ISTANBUL 

Chinese company Baidu has applied for a patent for an artificial intelligence (AI) technology designed to translate animal sounds into human language, South China Morning Post reported Wednesday.

Baidu reportedly filed the patent application in December, but it was not made public by the China National Intellectual Property Administration until Tuesday.

The patent describes a method for gathering data from animals -- vocalizations, body language, behavioral shifts and other biological signals -- to assess their emotional state, which is then translated into a designated human language.

The system draws on multiple branches of AI, such as machine learning, deep learning and natural language processing, Baidu said in the application.

If the system encounters a sound that does not match historical data, researchers manually label the input to retrain the model.

Though the filing reveals significant technical ambitions, it does not indicate when or if Baidu plans to commercialize the technology.

The publication of the application does not guarantee approval.

You Yunting, a senior partner at Shanghai Debund Law Firm, said the review process can take one to three years, or even longer in more complex cases.