CHS: Small: Touchscreen Computer Interfaces for Working Dogs

近一个世纪以来，援助犬改善了成千上万残疾人的生活。这些工作犬包括听力犬、导盲犬、服务犬和医疗警觉犬，它们可以提供独立性，并显著提高生活质量。最近的研究表明，狗狗可以与可穿戴技术互动，向它们的饲养员传达重要信息，比如龙卷风警报的响起。然而，在家庭环境中，他们很少穿着警犬背心或马甲，尽管狗和训练员之间仍然需要清晰的沟通。这项研究的主要目的是探索狗的触摸屏互动的基本方面，以支持工作狗与它们的训导员或其他人类之间的交流。项目成果将把虚拟触摸屏界面的最先进水平扩展到动物，这是一个新的领域。这项工作将为动物-计算机接口的新领域做出贡献，让我们更好地了解狗的身体和认知能力，以及它们可以在多大程度上通过技术与人类互动。除了进一步提高残疾人的生活质量的直接影响外，作为这项研究的一部分开发的技术最终将使所有用户受益；宠物狗可以接受训练，使用触摸屏请求外出，或提醒主人物业有入侵者，而医疗警觉的狗可以通过触摸屏直接呼救。为狗提供向训练员表达特定需求的能力也可以使狗受益，提高它们的安全性和幸福感。Pi和她的团队将研究和应用人类领域的可用性分析和设计技术，如菲特定律和幂实践定律，以适应动物互动，扩大交互计算的知识体系。他们将探索狗与触摸屏互动的身体和认知能力，以及确定狗可以从虚拟显示器中感知和理解什么。将实现三个具体目标1。研究设计适合狗的触摸屏负担的因素，并为开发工作狗的触摸屏界面制定相应的设计指南。PI将对图标的大小、颜色、形状和放置进行实验，以确定狗最能理解什么。她还将测试狗在记忆和辨别模式方面的认知负荷极限。创建工作犬触摸屏界面原型，并对各种工作犬进行正式的可用性研究。在第一个目标的基础上，PI将创建一个触摸屏系统，并设计一个培训方案，让工作犬熟悉触摸屏任务。然后，她将进行一项研究，使用基于人类交互理论的可用性度量来开发用于虚拟显示的基本犬类-计算机交互理论。在辅助犬和训练员家中进行技术探索现场案例研究，以评估工作犬触摸屏系统的有效性。利用前两个目标的发现，PI将创建一个系统，并在家庭使用方案中执行人种学研究。

For nearly a century, assistance dogs have improved the lives of thousands of people with disabilities. These working dogs, which include hearing dogs, guide dogs, service dogs, and medical alert dogs, can provide independence and significantly enhance quality of life. Recent research has shown that the dogs can interact with wearable technology to communicate important information to their handlers, such as a tornado siren sounding. However, in a home environment, they rarely wear their service dog vests or harnesses even though the need for clear communication between dog and handler still exists. The main goal of this research is to explore fundamental aspects of touchscreen interaction for dogs, to support communication between working dogs and their handlers or other humans. Project outcomes will extend the state of the art in virtual touchscreen interfaces to animals, which is a new domain. The work will contribute to the new field of Animal-Computer Interfaces, providing us with a better understanding of the physical and cognitive abilities of dogs, and to what extent they can interact with humans through technology. In addition to the direct impact of further improving the quality of life for people with disabilities, the technologies developed as part of this research will ultimately benefit all users; pet dogs could be trained to use a touchscreen to request to go out, or to alert their owners of an intruder on the property, while medical alert dogs could directly summon help through a touchscreen. Providing dogs with the ability to express specific needs to a handler could benefit the dogs as well, enhancing their safety and well-being.The PI and her team will examine and adapt usability analysis and design techniques from the human field, such as Fitt's law and Power Law of Practice, to animal interactions, expanding the body of knowledge in interactive computing. They will explore the physical and cognitive abilities of dogs to interact with touchscreens, as well as determining what dogs can sense and comprehend from virtual displays. Three specific objectives will be addressed.1. To examine factors in the design of dog-appropriate touchscreen affordances and to create corresponding design guidelines for developing touchscreen interfaces for working dogs. The PI will experiment with size, color, shape, and placement of icons to determine what dogs can best comprehend. She will also test the limits of canine cognitive load in remembering and differentiating patterns.2. To create a working dog touchscreen interface prototype and perform a formal usability study with a variety of working dogs. Building on the results of the first objective, the PI will create a touchscreen system and design a training protocol to familiarize working dogs with touchscreen tasks. She will then perform a study employing usability metrics grounded in human interaction theory to develop fundamental canine-computer interaction theory for virtual displays.3. To perform a technological probe field case study in the home of an assistance dog and handler to evaluate the effectiveness of a touchscreen system for a working dog. Using the findings from the first two objectives, the PI will create a system and perform an ethnographic study in a home-use scenario.