Animals and Technology in the Zoo

• In Event: Animals and Technology Around the World, Past and Present 1

Abstract

Encounters between animals and humans are central to the objectives and practices of contemporary zoo experiences and zoos are making increasing use of digital technologies to make those encounters more engaging and educational, while ensuring animal well-being. Yet, many zoos show reluctance to introduce digital technologies into the zoo experience. Our research into the design of zoo-based technology has highlighted the ideological positions zoos have about the nature of encountering an animal, and the ways technology is thought to (re)mediates that encounter (Webber, Carter, Smith & Vetere, 2017; Carter, Webber & Sherwen, 2016).

In this abstract, we will critically reflect on two digital technologies designed to support animal welfare goals within the context of the zoo, through which we seek to understand and explore the ways that digital technologies will intervene, facilitate mediate, and remediate human-animal encounters in the zoo context.

The first case study will be the Kinecting with Orangutans project (Webber, Carter, Sherwen et al. 2017; http://www.socialnui.unimelb.edu.au/research/zoos/) which involved the design and development of an interactive projection inside the Orangutan enclosure at Melbourne Zoo. This technology aimed to provide animal enrichment, but has highlighted the opportunities – and risks – for human-animal interactions through shared digital spaces.

The second case study will be the GirraffeTrack system (Dong, Carter et al. 2017) which employed thermal cameras and machine learning to track and locate giraffes within their enclosure 24 hours a day. This technology aimed to improve the quality of animal welfare monitoring, but has highlighted the risk of digital technologies interrupting the rich and intimate relationship between zoo-keepers and their animals.


References
Carter, M., Webber, S. & Sherwen, S. (2015) Naturalism and ACI: Augmenting Zoo Enclosures with Digital Technology. In Proceedings of the 2nd International Congress on Animal Computer Interaction (ACI ’15), Iskandar, Malaysia.
Dong, R, Carter, M., Smith, W., Joukhadar, Z., Sherwen, S., Smith, A. (2017) Supporting Animal Welfare with Automatic Tracking of Giraffes with Thermal Cameras. In Proc. the 29th Australian Computer Human Interaction Conference (ozCHI’17), ACM Press.
Webber, S., Carter, M., Smith, W. & Vetere, F. (2016) Interactive Technology and Human-Animal Encounters at the Zoo. International Journal of Human-Computer Studies 98: 150-168
Webber, S., Carter, M., Sherwen, S., Smith, W., Joukhadar, Z., & Vetere, F. (2017) Kinecting with Orangutans: Zoo Visitors’ Empathetic Responses to Animals’ Use of Interactive Technology. In Proc. The 2017 ACM SIGCHI CHI CONFERENCE (Denver, Colorado), ACM Press, 6075-6088.

Authors

• Marcus Carter, The University of Sydney

• Sarah Webber, The University of Melbourne