Abstract. There is an increasing demand for entertainment applications developed for pets, in particular for dogs and cats. However, play interaction between animals and technological devices still remains an uncharted territory both for animal behavior and entertainment computing scientific communities. While there is a lot of anecdotal evidence of pets playing digital games, the nature of animal-computer play interactions is still not understood. In this paper we report on empirical findings based on observing and analyzing dog-tablet game interactions. Using categories emerging from our data analysis, we construct an ethogram, a "catalogue" of behavioral patterns typical of dog-tablet interactions. Based on our data analysis, we hypothesize that the nature of the observed interactions is that of predatory behavior, in response to stimuli in the form of "prey-like" virtual objects displayed on the screen. Based on our hypothesis, we further propose some questions for future investigation, and raise some issues that need to be addressed by game developers when targeting dogs as their users.
With the advance of modern technologies, computerbased systems for animals are gaining popularity. In particular, there is an explosion of products and gadgets for pets: wellness monitoring applications (e.g., FitBark and PetPace), automatic food dispensers, cognitive enrichment apps, and many more. Furthermore, the discipline of Animal-Computer Interaction has emerged, focusing on a user-centric development of technologies for animals, making them stakeholders in the development process. Animal-centric technologies have already been developed to support activities of rescue and assistance dogs, to provide environmental and cognitive enrichment for animals in captivity, and to support conservation and animal behavior research. Going beyond human stakeholders poses new exciting challenges for requirement engineering and can be used to significantly expand its boundaries under broader theoretical and methodological frameworks. This paper highlights these challenges and proposes a research agenda for developing methodologies for requirement elicitation and analysis for a user-centric development of computerized systems for non-human users.
This is a report of three ZooJams that have taken place at the annual Animal-Computer Interaction conference. The ZooJam is a type of workshop whose aim is to extend the reach of UX design beyond human experience in order to become inclusive of other species and their interactions with technology. As organisers, our attempts have knitted together colleagues from a range of disciplines, all focused on developing practical solutions to different environmental enrichment challenges. We describe the format of the event, explaining the rationale for this approach, and showcase some of the crafted design outcomes.
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