Enrichment is critical for zoo animal welfare. Commonly used food-based approaches have limitations in terms of sensory diversity, agency, redundancy, time budget, and nutrition. Building on research into agency-based technologies, choice-driven enrichment, and species relevant sensory engagement, we developed an interactive proximity activated scented bubble system for two American black bears (Ursus americanus). This project integrates behavioral intervention with HCI methodology to create animal-controlled olfactory enrichment. Over a three-week deployment, we assessed (1) enrichment potential through system use, behavioral diversity, and habitat use; (2) usership via engagement patterns with the bubbles; (3) sense-making and agency through anticipation behaviors; and (4) human stakeholder perspectives via visitor and staff surveys. Results show the intervention increased target foraging and locomotive behaviors compared to post-feeding baselines, generated rich multi-modal interactions, and received positive stakeholder feedback, illustrating how technology can promote animal agency while supporting zoo welfare and educational missions.

Cognitively stimulating experiences are fundamental to supporting the welfare of zoo-housed animals. Puzzle-feeders are often initially engaging, but require frequent human intervention and often lack adaptability to support animals’ sustained cognitive engagement. We developed a modular adaptive puzzle-feeder designed to support user agency, independence, and multisensory feedback. The system was deployed over four weeks with an Arctic fox (Vulpes lagopus) across progressive difficulty levels and piloted with two coatis (Nasua narica). Combining HCI and animal science methodologies, we assessed (1) multisensory engagement, (2) changes in behavioral diversity and habitat utilization, (3) adaptation to puzzle complexity, and (4) impact on human stakeholders. Results show strong sustained engagement (46.5% time-budget), increased behavioral diversity, habitat exploration, strategic problem-solving, and positive keeper and visitor reactions. This work highlights how technology can support animal welfare and visitor experience, and how mixed HCI and ethological methods enable holistic evaluation of enrichment and animal usership.

Animals living alongside humans are navigating a world increasingly filled with technology, yet little is known about how they interface with these systems, whether designed for, with, or around them. Anchored in HCI and ranging across diverse fields, this scoping review analyzes nearly 800 research works to explore the diverse realities of animal-technology research, examining the who, what, why, and how of animal-technology entanglements. Our analysis revealed 11 research objectives and eight types of technologies across six animal contexts. By categorizing the literature based on authors’ aims and intended beneficiaries, we highlight trends, gaps, and ethical considerations. We find that most systems involve animals with limited potential for direct engagement or sense-making. We propose a framework to understand animals as users versus subjects of interactive systems, focusing on feedback, empirical testing, and projected animal benefits. Our findings offer a foundation to understand current and future animal technology research and the diversity of animal user experience.

Augmentative and alternative communication devices (AACs) are designed to assist humans with complex communication needs. Recently, AAC use has been reported in non-human animals. Such tools may potentially provide enrichment and increase interspecies connection. However, there is no evaluation framework and little data available to assess AAC potential. Here, we examine seven months of a single parrot’s sustained use of a tablet-based AAC totaling 129 sessions within 190 days. After devising a coding schema, we propose a framework to explore the expressive potential and enrichment value for the parrot. Our results suggest that the choice of destination words cannot be simply explained based on random selection or icon location alone, and 92% of corroborable selections are validated by behaviors. The parrot interactions also appear significantly skewed toward social and cognitive enrichment. This work is a first step toward assessment of AAC use for parrot enrichment.

The concept of the animal Internet has flourished, with many conceptualisations proceeding from the premise that connecting animals online may enrich their social life. Yet we remain unaware of how – or even whether – online interactions (either live or with pre-recorded material) might affect how animals engage with other animals. We implemented a system for parrots to trigger live video calls with other birds or playback from a pre-recorded video call. The goal was to identify differences in engagement and behaviours. Over a six-month study, parrots triggered significantly more live calls and engaged longer in that setting relative to the playback condition, while the animals’ caregivers found greater value in the latter but preferred the live alternative for the birds under their care. The results begin to question what animals make of online remote connections, putting forward considerations as to how the internet can affect animals’ experiences.

Touchscreen devices, ubiquitous in humans’ day-to-day life, offer a promising avenue for animal enrichment. With advanced cognitive abilities, keen visual perception, and adeptness to engage with capacitive screens using dexterous tongues, parrots are uniquely positioned to benefit from this technology. Additionally, pet parrots often lack appropriate stimuli, supporting the need for inexpensive solutions using off-the-shelf devices. However, the current human-centric interaction design standards of tablet applications do not optimally cater to the tactile affordances and ergonomic needs of parrots. To address this, we conducted a study with 20 pet parrots, examining their tactile interactions with touchscreens and evaluating the applicability of existing HCI interaction models. Our research highlights key ergonomic characteristics unique to parrots, which include pronounced multi-tap behavior, a critical size threshold for touch targets, and greater effectiveness of larger targets over closer proximity. Based on these insights, we propose guidelines for tablet-based enrichment systems for companion parrots.

We present a novel intercorporeal experience – an intersubjective haptic voice. Through an autobiographical design inquiry, based on singing techniques from the classical opera tradition, we created Corsetto, a kinesthetic garment for transferring somatic reminiscents of vocal experience from an expert singer to a listener. We then composed haptic gestures enacted in the Corsetto, emulating upper-body movements of the live singer performing a piece by Morton Feldman named Three Voices. The gestures in the Corsetto added a haptics-based ‘fourth voice’ to the immersive opera performance. Finally, we invited audiences who were asked to wear Corsetto during live performances. Afterwards they engaged in micro-phenomenological interviews. The analysis revealed how the Corsetto managed to bridge inner and outer bodily sensations, creating a feeling of a shared intercorporeal experience, dissolving boundaries between listener, singer and performance. We propose that ‘intersubjective haptics’ can be a generative medium not only for singing performances, but other possible intersubjective experiences.

