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HCI 2016: Using Behavioural Information to Help Owners Gather Requirements from their Dogs’ Responses to Media Technology
- 1. Using Behavioral Information to Help Owners Gather Requirements from their Dogs’ Responses to Media Technology Ilyena Hirskyj-Douglas & Janet Read University of Central Lancashire
- 2. HELLO! I am Ilyena Hirskyj-Douglas I am here to talk about how to gather dogs responses to media technology Written by Ilyena Hirskyj-Douglas & Janet C Read Animal Computer Interaction Design http://acid.uclan.ac.uk
- 4. How to gather requirements in animals? Interpreting guesters and body language Using body/face/eye/gaze trackers Physiological signs Vocal behaviour Gathering owner reports Animal behaviourists opinions
- 5. Reliability in gathering animal requirements and feedback HCI ACI
- 6. Body and Face Tracking Williams et al., 2011 Somppi et al., 2011 Hirskyj-Douglas et al., 2013
- 7. Physiological signs and Vocal Behaviour Chemical analysis (i.e. oxytocin biomarkers) Heart-rate monitoring Vocal analysis
- 10. Level 1: What is the dog doing Level 2: What is the dog feeling
- 13. Gather Owners (20) Split into group A & B Group A given DISH to read beforehand Watch video with their dog Fill in questionnaire on their dogs behaviour Analyse results A vs. B Method
- 14. Dog taking part in the study
- 15. Results › Most owners average or good on dog behaviour › Most dogs seen as interested within the video = Two groups similar A & B
- 16. Results: Keywords › Eye Reactions: Group A 53%, Group B 47% › Ear Reactions: Group A 48%, Group B 52% › Facial Reactions: Group A 48%, Group B 52% › Vocal Reactions: Group A 27%, Group B 73% › Body Reactions: Group A 43%, Group B 57%
- 17. Results: Context ‘when the squeaky noises and dogs howling started he raised his head and cocked it to one side (behaviour) as if trying to make sense of the sounds and it seemed to get him excited (context)’
- 18. Group A 74% Group B 44% DISH = more context (30%) Without DISH = More behavioural keywords
- 19. Owners know their dog Link between owners confidence of knowledge and owners awareness The realtionship is something to be valued in ACI
- 20. Dogs Humans & Machines Empowerment through realtionships
- 21. DISH provides contextMore reported reasoning behind behaviour Empowering UserEmpowering a non-vocal user through giving an enhanced method of feedback. Requirement Gathering & EvaluationsMore useful context provides more indepth requirements
- 22. THANKS! Any questions? You can find more about our research: @ilyena · ihirskyj-douglas@uclan.ac.uk http://acid.uclan.ac.uk
Editor's Notes
- Non-human animals have been users of technology for some time but this technology has had as its main aim the assisting of humans. In recent years, computer scientists have taken their curiosity into the animal technology field, coining this endeavour Animal Computer Interaction (ACI). The growth of ACI research has seen the expansion of systems and methods to mediate human-animal interactions, aid playful interactions, assist in the monitoring of animals, help owners to care for their animal(s), help assistance animals and improve animal welfare. Meanwhile there has been a growth in ACI consumer products that allow monitoring, games and even media for our pets. Our research focuses around designing media technology for dogs. For instance we have analysed how they interact with screens, tracking there vision on screens etc. In the design of these ACI systems there is a requirement to involve, at least to some extent, the animal end user. It would be preferred if the animals themselves could contribute to the gathering of requirements and also in the evaluation of such products. A significant challenge faced when designing an ACI system, likewise for some human users, such as very young children, is the users’ inability to communicate through the usual channels of vocal or written exchange. In such cases, a user’s behaviour can be analysed to indicate welfare (both physical and mental) and to indicate choice and the users’ decisions.
- So how are these requirements gathers? To study behaviour in animals, designers of ACI systems have created their own toolbox of requirement gathering tactics which include interpreting gestures and body language, using body/face/eye/gaze/ trackers, seeking physiological signs and vocal behaviour, gathering owner reports and using animal behaviourists’ opinions.
- These methods are not new though and have often been taken from HCI including User Design and Grounded Theory Methodology. For instance with body language when working with humans, gestures and body language have been widely used in linguistics and psychology to express a person’s intentions to communicate, showing implicitly exploited exchange of messages shaped by, and adding to, the context. This is also the case in dogs where their behavioral signals, that is body movements, vocalizations and physiological signs, can lead to an understanding of their cognition. Within animal science behaviour has acted as a noninvasive indicator of welfare both in a play context and facially.
