CHS: Small: Touchscreen Computer Interfaces for Working Dogs

CHS：小型：工作犬用触摸屏计算机界面

• 批准号: 1525937
• 负责人: Melody Jackson
• 金额: $ 49.94万
• 依托单位: Georgia Tech Research Corporation
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2015
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2015-09-01 至 2018-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1525937&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: CHS; Small; Touchscreen; Computer; Interfaces

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.

近一个世纪以来，协助犬改善了成千上万残疾人的生活。 这些工作犬，包括助听犬、导盲犬、服务犬和医疗警戒犬，可以提供独立性并显着提高生活质量。 最近的研究表明，狗可以与可穿戴技术互动，向其训练者传达重要信息，例如龙卷风警报声。 然而，在家庭环境中，尽管狗和训练员之间仍然需要清晰的沟通，但他们很少穿着服务犬背心或背带。 这项研究的主要目标是探索狗的触摸屏交互的基本方面，以支持工作犬与其训练员或其他人类之间的沟通。 项目成果将把最先进的虚拟触摸屏界面扩展到动物领域，这是一个新领域。 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。 除了进一步改善残疾人生活质量的直接影响外，作为本研究一部分开发的技术最终将使所有用户受益；宠物狗可以被训练使用触摸屏请求外出，或者提醒主人有入侵者，而医疗警报狗可以通过触摸屏直接寻求帮助。 让狗能够向训练者表达特定需求的能力也能让狗受益，从而提高它们的安全和福祉。PI和她的团队将检查和调整来自人类领域的可用性分析和设计技术，例如菲特定律和实践幂律，到动物互动，扩展交互式计算的知识体系。 他们将探索狗与触摸屏交互的身体和认知能力，以及确定狗可以从虚拟显示器中感知和理解什么。 将解决三个具体目标：1．研究适合狗的触摸屏功能可供性的设计因素，并为开发工作犬的触摸屏界面制定相应的设计指南。 PI 将试验图标的大小、颜色、形状和位置，以确定狗最能理解的内容。 她还将测试犬类认知负荷在记忆和区分模式方面的极限。2．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。 基于第一个目标的结果，PI 将创建一个触摸屏系统并设计一个训练协议，以使工作犬熟悉触摸屏任务。 然后，她将进行一项研究，采用基于人类交互理论的可用性指标来开发虚拟显示的基本犬机交互理论。3。在协助犬和训练员的家中进行技术探索现场案例研究，以评估触摸屏系统对工作犬的有效性。 利用前两个目标的发现，PI 将创建一个系统并在家庭使用场景中进行人种学研究。