Monkey mouths and hands could be key to future interactive enrichment systems

Researchers from a Scottish university have teamed up with monkeys to learn more about how animals prefer to use interactive systems. The researchers, from the University of Glasgow, found that white-faced saki monkeys at Korkeasaari Zoo in Helsinki preferred to use their mouths, teeth and hands to pull switches and swing panels from side to side. https://youtu.be/RLVlJbqX2WM Their collaboration, which suggests that monkeys may have their own preferences for the design of buttons, could inform the development of interactive enrichment activities for zoo animals in the future. The research, presented today (Monday 27 February) at the International Conference on Tangible Embedded and Embodied Interaction in Warsaw, is a joint project by animal-computer interaction specialists Vilma Kankaanpää and Dr Ilyena Hirskyj-Douglas. Dr Hirskyj-Douglas has led the development of DogPhone, a prototype which helps dogs to choose to video-call their owners. Together with Vilma they have developed other systems which allow monkeys, including the white-faced sakis at Korkeasaari Zoo, to Ilyena Hirskyj-Douglas, of the of the University of Glasgow's School of Computing Science, said: "Interactive digital systems have a lot of potential for enriching the lives of zoo animals by giving them new experiences and more control over their daily activities. However, it's still a new field of research, and we have a lot to learn about how animals want to interact with computer systems." Vilma Kankaanpää, also of the School of Computing Science, added: "Many previous designs have tasked animals with controlling computers in human-like ways - using their fingers to touch screens, for example.