- Body, face, eye and gaze positioning have played a part in understanding human and animal behaviour in ACI through tracking gaze, body posture and automated face reactions similarly to HCI. Tracking movements can help researchers to understand display-based and visual information processing impacting upon the usability of a system interface. This understanding is especially needed in animals where welfare is of concern due to non-vocalisation and it can also be used to monitor pain thus preventing bad practice. However, the advancements made in HCI tracking technology have not yet been replicated in ACI but there have been a few attempts to track animals. Dogs can be trained to use tracking systems, such as Somppi et al. or can be tracked wearing head mounted systems such as Williams et al., or even have free movement, Hirskyj-Douglas et al. This free movement though is limited in its capabilities to only define between three sections of the screen. The limited work though, that has been done to date has helped researchers in allowing animals to indicate choices visually thus giving an insight into their cognition, vision and social interactions.
- Physiological signs, such as heart-rate and oxytocin biomarkers, have also been shown to help gain insights into the emotional state of dogs in ACI, but they can create false markers due to exercise and arousal. Heart-rate monitoring has been used with dogs, under confined conditions, to measure variants of alerted states giving limited feedback. These have often hit the consumer market, where you can get devices such as fitbit (shown on left) for dogs. It is speculated, that reading emotions in animals from physiological signs in ACI over quantifies animals’ emotions when reported by the owners creating welfare concerns. As such, these reports cannot be used as an exclusive measurement due to variability within animal-owners. Research has also been carried out on measuring dogs’ emotions through vocal analysis. This shows some promise, but requires the dog to be vocal - which is often only evident through extremes of emotions and can possibly be outside of humans’ auditory range. In addition, as different dogs have varying vocal ranges the same pitch may represent different emotions between dogs requiring such interpretation to be personalised for the species. Research has also suggested that dogs have different dialects (accents) varying geographically, between habitats and among groups. To combat these limitations, one study used grounded theory analysis plotting vocalizations against a known list of occurrences to guess at an indication of emotions – suggesting vocalization could indicate emotions.
- As shown through this discussion, there are clear gaps within the current methods of measuring an animals’ cognition through their behavioural choices via automated, or semi-automated technological systems. One solution is to use the owner or carer of the animal to assist in filling in these method cavities to create a fuller picture.
- When observations are made on an animal’s behaviour, researchers can only guess, and not ask, what is to be understood from an animal behaving a certain way. To fully understand animal behaviour, the context behind the behaviour is needed but this is seldom fully available to an unfamiliar observer. This context goes beyond just labelling the animal’s behaviour to explaining why the animal exhibits the behaviour. This scenario shifts when an owner/carer is positioned as an informed observer as he/she will be able to add the missing context from familiarity with, and ‘becoming with’ through conceptual frameworks, the animal. It is this pitfall of ‘becoming with’, really knowing your animal as an individual, that animal behaviourists fall into through potentially over generalising behaviour. While all animal species have their own unique communication discourse, both intraspecific and interspecific, that can be categorically determined through description, it can be hard to give meaning to an observed behaviour as the same gestures can have multiple meanings. This co-constitutive natural/cultural dancing between animals and humans needs understanding and synchronicity to derive meaning that is only available to those well versed in the normal behaviour. This is not to de-value body and gesture behaviour but is to create an enriched perspective through the different levels of understanding. We see the use of this relationship in situation such as emergency service dogs, guide dogs and bomb explosive dogs where the relationship is relied upon to ensure the humans safety.
- This deeper level of understanding is not only what the dog is doing but also what the dog is feeling. This is modelled where the contextual information is only available in level 2 by fully understanding why a dog is doing an action and not just understanding the action alone. Our work aims to push past seen behaviours (level 1) by asking why, and through what evidence, is the behaviour shown (level 2). An example of each level is, in Level 1 I would say that the dog is barking, but in level 2 I would say why the dog was barking. This gives meaning and justification behind the behaviour.
