2,728 research outputs found

    Animal-Computer Interaction: the emergence of a discipline

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    In this editorial to the IJHCS Special Issue on Animal-Computer Interaction (ACI), we provide an overview of the state-of-the-art in this emerging field, outlining the main scientific interests of its developing community, in a broader cultural context of evolving human-animal relations. We summarise the core aims proposed for the development of ACI as a discipline, discussing the challenges these pose and how ACI researchers are trying to address them. We then introduce the contributions to the Special Issue, showing how they illustrate some of the key issues that characterise the current state-of-the-art in ACI, and finally reflect on how the journey ahead towards developing an ACI discipline could be undertaken

    The limits of HCD:reimagining the anthropocentricity of ISO 9241-210

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    Human-centred design (HCD) is just that: human-centred. As we approach the limits of Earth's biophysical systems, it no longer feels appropriate to place humans at the centre of design decisions. Yet HCD and its ISO—ISO-9241-210:2010—continue to be powerful and popular tools within many computing and design departments, as well as in their affiliated industries. These design approaches are perpetuating the trend of incremental improvements to the living standards of the already privileged and digitally connected whilst ignoring the broader environmental and socio-political effects of digital technologies. In this paper, we attempt to reimagine HCD and its ISO by drawing on fields and concepts such as sustainable interaction design (SID), animal-computer interaction (ACI), and object oriented ontology (OOO). Through this, we contribute a preliminary set of proposals about what needs to change with HCD and its ISO. We close by discussing the ISO development process and suggesting routes for environmentally concerned researchers to influence the evolution of HCD's ISO

    Towards an animal-centred ethics for Animal–Computer Interaction

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    The emerging discipline of Animal–Computer Interaction (ACI) aims to take what in Interaction Design is known as a user-centred approach to the design of technology intended for animals, placing them at the centre of the design process as stakeholders, users, and contributors. However, current regulatory frameworks for the involvement of animals in research are not animal-centred, regarding them as research instruments, unable to consent to procedures that may harm them, rather than consenting research participants and design contributors. Such frameworks aim to minimise the impacts of research procedures on the welfare of individual animals, but this minimisation is subordinated to specific scientific and societal interests, and to the integrity of the procedures required to serve those interests. From this standpoint, the universally advocated principles of replacement, reduction and refinement aim to address the ethical conflicts arising from the assumed inability of individual animals to consent to potentially harmful procedures, but such principles in fact reflect a lack of individual centrality. This paper makes the case for moving beyond existing regulations and guidelines towards an animal-centred framework that can better support the development of ACI as a discipline. Firstly, recognising animal welfare as a fundamental requirement for users and research participants alike, the paper articulates the implications of a welfare-centred ethics framework. Secondly, recognising consent as an essential requirement of participation, the paper also defines criteria for obtaining animals׳ mediated and contingent consent to engaging with research procedures. Further, the paper argues for the methodological necessity, as well as the ethical desirability, of such an animal-centred framework, examining the boundaries of its applicability as well as the benefits of its application. Finally, the paper puts forward a series of practical principles for conducting ACI research, which imply but also essentially exceed the welfare and ethics requirements of current regulatory frameworks

    The limits of HCD : reimagining the anthropocentricity of ISO 9241-210

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    Human-centred design (HCD) is just that: human-centred. As we approach the limits of Earth's biophysical systems, it no longer feels appropriate to place humans at the centre of design decisions. Yet HCD and its ISO—ISO-9241-210:2010—continue to be powerful and popular tools within many computing and design departments, as well as in their affiliated industries. These design approaches are perpetuating the trend of incremental improvements to the living standards of the already privileged and digitally connected whilst ignoring the broader environmental and socio-political effects of digital technologies. In this paper, we attempt to reimagine HCD and its ISO by drawing on fields and concepts such as sustainable interaction design (SID), animal-computer interaction (ACI), and object oriented ontology (OOO). Through this, we contribute a preliminary set of proposals about what needs to change with HCD and its ISO. We close by discussing the ISO development process and suggesting routes for environmentally concerned researchers to influence the evolution of HCD's ISO

