Designing Features for Fido: What Makes Animal-Computer Interaction So Different From Human-Computer Interaction?

Abstract

Lehtonen, Jaana Designing Features for Fido: What Makes Animal-Computer Interaction So Dif-ferent From Human-Computer Interaction? Jyväskylä: University of Jyväskylä, 2013, 21 p. Information Systems Science, Bachelor’s thesis Supervisor: Kuparinen, Liisa Animal-computer interaction aims to allow animals to interact not only with computers but their owners and other humans through computerised interfaces. This thesis studies the existing research on the main characteristics of ani-mal-computer interaction and what sets it apart from human-computer interac-tion. The main focus is on recognising and defining different kinds of chal-lenges affecting the development of tools and systems for animal-computer in-teractions, both from technical and ethical point of view. Besides these chal-lenges examples of proposed implementations of animal-computer interaction are presented, outlining some possible technical solutions suggested for differ-ent needs, environments and targeted user groups. As a fairly new area of study, the viewpoints of animal-computer interac-tion and its possible uses, as well as the driving forces behind the research – even the seriousness of the approach – can be seen to vary greatly. Still, major-ity of the research is done in the name of promoting the well-being of all differ-ent kinds of animals in our lives. The studies show that due to the animals’ in-ability to voice their opinions or consent it is difficult to evaluate the true ethi-cality of proposed implementations. This also applies for usability and other technical issues surrounding the development of computerised systems for animals communicating in such different ways from human users. Based on the research studied also the true benefit of animal-computer interaction to the animals themselves remains debatable.