Doguino: Sensing a dogs movement with Arduino and PIRs

During my endeavour to facilitate dog interaction, part of this includes being able to sense a dog to allow for ordinary interactions through normal movements. Whilst I have previously made heart rate monitors for dogs with Arduino, this blog takes a step into sensing a dogs movement. Whilst this initially seems easy to do with items … Continue reading Doguino: Sensing a dogs movement with Arduino and PIRs →

HCI 2016: Using Behavioural Information to Help Owners Gather Requirements from their Dogs’ Responses to Media Technology

Yesterday I presented my full paper at HCI 2016, in Brighton! What is the paper on? The paper is in the field of Animal Computer Interaction (ACI), which is how animals and humans are involved in technology. My paper looked at how to gather requirements and evaluations from dogs: their feedback. This can be a challenge with non-verbal … Continue reading HCI 2016: Using Behavioural Information to Help Owners Gather Requirements from their Dogs’ Responses to Media Technology →

Where HCI meets ACI

CALL FOR POSITION PAPERSWorkshop at NordiCHI'16 NordiCHI Workshop description: http://www.nordichi2016.org/program/workshops/ Workshop Website: https://hcimeetsaciblog.wordpress.com/ Important Dates: Deadline for workshop papers: 25th August, 2016Notification of acceptance: 2nd September, 2016Workshop date: 23rd October, 2016 This one-day workshop at NordiCHI'16 aims to examine the interactions and the space between HCI (Human Computer Interaction) and ACI (Animal Computer Interaction) focusing on … Continue reading Where HCI meets ACI →

Technology at the Zoo

With the special issue in the International Journal of Human-Computer Studies (IJHCS) in ACI coming out, I decided to take an in-depth look at the papers currently in press. With pet animals dominating the ACI field, one article caught my eye: ‘Interactive technology and human-animal encounters at the zoo’ written by Sarah Webber, Marcus Carter, … Continue reading Technology at the Zoo →

Animal Computer Interaction Design UXPA UK

On the 25th of February this year I gave a talk at UXPA UK in London on User Experience (UX) of designing computer technology for animals (scroll down for video). The event was held within Unruly, where I was followed by two speakers, Rosie Fitzgerald from the BBC who spoke about how to designing with children … Continue reading Animal Computer Interaction Design UXPA UK →

Is it Possible to use Biometrics to Measure Dogs Emotions?

What is your pet dog really thinking? Could you attach a device to your dog and it translates what he/she is thinking? It is well known in Psychology that body signals can give an indication into human emotions, but can this work with our pet dogs? And is this accurate or, even safe? Questions like these are … Continue reading Is it Possible to use Biometrics to Measure Dogs Emotions? →

Can Inanimate Objects Influence Dogs Food Choices?

Today I found a lovely paper on ResearchGate exploring the social relationships and their representations between computer machinery and dogs. The authors (Judit Abdai, Anna Gergely, Eszter Petro, Jozef Topal and Adam Miklosi) present a methodology of presenting a dog with two plates of food (one with one sausage and one with six) letting them choose … Continue reading Can Inanimate Objects Influence Dogs Food Choices? →

Lawn Defender Continued

Introduction Earlier this year I met with Vernon Funnell who introduced me to his technology prototype to deter pets from lawns . Today I met with Vernon again who presented the new upgraded version of Lawn Defender in a swish new black box. How do I use the box? The box works by initially turning … Continue reading Lawn Defender Continued →

Future Playful Interactive Environments for Animals

Earlier the other week I got sent a book chapter (from Playful User Interfaces) by Patricia Pons, who I met at ACE’14, on the future of playful interactive setting for animals. The authors (Patricia Pons, Javier Jaen and Alejandro Catla) are proposing through a set of guidelines a system for meaningful playful environments called Intelligent … Continue reading Future Playful Interactive Environments for Animals →

The Lawn Defender – Animal Repellents

Late last month I received an email from a lovely man named Vernon Funnell who was currently building a technology prototype (dubbed Lawn Defender) to repel dogs and cats away from his neighbour’s lawn. After looking into technology within this category myself I soon realised that this area of pest control is rather large using … Continue reading The Lawn Defender – Animal Repellents →