The International Conference on Animal-Computer Interaction (ACI) took place at the University of Glasgow from December 2 to 5, 2024. Clara Mancini and Fiona French are among the pillars of the ACI. Clara Mancini, PhD, is professor of animal-computer interaction (ACI) and founding director of the Open University ACI Laboratory. Her work explores the interaction between animals and technology, and the nexus between technology, animal well-being and justice, and human-animal relationships. Her research spans the theory, methodology, practice, and ethics of designing animal-centered interactive systems for and with animals to contribute to a more just and inclusive multispecies society. She is a co-founder of the ACI and has been promoting animal-centered research and design across disciplines for over a decade, organizing numerous scientific events and serving on various scientific committees. Dr. Fiona French is an associate professor in the School of Computing and Digital Media of the London Metropolitan University. She is course leader for the BSc Games Programming and a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (FHEA). Her research interests are in the area of animal-computer interaction. Prof. Dr. Oliver Bendel attended the ACI International Conference 2022 and 2024. He has been conducting research in the field of animal-computer interaction and animal-machine interaction since 2012. Dr. Ilyena Hirskyj-Douglas (University of Glasgow) was the host of ACI 2024.
Fig.: Clara Mancini, Fiona French, and Oliver Bendel at the reception of the ACI 2024 (Photo: Jonathan Traynor)
„The Animal Whisperer Project“ by Oliver Bendel (FHNW School of Business) and Nick Zbinden (FHNW School of Business) won the Honourable Mention Short Paper Award at the 2024 ACI Conference. From the abstract: „Generative AI has become widespread since 2022. Technical advancements have resulted in multimodal large language models and other AI models that generate, analyze, and evaluate texts, images, and sounds. Such capabilities can be helpful in encounters between humans and animals. For example, apps with generative AI on a smartphone can be used to assess the body language and behavior of animals – e.g., during a walk or hike – and provide a recommendation for human behavior. It is often useful to take into account the animal’s environment and situation. The apps can help people to avert approaches and attacks, and thus also protect animals. In ‚The Animal Whisperer Project‘, three apps were developed as prototypes based on the multimodal large language model GPT-4 from OpenAI from the beginning to mid-2024. Three specific GPTs resulted: the Cow Whisperer, the Horse Whisperer, and the Dog Whisperer. All three showed impressive capabilities after the first prompt engineering. These were improved by implementing information from expert interviews and adding labeled images of animals and other materials. AI-based apps for interpreting body language, behavior, and the overall situation can apparently be created today, without much effort, in a low-budget project. However, turning them into products would certainly raise questions, such as liability in the event of accidents.“ The proceedings are available here.
Fig.: Nick Zbinden and Oliver Bendel with the Honourable Mention Short Paper Award
The International Conference on Animal-Computer Interaction (ACI) started on December 2, 2024 at the University of Glasgow. The lectures will take place on the last two days. The ACI “is the leading venue in the rapidly expanding field of ACI”. “Initially held as a one-day affiliated event, since 2016 it has become a three- or four-day independent event and has been attracting a growing number of participants and contributors from diverse backgrounds.” (Website ACI) ACI’s roots lie in the theoretical, methodological and ethical foundations and values that have informed interaction design for decades. “Growing out of this fertile ground, ACI’s theoretical and methodological scope has since been expanding to include all forms of animals’ interaction with computing systems and all aspects of animal-centred computing, resulting in an increasing variety of applications.” (Website ACI) After the welcome address by Ilyena Hirskyj-Douglas (University of Glasgow) on the morning of 4 December 2024, Amanda Seed (School of Psychology and Neuroscience, University of St Andrews) gave her opening keynote entitled „What kind of mind do primates have?“.