- This isn’t to say that when designing systems researchers will just choose one system of measurment though. Often animal-reseachers choose methods of inquiry that are supported by, or proposed in, previous ACI or HCI systems. The ideal is to triangulate methods allowing several streams to work together from varying feedback systems, as previously discussed, to give the best insight into the animal’s interaction. The key method to attaining dog emotions, cognition and the wider context behind the given emotion is a triangulation between physiological signs, the owner and behavioural scientists. In our work with dogs, we sought to strengthen this triangulation of measurement signs by focusing on the owner. We want to increase the feedback from the (dog) user by including and informing the (owner) observer. This has led to a new tool we called Dog Information Sheet (DISH) to see if informing the owner enhances the interpretation abilities of the observer. By creating tools aims to strengthen one of the corner stones of DCI feedback (owner) thus creating a stronger foundation for DCI systems. As the ACI field is relatively new, exploratory studies like this, are important to not only put the dog in the centre of the technological system but also to lay a foundation for ACI from the person who knows the animal the best; the owner.
- The DISH is a three-page guide of dog behavioural information largely based on RSPCA guidelines of dog behaviour and with a qualified practicing vet adding detail to the information. DISH focuses on those aspects of behaviour noted in Baskin et al.’s study of typical behaviours of dogs using tablets, and from our previous studies of behaviours of dogs when interacting with monitors. Emotions included in DISH are those seen to be held in dogs within literature. In the DISH guide, dog behaviour is considered against nine emotions, these being: confused, stressed, frightened, sick, bad-tempered and angry, anxious and worried, excited and finally playful. Each section contains pictures of a dog in that emotional state and gives bullet points on typical behaviours to give an overall representation. The third page of the DISH shows dog facial expressions for different emotions using pictures taken from Bloom & Friedman’s work that evidenced that dog owners can generally recognize emotions of their dogs from the face alone. These emotions included happy, sad, afraid, surprised, disgusted and angry. By including facial and body pictures, as well as physiological and vocal signs it was hoped to reinforce to the human participants (owners) that behaviour signs demonstrated by a dog are linked to cognitive emotions; thus creating a deeper understanding of dog behaviour. Whilst historically dogs have been considered to be as machines; lacking emotions and being programmable, nowadays some ecologist believe dogs to hold complex emotions, comparing their cognition to a 24-month old child. Modern affective neuroscience backs up these claims but the study of this field is young and there are still diverse opinions held within animal neuroscience and behaviour as to what complex emotions a dog can experience. Recognition of emotions has been done in facial expressions both dog-human and human-dog. However, the interpretation of signs that convey emotions is subjective and is in accordance, to varying degrees to the humanistic view of the dog; be it anthropomorphic, babymorphic or lupomorphic . In ACI, dogs holding varying complex emotions have been widely. Overall though, whilst research is unable to say defiantly what emotions a dog accurately has, or even if they are scalable towards humans; this exploration is important in not only understanding dog cognition but also building up the dog users requirements creating better UX.
- To see if DISH helped owners interpretations of the way their dogs reacted to technology, we gathered dog owners, split them into two groups, A & B, and asked them to watch a 2 minute long video with their dogs. After this we asked them to report on how their dog behaved using a formatted questionnaire. Their answers were then evaluated between groups (A vs B) and as a whole to evaluate the influence of DISH on an owner reports of their dogs behavioural reactions. Overall 20 owners participated within the study. In order to get multiple behaviour reactions, the video that was used in the study was specifically design to induce three non-distressing emotions in the dogs: excited, confused and relaxed. These three different emotions, excited, confused and relaxed were chosen to see if the owners could identify responses to the emotions in their dog. The questionnaires for group A and B were identical and included information about their dog, the owners knoeldge of dog behaviour and the dogs reaction to the video. To illicit the owner to specify key behavioural words a further question was asked of the owner to report any body language signals. Questions where also asked of the owner to report overall how the dog reacted and then, as above, what body language signals indicated this. This is to try and get not only the how, as shown in level 1 and 2 before, but also the why.
- This is a video of a dog taking part within the study. It is also available here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vKCtNgzz8a8
- In our results we found that owners all thought they were very good or average on dog behaviour. Most of the dogs were seen as interested in the video and there appeared to be no relationship between the age of the dog and their interest. Essentially, the two groups A and B, were essentially quite similar. We then took the owners responses split into the two groups and started to analyse the behavioural keywords used. These were split into facial and head movements, eye and ear movements and vocal reactions. Key words are behavioural words used such as ‘walking away’ ‘head turning’ ‘whining’ etc.
