Dogosophy Button Project
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Among the many species humans share the planet with, dogs have for millennia been our closest companions. But the environments they share with us are not always dog-friendly and we don’t always make the job of working dogs easy. To better support working dogs, give all dogs more control over aspects of their environment, and improve human-dog interactions, we are rethinking the interface of devices dogs might need or want to interact with in our homes and cities. 
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Developed in collaboration with Dogs for Good and Petplan Charitable Trust, and informed by the doctoral work of Luisa Ruge, our Dogosophy Button is the result of years of interaction design research for and with dogs, to develop a wireless control designed with dogs’ sensory, cognitive and physical characteristics in mind, allowing them to easily switch on and off a range of domestic appliances.  
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Parrot-Human Communication and
Interface Design Project
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Parrots have shown to be able to interact with tablet-based speech boards to engage in intentional and functional parrot-human communication. However, the influence of speech boards’ interface design on avian sense-making, usability and user experience is yet to be explored.
With Parrot Kindergarten and Purdue University, we are studying parrots' speech boards interactions to better understand the role of speech boards in parrots' intentional and functional communication and the influence of interface design variables. Our aim is to inform interface design choices that maximise avian usability and experience, and optimally support functional parrot-human communication to increase avian user's agency, enhance their wellbeing and advance our understanding of parrot cognition.
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Photo by Jennifer Taylor O'Connor
Photo by Rishabh Pandoh
Meaningful Movement Project: Tiger
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Many wild animals who live in captivity, particularly large carnivores, develop stereotypies, because the settings in which they find themselves lack the functional complexity of the environment in which they evolved.
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A collaboration with Care for the Rare and Four Paws Tierart, this project brings together innovations in animal welfare science, behavioural ecology and captive animal management with cutting edge computing technologies, including sensing capabilities, internet of things and multimodal interfaces, together with animal-centred interaction design, to deliver a whole interactive and adaptive environment that replicates the functional complexity of the wild for rescued tigers. For the first time, such an environment is providing opportunities for meaningful movement for captive tigers, comparable to journeys undertaken in the wild.
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Bio-Dog Communication Project
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Dogs can be trained to recognise the odour of cancer cells in biological samples (e.g. urine) and clinical trials are increasingly highlighting the potential of cancer detection with dogs. However, the conventional signalling protocols the dogs are trained to use to communicate what they detect (e.g. sitting down in front of a positive sample) are inconsistent with their evolutionary response to odours of interest and only allow them to provide binary responses.
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In collaboration with Medical Detection Dogs, we have developed a dog-centred sensor interface to capture dogs’ nuanced interaction with biological samples and analyse sensor data using machine learning to infer sample positivity levels. Our ultimate goal is to develop an algorithmic model to inform the development of AI-powered tools for large scale diagnostics​
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Photo by Medical Detection Dogs
Photo by Blast Theory
Cat Royale Project
Led by the art studio Blast Theory and the Mixed Reality Lab at the University of Nottingham, the project explores artificial intelligence's trustworthiness in the context of caretaking. The artists developed a 'cat utopia', an environment designed to cater to every need of three cats who dwelled there six hours a day for two weeks, while a robot arm entertained them with toys and food treats, as an AI learnt and adapted the offerings to their preferences based on their responses. Videos of the installation are still being displayed in art galleries around the world to invite public reflection.
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We collaborated with the project team to inform the design of the environment and the ethics of doing research with the cats. Together, we explored issues of trust and control when building worlds for humans, animals and robots, and epistemological and ethical issues influencing perceptions of animals' role in research.
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Animal-Centred Research Project
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Drawing on animal-centred principles developed by Animal-Computer Interaction researchers, in collaboration with Bologna University, the project aims to develop an ethical framework for the involvement of animals in research, recognising their autonomy, interests and role, to support a nuanced ethical approach to animal research and the best possible research quality and outcomes for the benefit of animal partakers and wider society.
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The framework is grounded in the principles of relevance (involving animals only if relevant and beneficial for them), impartiality (treating all participants with equal consideration regardless of species), welfare (prioritising participants' welfare at all time) and consent (garnering mediated consent from guardians and contingent consent from animals). It is intended as a resource for any researchers and practitioners whose work involves animals.
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Photo by Forest Simon
Multispecies Justice and Technological Development Project
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​Pervasive computing technologies, such as the Internet of Things and Artificial Intelligence, are fundamentally human-centred yet increasingly affect non-human animals. Because technology impacts existing and future generations of all species, technological development must be approached within a multispecies ethical framework.
A collaboration with The Open University's Law School, the project draws on human rights traditions, particularly the principles of equality, dignity and protection from harm, to strengthen the inclusive and relational interaction model of multispecies justice theory, and provide a multispecies approach to technological development, which aligned with the values and principles promoted within animal-computer interaction and supported by the iterative design process widely adopted within the field.
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Wearer-Centred Biotelemetry Project
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Animals are increasingly fitted with devices that track their movements, behaviours and vital signs for conservation, research and husbandry purposes. However, animal wearers have no control over the use of devices that can interfere with their body (e.g. injuring or trapping them) and activities (e.g. slowing them down or disrupting their camouflage), thus impacting their welfare and the quality of recorded data.
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The doctoral work of Patrizia Paci, the project investigated how to improve biotelemetry's wearability. Adapteding values and principles that inform the design of human wearables, it delivered a framework to support a wearer-centred approach to the design of animal wearables. The framework can be used to identify species-specific wearability requirements for new wearable devices, or to aid the analysis and refinement of requirements emerging from evaluation studies.
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Photo by Amber Kipp
Photo by Sneha Cecil
Elephant 'Jukebox' Project
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The doctoral work of Fiona French, the project investigated the potential for using technology to provide sensory and cognitive enrichment activities for captive elephants. It explored the usefulness of applying conceptual frameworks from interaction design and game design to the problem of developing species-specific smart toys that promote natural behaviours and provide stimulation.
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The research adopts a Research through Design approach to inform the scientific inquiry and design process, through the creation of artefacts that guide the exploration of possible future solutions. The fieldwork resulted in the development of an interactive prototype of an acoustic toy that elephants are can control using interface elements constructed from a range of natural materials.
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Canine Alarm Project
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Medical Alert Dogs are trained to detect the onset of an emergency giving their assisted human time to take action before they deteriorate. However, oftentimes the human’s condition is so brittle that they have no time to respond to the dog’s alert before they become completely and dangerously incapacitated, at which point the dog is powerless to offer further help.
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The doctoral work of Charlotte Robinson, the project researched the design of an alarm system allowing dogs to remotely call for help when their human becomes incapacitated. Through a combined approach including multispecies ethnography, rapid prototyping and user testing, the research aimed to identify the best design of a physical canine user interface as well as involving dogs, their handlers and specialist dog trainers in the design process as participants.
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Photo by Charlotte Robinson
Photo by Guy Dewsbury
Smart Rehoming Kennels Project
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The project investigated whether advances in ubiquitous computing could improve the welfare of kennelled dogs: whether ubiquitous sensor systems and ambient intelligence developed to monitor health in humans (e.g. activity levels, sleeping patterns) might be useful to record, measure, visualize and interpret non-obvious welfare-relevant phenomena; and whether the use of embodied and tangible interaction technologies (e.g. touch or gestural interfaces) might afford the dogs a more stimulating experience and greater control over their surroundings through forms of interaction that are accessible to them.
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A collaboration with Dogs Trust, we developed a ‘three-dimensional’ welfare-centered framework for designing smart environments, integrating monitoring and interaction with information management, as well as a ubicomp-supported ethnographic approach for similar projects.
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