    Understanding the fidelity effect when evaluating games with children

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    There have been a number of studies that have compared evaluation results from prototypes of different fidelities but very few of these are with children. This paper reports a comparative study of three prototypes ranging from low fidelity to high fidelity within the context of mobile games, using a between subject design with 37 participants aged 7 to 9. The children played a matching game on either an iPad, a paper prototype using screen shots of the actual game or a sketched version. Observational data was captured to establish the usability problems, and two tools from the Fun Toolkit were used to measure user experience. The results showed that there was little difference for user experience between the three prototypes and very few usability problems were unique to a specific prototype. The contribution of this paper is that children using low-fidelity prototypes can effectively evaluate games of this genre and style

    Felino : the philosophical practice of making an interspecies video game

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    This paper describes the design process of an interspecies video game that has its foundations in the field of Animal-Computer Interaction (ACI), but is inspired by philosophical notions and approaches including Jos De Mul’s work on biohermeneutics (De Mul 2013), Pierce’s theory of semiotics (Pierce 1931-35), and the work of Helmuth Plessner in the field of philosophical anthropology (Plessner 2006). Our approach serves to better design playful artefacts (video games among them) that take the animal's reactions and preferences into account in the research phase, the conceptualization phase, and the iteration phase of the design process. Our tablet game, called Felino, is merely a digital toy that aims at facilitating the emergence of ‘play’ between humans and domestic cats, and allows humans and animals to play together simultaneously. The design and development of Felino is not only informed by advancements in the field of ACI, but is first and foremost a critical artefact that materializes our philosophical approach, making it an object for critical evaluation.peer-reviewe