Over 20 million parrots are kept as pets in the US, often lacking appropriate stimuli to meet their high social, cognitive, and emotional needs. After reviewing bird perception and agency literature, we developed an approach to allow parrots to engage in video-calling other parrots. Following a pilot experiment and expert survey, we ran a three-month study with 18 pet birds to evaluate the potential value and usability of a parrot-parrot video-calling system. We assessed the system in terms of perception, agency, engagement, and overall perceived benefits. With 147 bird-triggered calls, our results show that 1) every bird used the system, 2) most birds exhibited high motivation and intentionality, and 3) all caretakers reported perceived benefits, some arguably life-transformative, such as learning to forage or even to fly by watching others. We report on individual insights and propose considerations regarding ethics and the potential of parrot video-calling for enrichment.

The experience of what we eat depends not only on the taste of the food, but also on other modalities of sensory feedback. Perceptual research has shown the potential of altering visual, olfactory, and textural food cues to affect flavor, texture, and satiety. Recently, the HCI community has leveraged such research to encourage healthy eating, but the resulting tools often require specialised and/or invasive devices. Ubiquitous and unobtrusive, audio feedback-based tools could alleviate those drawbacks, but research in this area has been limited to food texture. We expand on prior psychology research by exploring a wide range of auditory feedback styles to modify not only flavor attributes but also appetite-related measures. We present Auditory Seasoning, a mobile app that offers various curated audio modes to alter chewing sounds. In a Pringles-tasting experiment (N=37), this tool significantly influenced food perception and eating behavior beyond texture alone. Based on these results, we discuss design implications to create custom real-world flavor/satiety-enhancing tools.

Enrichment is a methodology for caregivers to offer zoo animals improved psychological and physiological well-being. Although many species rely on auditory senses, sonic enrichment is rarely implemented. Zoo soundscapes are dominated by human-generated noises and do not respond meaningfully to animals' behavior. Designing interactive sonic enrichment systems for animals presents unique ergonomic, ethical, and agency-related challenges. We present a case study of such design. We deployed two novel interventions at the San Diego Zoo to allow Sampson, a music-savvy hyacinth macaw, to gain control over his sonic environment. Our results suggest that (1) the bird uses, understands, and benefits from the system, and (2) visitors play a major role in Sampson's engagement with this technology. With his new agency, the bird seemingly gains more control over his interactions with the public, creating an interspecies experience mediated by technology. The resulting animal-human-computer interaction may inform mediated interspecies experiences in the future.

Isolation is one of the largest contributors to a lack of wellbeing, increased anxiety and loneliness in older adults. In collaboration with elders in living facilities, we designed the Memory Music Box; a low-threshold platform to increase connectedness. The HCI community has contributed notable research in support of elders through monitoring, tracking and memory augmentation. Despite the Information and Communication Technologies field (ICT) advances in providing new opportunities for connection, challenges in accessibility increase the gap between elders and their loved ones. We approach this challenge by embedding a familiar form factor with innovative applications, performing design evaluations with our key target group to incorporate multi-iteration learnings. These findings culminate in a novel design that facilitates elders in crossing technology and communication barriers. Based on these findings, we discuss how future inclusive technologies for the older adults' can balance ease of use, subtlety and elements of Cognitively Sustainable Design.

We introduce the term Digital Dresses as Dynamic Displays as an emergent field in the domains of Wearable Computing and Embodied Interactions. This recent approach consists of turning clothing into visual - and sometimes audiovisual - displays to enable novel forms of interaction between the wearer, the viewer, the tangible clothing and the embedded content. In this context, we present Enchanted Wearable, a new optimized low cost approach to create Digital Dresses as Dynamic Displays. Enchanted Wearable is a technologically embellished and augmented garment containing a portable rear dome projection system that transforms the clothing fabric into a blank canvas displaying audiovisual content. With this system, we create a new form of expression through clothing to reflect identity, personality, emotions and inner states of the wearer. In this paper we first present the growing field of Digital Dresses as Dynamic Displays, then we survey and analyse existing prior art in this field using a specific list of characteristics: display technology, wearability, interactivity, brightness, context. Finally we present the design and technology behind our new Enchanted Wearable system and explain how it brings new perspectives to the field.

Additive manufacturing (3D printing) is commonly used to produce physical models for a wide variety of applications, from archaeology to design. While static models are directly supported, it is desirable to also be able to print models with functional articulations, such as a hand with joints and knuckles, without the need for manual assembly of joint components. Apart from having to address limitations inherent to the printing process, this poses a particular challenge for articulated models that should be posable: to allow the model to hold a pose, joints need to exhibit internal friction to withstand gravity, without their parts fusing during 3D printing. This has not been possible with previous printable joint designs. In this paper, we propose a method for converting 3D models into printable, functional, non-assembly models with internal friction. To this end, we have designed an intuitive work-flow that takes an appropriately rigged 3D model, automatically fits novel 3D-printable and posable joints, and provides an interface for specifying rotational constraints. We show a number of results for different articulated models, demonstrating the effectiveness of our method.