Katherine Grillaert of The Petra Center will present her talk titled "Unleashed Enthusiasm: Ethical Reflections on Harms, Benefits, and Animal-Centered Aims of ACI".
Animals have interacted with technology for a long time. Already in the ‘60s, bears were wearing tracking devices within conservation research; while mice and pigeons were working with operant chambers in task-driven behavioral experiments. In the ‘80s, great apes were using early touch-screen computers to learn human language in comparative cognition studies, followed in the ‘90s by dolphins using underwater keyboards for similar communication tasks. Meantime, cows were being introduced to early robotic milking systems thanks to the latest advances in agricultural engineering. Until recently, the development of these technologies has been driven by disciplines other than Interaction Design.
However, in recent years interaction designers and members of the HCI community have begun to take an interest in the interaction between animals and technology, explicitly addressing questions pertaining to the usability and experience of such technologies from the perspective or animal users, to the design processes that inform animal-computer interactions, or to the articulations between animals' physiology, psychology, sociality and interaction design. Interaction designers have also begun to tackle the challenges involved in extending user-centered design solutions and practices beyond the human species.
As a result, an increasing body of work is shaping the emerging discipline of Animal-Computer Interaction (ACI).
*Please see conference website for details.