Fig.: Ilyena Hirskyj-Douglas welcomes the participants
The „Proceedings of the International Conference on Animal-Computer Interaction 2024“ were published at the end of November 2024, a few days before the conference in Glasgow. The following papers received awards: „Wireless Tension Sensors for Characterizing Dog Frailty in Veterinary Settings“ by Colt Nichols (North Carolina State University), Yifan Wu (North Carolina State University), Alper Bozkurt, David Roberts (North Carolina State University) and Margaret Gruen (North Carolina State University): Best Paper Award; „Communication Functions in Speech Board Use by a Goffin’s Cockatoo: Implications for Research and Design“ by Jennifer Cunha (Indiana University), Corinne Renguette (Perdue University), Lily Stella (Indiana University) and Clara Mancini (The Open University): Honourable Mention Award; „Surveying The Extent of Demographic Reporting of Animal Participants in ACI Research“ by Lena Ashooh (Harvard University), Ilyena Hirskyj-Douglas (University of Glasgow) and Rebecca Kleinberger (Northeastern University): Honourable Mention Award; „Shelling Out the Fun: Quantifying Otter Interactions with Instrumented Enrichment Objects“ by Charles Ramey (Georgia Institute of Technology), Jason Jones (Georgia Aquarium), Kristen Hannigan (Georgia Aquarium), Elizabeth Sadtler (Georgia Aquarium), Jennifer Odell (Georgia Aquarium), Thad Starner (Georgia Institute of Technology) and Melody Jackson (Georgia Institute of Technology): Best Short Paper Award; „The Animal Whisperer Project“ by Oliver Bendel (FHNW School of Business) and Nick Zbinden (FHNW School of Business): Honourable Mention Short Paper Award.
Am 28. Mai 2024 fand an der Hochschule für Wirtschaft FHNW die Zwischenpräsentation für das Projekt „The Animal Whisperer“ statt. Initiiert hat es Prof. Dr. Oliver Bendel, der sich seit vielen Jahren mit der Tier-Computer-Interaktion und der Tier-Maschine-Interaktion beschäftigt. Als Projektmitarbeiter konnte Nick Zbinden gewonnen werden, ein angehender Wirtschaftsinformatiker. Er entwickelte drei Anwendungen auf der Basis von GPT-4o, den Cow Whisperer, den Horse Whisperer und den Dog Whisperer. Mit ihnen kann man Körpersprache und Umfeld von Kühen, Pferden und Hunden analysieren. Damit sollen Gefahren für Mensch und Tier abgewendet werden. So kann ein Wanderer auf dem Smartphone die Empfehlung bekommen, eine Weide nicht zu überqueren, wenn eine Mutterkuh mit ihren Kälbchen zugegen ist. Dafür muss er nur die Anwendung aufrufen und Fotos von der Umgebung machen. Die Tests verlaufen bereits sehr vielversprechend. Nick Zbinden führt derzeit Gespräche mit drei menschlichen Flüsterern, also Experten auf diesem Gebiet, die die Körpersprache und das Verhalten der Tiere besonders gut einschätzen und mit ihnen besonders gut umgehen können. Dabei werden auch Fotos – die etwa unterschiedliche Positionen der Ohren oder Köpfe zeigen – von ihnen beschrieben und dann von ihm in die Anwendungen eingespeist. Die Endergebnisse werden im August 2024 vorliegen.
When humans come into contact with wildlife, farm animals, and pets, they sometimes run the risk of being injured or killed. They may be attacked by bears, wolves, cows, horses, or dogs. Experts can use an animal’s body language to determine whether or not danger is imminent. Context is also important, such as whether a mother cow is with her calves. The multimodality of large language models enables novel applications. For example, ChatGPT can evaluate images. This ability can be used to interpret the body language of animals, thus using and replacing expert knowledge. Prof. Dr. Oliver Bendel, who has been involved with animal-computer interaction and animal-machine interaction for many years, has initiated a project called „The Animal Whisperer“ in this context. The goal is to create a prototype application based on GenAI that can be used to interpret the body language of an animal and avert danger for humans. GPT-4 or an open source language model should be used to create the prototype. It should be augmented with appropriate material, taking into account animals such as bears, wolves, cows, horses, and dogs. Approaches may include fine-tuning or rapid engineering. The project will begin in March 2024 and the results will be available in the summer of the same year.
