A new app aims to help parents interpret what their baby wants based on the sound of their cry. The free app ChatterBaby, which was released last month, analyzes the acoustic features of a baby’s cry, to help parents understand whether their child might be hungry, fussy or in pain. While critics say caregivers should not rely too much on their smartphone, others say it’s a helpful tool for new or weary parents.

　　一款新的手机应用可以帮助父母“解读”婴儿哭声背后的真正需求。这款叫“ChatterBaby”的应用于上月发布，它能根据哭声的声学特征来判断婴儿究竟想要什么，弄清楚这些不会说话的小家伙到底是饿了、困了还是身体不适。批评人士认为照料者不应该太过于依赖智能手机，支持者则认为这会是新手父母或者发愁的父母的“好帮手”。

　　Like many new parents, Fatema Bell is often trying to figure out why her 5-month-old son is crying. She told CBS News’ Jamie Yuccas that the ChatterBaby app helps her and her husband Johnathan identify what’s bothering their son more quickly. They record his cries for five seconds and the app tells them the likelihood that he is fussy, hungry or in pain.

　　与许多新手父母一样，法蒂玛.贝尔经常想要弄清楚她5个月大的儿子为什么哭。贝尔接受CBS记者采访时表示，“ChatterBaby”APP能够帮助她和她的丈夫更快地了解儿子哭闹的真正原因。他们会用手机录下儿子5秒的哭声，上传之后APP就能告诉他们孩子是饿了、困了还是身体不适。

　　"For me, it just goes down a mental checklist of you know, ’What do I need to do?’" Bell said. For her, the app is more of a gut check. "It was to confirm what I was feeling, basically, and knowing that I’m doing the right things in the patterns that I’m doing it."

　　“对于我而言，这只是一种心理安慰，你懂的，‘我到底该怎么做?’，用来确认一下我的感觉，让我知道我在做的事情是正确的。”贝尔说。

　　UCLA statistician Ariana Anderson, a mother of four, developed the app. She originally designed the technology to help deaf parents better understand why their baby was upset, but soon realized it could be a helpful tool for all new parents.

　　美国加州大学洛杉矶分校(UCLA)统计学家阿里安娜.安德森是4个孩子的母亲，她同时也是“ChatterBaby”APP的研发者。她设计这款APP最初是为了帮助聋人父母更好地理解他们的孩子为什么会哭，但她很快意识到对于所有新手父母来说，这也会是一个有用的工具。

　　"When I became a parent, I had just finished my PhD and I thought I was very, very smart and then I had a baby and I felt like an idiot because I couldn’t understand what my baby needed. It was very, very stressful and overwhelming for me," Anderson said.

　　安德森说，“我第一次当母亲时，恰好是拿到博士学位的时候，当时我认为自己非常、非常聪明，可是在孩子面前却感觉自己像个傻瓜，因为我无法理解我的孩子究竟想要什么。这种无力感让我感觉压力很大。”

　　To build a database, Anderson and her team uploaded 2,000 audio samples of infant cries. She used cries recorded during ear piercings and vaccinations to distinguish pain cries. And to create a baseline for the other two categories, a panel of moms had to unanimously agree on whether the cry was either hungry or fussy.

　　为了建立数据库，安德森和她的同事上传了2000个婴儿哭声音频样本。她利用耳朵穿刺或者和接种疫苗时的哭声样本来辨别因疼痛导致的婴儿哭声。为了辨别另外两种哭声，她请来一组妈妈做评判，必须经过这些妈妈们的一致同意，某个哭声样本才能被归入“饿了”或者“困了”的类别。

　　"We’re taking a five-second audio sample, we look at over 6,000 different acoustic features and we try to see which features associated with each state using artificial intelligence," Anderson said.

　　“收到一段长5秒的音频样本后，我们会比对超过6000个不同的声学特征，然后利用人工智能技术来判断这个样本应该属于哪个类别。”安德森说。

　　Anderson’s team continues to collect data and hopes to make the app more accurate by asking parents to get specific about what certain sounds mean.

　　她的团队正在收集更多数据，希望能通过要求父母对某一特定哭声的含义给出解答来进一步提高APP的准确性。

　　Pediatrician Eric Ball pointed out that evaluating cries can never be an exact science.

　　儿科医生埃里克.鲍尔指出，评估婴儿的哭声类别永远不可能是一门精确的科学。

　　"I think that all of the apps and technology that new parents are using now can be helpful but need to be taken with a grain of salt," Ball said. "I do worry that some parents will get bogged down in big data and turn their parenting into basically a spreadsheet which I think will take away from the love and caring that parents are supposed to be providing for their children."

　　鲍尔说，“我认为，新手父母现在使用的所有APP和科技手段的确能够起到一定的作用，但需要谨慎使用。我很担心一些父母会陷入大数据的泥沼，将养育孩子这件事情变得机械化的照本宣科，丧失了孩子们需要的关爱和照顾。”

　　But Anderson said the aim of the app is to have parents interpret the results, not to provide a yes or no answer. The Bells say it’s a win-win. They believe they are not only helping their baby now but potentially others in the future.

　　不过安德森说，这款应用的目的是帮父母解读结果，而不是提供是非分明的答案。贝尔一家表示这是双赢。他们相信，他们不仅在帮助自己的孩子，而且还可能在将来帮助别人。