Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

FIDO—Facilitating interactions for dogs with occupations: wearable communication interfaces for working dogs

  • Original Article
  • Published:
Personal and Ubiquitous Computing Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Working dogs have improved the lives of thousands of people throughout history. However, communication between human and canine partners is currently limited. The main goal of the FIDO project is to research fundamental aspects of wearable technologies to support communication between working dogs and their handlers. In this study, the FIDO team investigated on-body interfaces for dogs in the form of wearable technology integrated into assistance dog vests. We created five different sensors that dogs could activate based on natural dog behaviors such as biting, tugging, and nose touches. We then tested the sensors on-body with eight dogs previously trained for a variety of occupations and compared their effectiveness in several dimensions. We were able to demonstrate that it is possible to create wearable sensors that dogs can reliably activate on command, and to determine cognitive and physical factors that affect dogs’ success with body–worn interaction technology.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4
Fig. 5
Fig. 6
Fig. 7
Fig. 8
Fig. 9
Fig. 10
Fig. 11
Fig. 12
Fig. 13
Fig. 14
Fig. 15
Fig. 16
Fig. 17
Fig. 18
Fig. 19
Fig. 20
Fig. 21
Fig. 22
Fig. 23
Fig. 24
Fig. 25
Fig. 26
Fig. 27
Fig. 28
Fig. 29
Fig. 30
Fig. 31
Fig. 32
Fig. 33

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. Arduino Uno. http://arduino.cc/en/Main/arduinoBoardUno, 2014

  2. Canine Companions for Independence. www.cci.org

  3. Coren Stanley (1994) The intelligence of dogs: a guide to the thoughts, emotions, and inner lives of our Canine Companions. Free Press, Simon and Schuster, New York

    Google Scholar 

  4. FSR 400 Data Sheet: FSR 400 series round force sensing resistor. http://dlnmh9ip6v2uc.cloudfront.net/datasheets/Sensors/ForceFlex/2010-10-26-DataSheet-FSR400-Layout2.pdf

  5. Freescale. http://www.freescale.com/files/sensors/doc/data_sheet/MPL115A1.pdf

  6. History of Guide Dogs International Guide Dog Federation. www.igdf.org.uk/about-us/facts-and-figures/history-of-guide-dogs/

  7. Hu F, Silver D, Trudel A (2007) Lonely Dog@Home. In: The proceedings of the conference on Web intelligence and intelligent agent technology workshops, pp 333–337

  8. Jackson MM, Zeagler C, Valentin G, Martin A, Martin V, Delawalla A, Blount W, Eiring S, Hollis R, Kshirsagar Y, Starner T (2013) FIDO—Facilitating interactions for dogs with occupations: wearable dog-activated interfaces. In: International symposium on wearable interfaces (ISWC’13), Zurich, Switzerland, Sept 9–12, 2013

  9. Lee SP, Cheok AD, James TKS (2006) A mobile pet wearable computer and mixed reality system for human–poultry interaction through the internet. Pers Ubiquit Comput 10:301–317

    Article  Google Scholar 

  10. Mancini C, van der Linden J, Bryan J, Stuart A (2012) Exploring interspecies sensemaking: dog tracking semiotics and multispecies ethnography. In: Proceedings of the 2012 ACM conference on ubiquitous computing

  11. Mankoff D, Dey A, Mankoff J, Mankoff K (2005) Supporting interspecies social awareness: using peripheral displays for distributed pack awareness. In: Proceedings of the UIST, ACM Press

  12. Noz F, An J (2011) Cat cat revolution: an interspecies gaming experience. In: Proceedings of the CHI’11, ACM Press

  13. Paldanius M, Karkkainen T, Vaananen-Vainio-Mattila K, Juhlin O, Hakkila J (2011) Communication technology for human–dog interaction: exploration of dog owners’ experiences and expectations. In: Proceedings of the CHI 2011

  14. Pavlov IP (1927) Conditional reflexes. Dover, New York

    Google Scholar 

  15. Pryor K (2009) Reaching the animal mind. Scribner, Simon & Schuster, Inc., New York

  16. Resner BI (2001) Rover@home: computer mediated remote interaction between humans and dogs. (Master’s Thesis), Massachusetts Institute of Technology

  17. Savage J, Sanchez-Guzman RA, Mayol-Cuevas W, Arce L, Hernandez A, Brier L, Lopez G (2000) Animal–machine interfaces. In: Proceedings of the 4th international symposium on wearable computing, IEEE

  18. Skinner BF (1938) The behavior of organisms: an experimental analysis. Appleton-Century, Oxford

    Google Scholar 

  19. The Seeing Eye. http://www.seeingeye.org/

  20. VCNL 4000. http://www.vishay.com/docs/83798/vcnl4000.pdf

  21. Weilenmann A, Juhlin O (2011) Understanding people and animals: the use of a positioning system in ordinary human–canine interaction. In: Proceedings of the SIGCHI conference on human factors in computing systems

  22. Wingrave CA, Rose J, Langston T, LaViola JJ (2010) Early explorations of CAT: Canine amusement and training. In: Extended Abstracts of CHI’10, ACM Press, pp 2661–2670

  23. Young J, Young N, Greenberg S, Sharlin E (2007) Feline fun park: a distributed tangible interface for pets and owners. In: Video proceedings of pervasive’07

Download references

Acknowledgments

This work was funded by the National Science Foundation under Grant IIS-1320690. We also received a seed grant from the Georgia Tech GVU Center. We would like to express our appreciation to Margo Gathright-Dietrich, Candace Atchison, Peggy Donato, Ninette Franz, and Alyssa Eidbo for their time and assistance in testing the sensors. We also thank Paul Mundell, Director of Canine Programs at Canine Companions for Independence, for his advice about requirements for assistance dogs.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Georgia Institute of Technology, 85 Fifth St NW, Atlanta, GA, 30303, USA

    Melody M. Jackson, Giancarlo Valentin, Larry Freil, Lily Burkeen, Clint Zeagler, Scott Gilliland & Thad Starner

  2. PO2 Agility, 4305 Hurt Bridge Ln, Cumming, GA, 30028, USA

    Barbara Currier

Authors
  1. Melody M. Jackson
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Giancarlo Valentin
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Larry Freil
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Lily Burkeen
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  5. Clint Zeagler
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  6. Scott Gilliland
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  7. Barbara Currier
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  8. Thad Starner
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Melody M. Jackson.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Jackson, M.M., Valentin, G., Freil, L. et al. FIDO—Facilitating interactions for dogs with occupations: wearable communication interfaces for working dogs. Pers Ubiquit Comput 19, 155–173 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00779-014-0817-9

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00779-014-0817-9

Keywords

Search

Navigation