"I later found it would cost ¥80 billion with no optional devices and not many people have a pilot's licence," he said.
The idea was spiked. The success of Bowlingual speaks for itself in any language, however.
It has sold 300,000 units in the six months to March and could have sold more if supply could have kept pace with demand. The US$120 gadget is set to advance into South Korea in June and the US in August.
Bowlingual has an 8cm microphone attached to a dog collar, and transmits the dog's barks and whines to a palm-sized console held by the animal's master.
The console, equipped with a small display, immediately classifies the sounds into emotional categories such as frustration, menace and joy and shows 200 varieties of matching human phrases.
Time magazine has dubbed the device one of the best inventions of last year, while the US-based science humor magazine Annals of Improbable Research awarded Bowlingual its 2002 Ig Nobel Peace Prize for promoting harmony between the species.
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