In spite of the development of technologies that support
human-computer or human-human interaction, few studies have been conducted for improving interactions between humans and pets, pets and computers, or between two pets.
We propose a new area of research on entertainment using computers, called “human-pet interaction.”
As an initial step in this research, we have developed a series of sensing devices that can be attached to pet cats, called Cat@Log (cat-a-log). These devices comprise various sensing units such as a camera, a GPS, an accelerometer, and a Bluetooth module. Here, we attempted to determine an optimum design of the devices such that they can be attached to a pet without causing discomfort to it; for determining this design, we considered parameters such as the device’s form factor and way of attachment. These developed devices can recognize the experiences and activities of cats; information sensed by the devices is transmitted in real time by using the Bluetooth wireless module. We used this platform and developed a software system that automatically recognizes a pet’s high-level behavior and posts it to Twitter.
Cat@Log はペットコンピューティングのためのウェアラブルデバイスで、カメラ・GPS・加速度センサー・Bluetooth無線モジュールなどから構成される。このデバイスは、動物の行動に影響を与えないようにサイズ・重量・装着方針を検討して設計されてる。Cat@Logは猫の行動を認識し、Bluetooth無線送信によりリアルタイムでその上方をネットワークに伝達することができる。猫顔認識や行動分類などの複数のアルゴリズムを統合し、Twitterなどのネットサービスと自動連携することが可能である。
References
- Kyoko Yonezawa, Takashi Miyaki, Jun Rekimoto, “Cat@Log: Sensing Device Attachable to Pet Cats for Supporting Human-Pet Interaction”, International Conference on Advances in Computer Entertainment Technology (ACE2009), 2009. PDF
- 米澤香子，味八木崇，暦本純一 , “Cat@Log: Human Pet Interactionのための猫ウェアラブルセンシング”, 第17回インタラクティブシステムとソフトウェアに関するワークショップ(WISS2009), pp.47-52, 2009. WISS2009 So-net賞受賞 PDF
- Kyoko Yonezawa, Masaru Naruoka, Takashi Miyaki, and Jun Rekimoto Cat@Log: Cat Wearable Sensing for Supporting Human-Animal Interaction (video paper), Pervasive 2010.