Im privat finanzierten Social Robots Lab von Prof. Dr. Oliver Bendel ist seit Dezember 2023 der Unitree Go2 zu finden. Er hört auf den Namen Bao (chin. für „Juwel“ oder „Schatz“). Heise schreibt in einem Artikel: „Das Basismodell des Go2 ist am Kopf mit einem Lidar ausgestattet, das ein halbkugelförmiges Sichtfeld mit 90 vertikal und 360 Grad horizontal besitzt. Die Mindestreichweite des Lidar beträgt etwa 5 cm. Damit kann der Roboter im Gelände selbstständig navigieren, Hindernisse erkennen und sie auch umgehen. Der Roboter läuft mit einer Geschwindigkeit von bis zu 2,5 m/s und zeigt sich dabei äußerst agil. … Mit an Bord ist auch eine 2-Megapixel-Kamera, mit der Schnappschüsse und Videos aufgenommen werden können.“ (Heise News, 27. Juli 2023) Ein Anliegen des Wirtschaftsinformatikers und Technikphilosophen ist, bei der Tier-Maschine-Interaktion (Animal-Machine Interaction) voranzuschreiten. Dieses Arbeitsgebiet wurde von ihm im Jahre 2013 in seinem Beitrag „Considerations about the Relationship between Animal and Machine Ethics“ definiert, in Anlehnung an den Begriff der Animal-Computer Interaction, deren Pionierin Clara Mancini ist. Seit dieser Zeit entwickelte er mehrere Artefakte und Konzepte in diesem Bereich, darunter Robocar (Modellierung für tierfreundliche Autos), LADYBIRD (Prototyp eines insektenfreundlichen Staubsaugerroboters), HAPPY HEDGEHOG (Prototyp eines igelfreundlichen Staubsaugerroboters) und ANIFACE (Konzept für ein System mit Gesichtserkennung zur Identifizierung von Braunbären). Mit Bao sollen Reaktionen von Haus-, Nutz- und Wildtieren getestet werden. Ziel ist es, Roboter nicht nur menschen-, sondern auch tierfreundlich zu gestalten.
The online event „Artificial Intelligence & Animals“ will take place on 16 September 2023. „AI experts and attorneys will discuss the intersection of AI and animals in this UIA Animal Law Commission and GW Animal Law webinar“ (Website Eventbrite) Speakers are Prof. Dr. Oliver Bendel (FHNW University of Applied Sciences and Arts Northwestern Switzerland), Yip Fai Tse (University Center for Human Values, Center for Information Technology Policy, Princeton University), and Sam Tucker (CEO VegCatalyst, AI-Powered Marketing, Melbourne). Panelists are Ian McDougall (Executive Vice President and General Counsel, LexisNexis London), Jamie McLaughlin (Animal Law Commission Vice President, UIA), and Joan Schaffner (Associate Professor of Law, George Washington University). Oliver Bendel „has been thinking on animal ethics since the 1980s and on information and machine ethics since the 1990s“. „Since 2012, he has been systematically researching machine ethics, combining it with animal ethics and animal welfare. With his changing teams, he develops animal-friendly robots and AI systems.“ (Website Eventbrite) Yip Fai Tse co-wrote the article „AI ethics: the case for including animals“ with Peter Singer. Sam Tucker is an animal rights activist.
The Tenth International Conference on Animal-Computer Interaction will be held December 4-8, 2023, in Raleigh, North Carolina, hosted by North Carolina State University. „ACI is the leading International Conference on Animal-Computer Interaction. It is a highly multidisciplinary event drawing researchers and practitioners from diverse backgrounds to share and discuss work and topics related to the research and design of computing-enabled and interactive technology for and with animals.“ (Website ACI) The Ninth International Conference on Animal-Computer Interaction was held in Newcastle upon Tyne at the end of 2022. Also this year the organizers are interested in a variety of topics in animal-computer interaction and animal-machine interaction, as the call for papers (CfP) reveals: „Submissions might address topics such as: the role of technology in shaping human-animal relationships; studies and/or analysis of large-scale technology for animal deployments; considerations on the wider context of technology for animal use; methods and reflections on studying the next generation of technology for animals; or how to conduct ACI research in a world where commercial design and deployment of technology for animals outpaces academic thought.“ (Website ACI) The CfP can be accessed at www.aciconf.org/aci2023.
Fig.: The William B. Umstead State Park in North Carolina
After the keynote on the morning of December 8, 2022, ACI2020 continued with „Paper Session 4: Sensors & Signals, Part I: Origin Stories“. David L. Roberts (North Carolina State University) presented on „Motion-Resilient ECG Signal Reconstruction from a Wearable IMU through Attention Mechanism and Contrastive Learning“. The next talk, „TamagoPhone: A framework for augmenting artificial incubators to enable vocal interaction between bird parents and eggs“, was given by Rebecca Kleinberger (Massachusetts Institute of Technology & Northeastern University). The starting point of her research was that some birds have pre-hatching vocal communication. The last presentation before the lunch break that was given online was „Simultaneous Contact-Free Physiological Sensing of Human Heart Rate and Canine Breathing Rate for Animal Assisted Interactions: Experimental and Analytical Approaches“ by Timothy Holder and Mushfiqur Rahman (North Carolina State University). More information on the conference via www.aciconf.org/aci2022.
