Animals have been exposed to human technology for millennia but much of it has advanced human interests by making it increasingly easier for our species to outcompete and exploit others, with little consideration for the impact that this might have on them.

 

With the advent of computing, and developments such as the Internet of Things and Artificial Intelligence - whether in homes, on farms, in laboratories, in entertainment, in cities, or in nature - animals are being increasingly impacted by technologies whose design is still fundamentally informed by a human-centred perspective.

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Instead, The Open University’s Animal-Computer Interaction research program focuses on the nexus between animals and computing technology from an animal-centred perspective. Whether direct or indirect, active or passive, synchronous or asynchronous, individual or collective, we study the diverse interactions between animals and technology wherever these might occus, we design technologies to improve animals' well-being, support animal's agency and foster positive human-animal relations, and we develop methods to give animals a voice at the design table by enabling them to co-design with us, so that together we can create a better future for all.