Exploring methods for interaction design with animals

Abstract

This case study describes our progress towards the goal of providing technology-enhanced enrichment for an Asian elephant so that she can exercise choice and control. We offer guidelines for developers to show how interaction design with a captive elephant might be approached.

High tech cognitive and acoustic enrichment for captive elephants

“…However, this raises an important question -can high tech environmental enrichment ever be appropriate for an undomesticated captive animal, which would never have cause to interact with such a system in the wild? We argue that technology can mitigate some of the limitations imposed by living in a restricted environment (French, Mancini and Sharp, 2016). This idea has already been explored with a variety of species; for example, Kim-McCormack, Smith and Behie (2016) highlight the relevance of digital technology for providing dynamic and flexible enrichment in the context of captive primates, while Kingston-Jones, Buchanan-Smith and Marno (2005) endorse the use of technology to support enrichment for lions.…”

“…To gauge the elephants' reactions to our interventions, we used a variety of methods: (i) observational data and video recordings that showed how they interacted with a novel interface; (ii) data from the system itself that showed whether the controlling mechanism was effective or not; (iii) the expert opinions of keepers interpreting whether the responses were positive or negative by observing elephant body language. Additionally, the "making" aspect of the work -constructing real objects -was conducive to gaining useful insights (French et al, 2016). For example, we were able to appreciate the qualities of the materials used in the design and reflect on how these qualities might influence Valli's responses.…”

Developing for non-human users: Reflecting on practical implications in the ubiquitous computing era

“…G1 Improving animals' life expectancy and quality, by facilitating the fulfillment of their physiological and psychological needs (e.g., digital enrichment in zoos [7,8]).…”

“…Indeed, such prototypeoriented agile development seems to be the prevalent technique in the literature of ACI. Variations of this development method were used, e.g., for designing sensor-based canine interfaces [21,22,10] and for designing enrichment for elephants and apes kept in captivity [23,8,24].…”

“…Working iteratively is particularly important for enabling the gathering of feedback from an animal involved in the development process. As pointed out by French, Mancini, and Sharp on their experience developing technology with an elephant [8]: "As we did not know what types of controls an elephant was capable of using, nor what kinds of output held interest for her, it was vital to obtain feedback from Valli [the elephant] during the design process. This led us to prototype iteratively until a useful solution was reached."…”