    Envisioning Future Playful Interactive Environments for Animals

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    The final publication is available at Springer via http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-981-287-546-4_6Play stands as one of the most natural and inherent behavior among the majority of living species, specifically humans and animals. Human play has evolved significantly over the years, and so have done the artifacts which allow us to play: from children playing tag games without any tools other than their bodies, to modern video games using haptic and wearable devices to augment the playful experience. However, this ludic revolution has not been the same for the humans’ closest companions, our pets. Recently, a new discipline inside the human–computer interaction (HCI) community, called animal–computer interaction (ACI), has focused its attention on improving animals’ welfare using technology. Several works in the ACI field rely on playful interfaces to mediate this digital communication between animals and humans. Until now, the development of these interfaces only comprises a single goal or activity, and its adaptation to the animals’ needs requires the developers’ intervention. This work analyzes the existing approaches, proposing a more generic and autonomous system aimed at addressing several aspects of animal welfare at a time: Intelligent Playful Environments for Animals. The great potential of these systems is discussed, explaining how incorporating intelligent capabilities within playful environments could allow learning from the animals’ behavior and automatically adapt the game to the animals’ needs and preferences. The engaging playful activities created with these systems could serve different purposes and eventually improve animals’ quality of life.This work was partially funded by the Spanish Ministry of Science andInnovation under the National R&D&I Program within the projects Create Worlds (TIN2010-20488) and SUPEREMOS (TIN2014-60077-R), and from Universitat Politècnica de València under Project UPV-FE-2014-24. It also received support from a postdoctoral fellowship within theVALi+d Program of the Conselleria d’Educació, Cultura I Esport (Generalitat Valenciana) awarded to Alejandro Catalá (APOSTD/2013/013). The work of Patricia Pons has been supported by the Universitat Politècnica de València under the “Beca de Excelencia” program and currently by an FPU fellowship from the Spanish Ministry of Education, Culture, and Sports (FPU13/03831).Pons Tomás, P.; Jaén Martínez, FJ.; Catalá Bolós, A. (2015). Envisioning Future Playful Interactive Environments for Animals. 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Jossey-Bass Publishers, Hoboken (1975)Filan, S.L., Llewellyn-Jones, R.H.: Animal-assisted therapy for dementia: a review of the literature. Int. Psychogeriatr. 18(4), 597–611 (2006). doi: 10.1017/S1041610206003322García-Herranz, M., Haya, P.A., Alamán, X.: Towards a ubiquitous end-user programming system for smart spaces. J. Univ. Comput. Sci. 16(12), 1633–1649 (2010). doi: 10.3217/jucs-016-12-1633Hirskyj-Douglas, I., Read, J.C.: Who is really in the centre of dog computer interaction? In: Adjunct Proceedings of the 11th Conference on Advances in Computer Entertainment—Workshop on Animal Human Computer Interaction (2014)Hu, F., Silver, D., Trude, A.: LonelyDog@Home. In: International Conference Web Intelligence Intelligent Agent Technology—Workshops, 2007 IEEE/WIC/ACM IEEE, pp. 333–337, (2007)Huizinga, J.: Homo Ludens. Wolters-Noordhoff, Groningen (1985)Kamioka, H., Okada, S., Tsutani, K., et al.: Effectiveness of animal-assisted therapy: a systematic review of randomized controlled trials. Complement. Ther. Med. 22(2), 371–390 (2014). doi: 10.1016/j.ctim.2013.12.016Lee, S.P., Cheok, A.D., James, T.K.S., et al.: A mobile pet wearable computer and mixed reality system for human–poultry interaction through the internet. Pers. Ubiquit. Comput. 10(5), 301–317 (2006). doi: 10.1007/s00779-005-0051-6Leo, K., Tan, B.: User-tracking mobile floor projection virtual reality game system for paediatric gait and dynamic balance training. In: Proceedings of the 4th International Convention on Rehabilitation Engineering and Assistive Technology pp. 25:1–25:4 (2010)Mancini, C.: Animal-computer interaction: a manifesto. Mag. Interact. 18(4), 69–73 (2011). doi: 10.1145/1978822.1978836Mancini, C.: Animal-computer interaction (ACI): changing perspective on HCI, participation and sustainability. CHI ’13 Extended Abstracts on Human Factors in Computing Systems. ACM Press, New York, pp. 2227–2236 (2013)Mancini, C., van der Linden, J.: UbiComp for animal welfare: envisioning smart environments for kenneled dogs. In: Proceedings of the 2014 ACM International Joint Conference on Pervasive and Ubiquitous Computing, pp. 117–128 (2014)Mancini, C., Harris, R., Aengenheister, B., Guest, C.: Re-centering multispecies practices: a canine interface for cancer detection dogs. In: Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing System, pp. 2673–2682 (2015)Mancini, C., van der Linden, J., Bryan, J., Stuart, A.: Exploring interspecies sensemaking: dog tracking semiotics and multispecies ethnography. In: Proceedings of the 2012 ACM Conference on Ubiquitous Computing—UbiComp ’12. ACM Press, New York, pp. 143–152 (2012)Mankoff, D., Dey, A.K., Mankoff, J., Mankoff, K.: Supporting interspecies social awareness: using peripheral displays for distributed pack awareness. 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    Digitally complemented zoomorphism : a theoretical foundation for human-animal interaction design

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    From an interspecies perspective, we advocate for a theoretical foundation aimed at facilitating further research towards digitally mediated human-animal interaction. The proposed framework follows an approach we call ‘digitally complemented zoomorphism’ and recognizes ‘play’ as a free and voluntary activity that is shared by both animals and humans. As a result, three initial design guidelines will emerge. Our work is pursued in order to provide animals with stimulations which stem from a closer understanding of their perceptions and are not solely designed around human subjectivity.peer-reviewe

    Animal-Computer Interaction (ACI): changing perspective on HCI, participation and sustainability

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    In the spirit of this year’s conference theme ‘changing perspectives’, this paper invites the CHI community to glance at interaction design through the lense of Animal-Computer Interaction (ACI). In particular, I argue that such a perspective could have at least three benefits: strengthening HCI as a discipline; broadening participation in Interaction Design; and supporting CHI’s commitment to sustainability. I make the case that, far from being a niche research area, ACI is directly relevant to and even encompasses HCI. Thus ACI research firmly belongs at CHI
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