- For eye reactions, there was numerous reactions from generic ‘looking at screen’ to detailed ‘eye rolling’. Overall though group A, with DISH, mentioned more instances of behavioural reactions with group A noticing more behaviours, a 53/47 split. Ear reactions were the most noticed category with once again fairly similar instances with group A 48% and group B 52%. Facial and head reactions were split at group a 48% and group b 52%, with most owners noticing disinterest or turning away. Vocal reactions where slanted towards group B with a massive 73% vs group As 27%. This was mostly howling and barking. For body reactions the most notable behaviour by owners was approaching the screen, with once again group B noticing more behaviours. Overall this gave owners B, without the information sheet, more key words behaviours. This was surprising as the owners in group A had the information sheet! However these keywords are just level one, which is describing the behaviour, and so we decided to look further into their questionnaire responses to see if they provided not only what the dog was doing but the context behind the behaviour. This is level 2.
- Contextual behaviours is where the behaviour is described and also the reasoning behind the behaviour. To give you an example of this context. ‘when the squeaky noises and dogs howling started he raised his head and cocked it to one side (behaviour) as if trying to make sense of the sounds and it seemed to get him excited (context)’ Without this owner giving the reason behind the behaviour, we as technology designers can only guess at the reasoning behind the reaction. This context is needed, and important, to understand the user experience (UX) of the technology to help us make better technology. This need for context is the whole ideology behind the DISH to link emotions towards a behaviour.
- All of a sudden the results changed. Although Group A reported lower behaviours they gave vastly more contextualisation. This showed that with a behavioural information sheet, in this case the DISH, observers appeared to give more contextual information, by more than 30%, providing more useful data and a deeper understanding to their expressions, behaviour, to help design and evaluate systems. Without the behavioural information (provided in the DISH), the spectator seemed more likely to report body language signals but without context providing less useful data to system designers. This is suspected that as a group, group A, gave less keyword behaviours as instead they gave more contextual behaviours – however this is not known. This shows that the method of educating the informal observer may be suited to be used in nonverbal situations as a technique.
- Creating an informed observer as a technique is useful in ACI as within our work, all owners where able to identify behaviours in their dog to a proficient level. This was shown even at a basic level of reporting with no previous expertise of dog behaviour or of previous training. There was however a direct link between the owners own confidence with dog behaviour and their awareness of dogs emotions. Owners with a higher level of confidence about judging a dogs behaviour reported more keywords and contextual behaviour than those without. These same owners with the high confidence noticed the three stages, excited, confused and relaxed, however 10% of owners did notice two stages. This just goes to highlight the importance of including the owner within ACI research where empathy generated through a relational process, with interpreter and participant, affects the understanding of the research enlightening the context and data.
- ACI has taken the area of creating an informed observer in HCI and transformed it towards its own needs. This can iteratively be looped back into HCI for peripheral users of systems. Within this work an approach is taken to try and increase the effectiveness of the observations made applied to a user who cannot vocalize the interaction – just as is sometimes needed in HCI. The goal of this work, to ehance feedback, is often those of other HCI user experience professionals who have users with similar communication problems which reply on a proxy for interpretation, for example babies and users with cognitive disabilities. By designing in a way that empowers the user through the close relationship the user has with someone, who can reliably, as shown here, interpreted their behaviour this can give the user the ability to participate within the system and the design itself. Work here opens up a discussion between the two fields, HCI and ACI, about creative solutions to empower both people and animals. The role of dog-owner has been comparable to parent-child relationship behavioural wise, with many dog owners seeing their dogs as an extension of family, often babymorphic. Using the DISH methodology, but transferring it to child or baby behaviour, may help gather requirements from those fringe users that require a proxy to gather superior in-depth emotive information as shown here. This method would also work with non-verbal adults in a similar way and could be tailored towards specific known behaviours and disabilities. In regards to HCI it can be especially useful to have this method of informing the observer, with a tool, when there is a distinct lack of knowledge by the observer or in situations where the user is non-verbal and the observer can offer valuable insight.
- So in summary, an information sheet, created by us called DISH and used in dog technology helps to create an informed observer empowering them through information to give better contextual behaviours of dogs. By providing better context we can gather more requirements off the end-user giving better user experience (UX). Without this sheet the proxy-owner of the dog is more likely to give keywords without justification of their behaviour, suspected due to the lack of focus with DISH. This study highlights the importance of using non-vocal users, here the dog, relationship with a proxy observer, here the dog-owner, to help empower the user.