The Future of Animal-Human Translation

I wonder whether one day we might be able to invent some sort of animal-human translating device so that we could have a conversation with an animal the same way we are now. Is that possible? Well, there are certainly people thinking in those terms. But I think it still belongs a little bit to the realm of science fiction. This is because we don't even know how they perceive the world. Our own experience of the world is tied to our bodies in our senses. And so, again, if a whale could speak back to us, could we actually understand what that whale would be trying to convey to us?