The ACI2022 conference continued on the afternoon of December 7, 2022 after the coffee break („Paper Session 3: Learning From and With Each Other“). Cristóbal Sepulveda Álvarez (Universidad de Chile) gave a talk on the topic „Measuring Digitally Comparative Abilities Between Discreet and Continuous Quantities through a Digital Enrichment Application“. He showed a parrot that had to choose different quantities on a touch screen. Dirk van der Linden (Northumbria University) was present on behalf of Jasmine Forester-Owen (Northumbria University). He spoke about „Noisy technology, anxious dogs: can technology support caregiving in the home?“. In their prototype, they combine noise detection and body language identification in dogs. Jérémy Barbay (Universidad de Chile) gave the last three presentations of the day: „Comparing Symbolic and Numerical Counting Times between Humans and Non-Humans Through a Digital Life Enrichment Application“, „Popping Up Balloons for Science: a Research Proposal“, and „A Loggable Aid to Speech (for Human and Non-Human Animals): A Research Proposal“. More information on the conference via www.aciconf.org.
The ACI2022 conference continued on the afternoon of December 7, 2022. „Paper Session 2: Recognising Animals & Animal Behaviour“ began with a presentation by Anna Zamansky (University of Haifa). The title was „How Can Technology Support Dog Shelters in Behavioral Assessment: an Exploratory Study“. Her next talk was also about dogs: „Do AI Models ‚Like‘ Black Dogs? Towards Exploring Perceptions of Dogs with Vision-Language Models“. She went into detail about OpenAI’s CLIP model, among other things. CLIP is a neural network which learns visual concepts from natural language supervision. She raised the question: „How can we use CLIP to investigate adoptability?“ Hugo Jair Escalante (INAOE) then gave a presentation on the topic „Dog emotion recognition from images in the wild: DEBIw dataset and first results“. Emotion recognition using face recognition is still in its infancy with respect to animals, but impressive progress is already being made. The last presentation in the afternoon before the coffee break was „Detecting Canine Mastication: A Wearable Approach“ by Charles Ramey (Georgia Institute of Technology). He raised the question: „Can automatic chewing detection measure how detection canines are coping with stress?“. More information on the conference via www.aciconf.org.
ACI2022 – the leading conference on animal-computer interaction – kicked off on December 5, 2022 at Northumbria University in Newcastle upon Tyne. After the workshop „Animal Centered Research beyond ACI: Exploring the Applicability of Animal Centered Principles to All Animal Research“ was held on the first day, the workshop „Exploring other sensibilities – beyond human senses and aesthetics“ was held on the second day. „This workshop aims to facilitate human participants to become more aware of other animals‘ sensory and aesthetic sensibilities, raising points for discussion and future research within ACI. For all animals, being able to make sense of the environment is crucial in order to gain control and make informed choices, as well as to achieve competence in daily activities. Although human perception is limited by evolution, technology can enable us to perceive signals that may be meaningful for other species, thereby gaining insight and possibly empathy. Moreover, pursuing a multi-species perspective may foster inclusive approaches to design that aim to achieve a lighter environmental impact by taking into account the sensory experiences of other species.“ (Website ACI2022) The workshop used innovative methods to achieve the goal. „We will offer participants a range of activities to challenge human senses and sense-making abilities, and then invite them to collaboratively design and test a system that incorporates some animal-centred sensory stimulation inspired by the activities previously undertaken.“ (Website ACI2022) The participants mastered the tasks with great commitment and great pleasure. The entire conference program is available at www.aciconf.org/conference-program.
The conference program for ACI’22 will be available in the course of November. In the meantime, the website lists the accepted papers in alphabetical order. Among them are the papers „A Face Recognition System for Bears: Protection for Animals and Humans in the Alps“ (Oliver Bendel and Ali Yürekkirmaz), „A Framework for Training Animals to Use Touchscreen Devices for Discrimination Tasks“ (Jennifer Cunha and Corinne Renguette), „Politicising Animal-Computer Interaction: an Approach to Political Engagement with Animal-Centred Design“ (Clara Mancini, Orit Hirsch-Matsioulas, and Daniel Metcalfe), and „TamagoPhone: A framework for augmenting artificial incubators to enable vocal interaction between bird parents and eggs“ (Rebecca Kleinberger, Megha Vemuri, Janelle Sands, Harpreet Sareen, Janet M. Baker). ACI2022 will take place 5-8 December 2022, hosted by Northumbria University, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK.
