Full interview: Tablet computers for bonobos

This is an extended interview with Dr. Ken Schweller of the Great Ape Trust, who was featured in our April 2 Marketplace Tech Report episode. Schweller has written a tablet app called Bonobo Chat, which allows the apes (our closest living relatives) to “speak” with their keepers, open doors, operate vending machines, and perhaps to operate a special robot that can roam around outside their cages and interact with visitors. That’s pretty darn cool…even if it does suggest inviting some kind of “Rise of the Planet of the Apes” scenario…

As is our lot, there’s much more to it than we had time for on the show, and we sure had fun talking to him. This more-or-less full audio of our chat is about six minutes long. Enjoy!