.M.). It senses the presence of living creatures in its vicinity and attracts them with a signa-ture whistle. Given a response whistle, U.W.M. counters with its own composition, based on a time-frequency analysis of the response. Here the authors present a broad overview of all issues U.W.M. touches upon, including animal-machine interaction.