Fig.: The Gateshead Millennium Bridge between Gateshead and Newcastle upon Tyne
Animal-computer interaction (ACI) „is a rapidly growing field, which focuses on the interaction between animals and computing-enabled technology and for which the International Conference on Animal-Computer Interaction is the main convention venue“ (Website ACI2022). ACI2022 will take place 5-8 December 2022, hosted by Northumbria University, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK. The „Emerging Work“ track reflects early stage efforts that either: „1) will be of interest to the ACI community and likely to generate insightful, instructional, and/or spirited discussion, and/or 2) is early enough that it could benefit greatly from community feedback on direction, design, methods, etc.“ (Website ACI2022) In this track, the paper „A Face Recognition System for Bears: Protection for Animals and Humans in the Alps“ by Oliver Bendel and Ali Yürekkirmaz was accepted. It fits very well with this year’s conference theme, „Defining Tomorrow“. „The theme acknowledges the rapid growth in technology for animals with new products coming onto the market, normalising the use of technology in many human-animal relationships, and asks: where should we go next?“ (Website ACI2022)
Fig.: View of Newcastle upon Tyne (Photo: Rüdiger Schäfer )
The impact of robotics and artificial intelligence on non-human animals has been researched by Oliver Bendel for several years. He has made it his task to complement the discipline of animal-computer interaction, which was founded by Clara Mancini, with the discipline of animal-machine interaction. His most recent paper is „Passive, Active, and Proactive Systems and Machines for the Protection and Preservation of Animals and Animal Species“, published February 25, 2022, in Frontiers of Animal Science. Also becoming active in this field now is the famous ethicist Peter Singer. Together with his co-author Yip Fai Tse, he published the article „AI ethics: the case for including animals“ in July 2022. From the abstract: „The ethics of artificial intelligence, or AI ethics, is a rapidly growing field, and rightly so. While the range of issues and groups of stakeholders concerned by the field of AI ethics is expanding, with speculation about whether it extends even to the machines themselves, there is a group of sentient beings who are also affected by AI, but are rarely mentioned within the field of AI ethics – the nonhuman animals. This paper seeks to explore the kinds of impact AI has on nonhuman animals, the severity of these impacts, and their moral implications. We hope that this paper will facilitate the development of a new field of philosophical and technical research regarding the impacts of AI on animals, namely, the ethics of AI as it affects nonhuman animals.“ (Peter Singer and Yip Fai Tse 2022) In the text, the authors write: „Of the hundreds of AI ethics related papers we reviewed in this project, we only found four that concern the impacts of AI on animals, in a general way, and discuss the relevant ethical implications. They are: ‚Towards animal-friendly machines‘ by Oliver Bendel, ‚AI Ethics and Value Alignment for Nonhuman Animals‘ by Soenke Ziesche, ‚Moral Consideration of Nonhumans in the Ethics of Artificial Intelligence‘ by Andrea Owe and Seth Baum and ‚Animals and AI. The role of animals in AI research and application – An overview and ethical evaluation‘ by Leonie Bossert and Thilo Hagendorf.“ (Peter Singer and Yip Fai Tse 2022) The article will certainly give the young disciplines a further boost.
Clara Mancini (The Open University) and Eleonora Nannoni (University of Bologna) are calling for abstracts and papers for the Frontiers research topic „Animal-Computer Interaction and Beyond: The Benefits of Animal-Centered Research and Design“. They are well-known representatives of a discipline closely related to animal-machine interaction. „The field of Animal-Computer Interaction (ACI) investigates how interactive technologies affect the individual animals involved; what technologies could be developed, and how they should be designed in order to improve animals’ welfare, support their activities and foster positive interspecies relationships; and how research methods could enable animal stakeholders to participate in the development of relevant technologies.“ (Website Frontiers) The editors welcome submissions that contribute, but are not necessarily limited, to the following themes: 1) „Applications of animal-centered and/or interactive technologies within farming, animal research, conservation, welfare or other domains“, and 2) „Animal-centered research, design methods and frameworks that have been applied or have applicability within farming, animal research, conservation, welfare or other domains Submission information is available through the website“ (Website Frontiers). More submission information is available through the Frontiers website.
