Conference Paper

Pushing Boundaries of RE: Requirement Elicitation for Non-Human Users

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Abstract

With the advance of modern technologies, computer-based systems for animals are gaining popularity. In particular, there is an explosion of products and gadgets for pets: wellness monitoring applications (e.g., FitBark and PetPace), automatic food dispensers, cognitive enrichment apps, and many more. Furthermore, the discipline of Animal-Computer Interaction has emerged, focusing on a user-centric development of technologies for animals, making them stakeholders in the development process. Animal-centric technologies have already been developed to support activities of rescue and assistance dogs, to provide environmental and cognitive enrichment for animals in captivity, and to support conservation and animal behavior research. Going beyond human stakeholders poses new exciting challenges for requirement engineering and can be used to significantly expand its boundaries under broader theoretical and methodological frameworks. This paper highlights these challenges and proposes a research agenda for developing methodologies for requirement elicitation and analysis for a user-centric development of computerized systems for non-human users.

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... Many researchers adjust HCI frameworks and methods for examining the requirements (Zamansky, van der Linden, & Baskin, 2017). ...
... Step 1 in building novel systems is specifying the goals for the system in light of user needs, clearly and in a manner ensuring that the system suits their unique context (Zamansky, van der Linden, & Baskin, 2017). The goal articulates the aim behind the system and its desired effect on the animal and human parties. ...
... The objectives set for ACI systems should be rooted in the animal's genuine needs, not solely in what the technology enables (Rault, Webber, & Carter, 2015). Goal-setting based on real needs -e.g., helping animals gain abilities that they would not otherwise have (Ritvo & Allison, 2014) -reduces the risk of the system harming the animals (Lawson, et al., 2015) and that of humans pro jecting their own goals and design priorities onto animals (Zamansky, van der Linden, & Baskin, 2017). That said, the most reasonable balance between animal-and human-focused goals depends on the ultimate requirements for the technology. ...
Article
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The numerous systems designed to facilitate animals’ use of computers often are specific to the animals involved, their unique context, and the applications – enrichment among them. Hence, several development methods have arisen in parallel, largely transposed from the human-computer interaction (HCI) domain. In light of that prior work, the paper presents a step-by-step guide for iteratively designing and constructing interactive computers for animals, informed by the rich history of HCI yet applying animal-centred principles, to enrich animal-computer interaction. For each stage in the iterative design (requirements, ideation, prototyping, and testing), the author reflects on real-world experience of building interactive devices for various animals. The paper concludes with overarching considerations vital for future practice of developing interactive computers for animals. Thus, it serves as a valuable reference and information source for researchers designing novel computer systems for animals.
... On the other hand, Table 3 Brainstorming [21], [22], [27], [43], [54], [55], [64], [65], [72], [74]- [82] 17 ...
... Focus Group [21], [27], [43], [47], [48], [54], [65], [76], [89] 9 ...
... Observation [21], [22], [38], [40], [42], [54], [64], [69], [70], [74], [76], [79], [85], [93], [97], [102], [103], [111], [112] 19 ...
Preprint
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p>Several organizations have invested in business process automation software to improve their processes. Unstandardized processes with high variance and unstructured data encumber the requirements elicitation for business process automation software. This study conducted a literature review to discover methods for understanding business processes and eliciting requirements for business process automation software. The review revealed many methods used to understand business processes, but only one was employed to elicit requirements for business process automation software. In addition, the review identified some challenges with methods for eliciting requirements in this context.</p
... On the other hand, Table 3 Brainstorming [21], [22], [27], [43], [54], [55], [64], [65], [72], [74]- [82] 17 ...
... Focus Group [21], [27], [43], [47], [48], [54], [65], [76], [89] 9 ...
... Observation [21], [22], [38], [40], [42], [54], [64], [69], [70], [74], [76], [79], [85], [93], [97], [102], [103], [111], [112] 19 ...
Preprint
Full-text available
p>Several organizations have invested in business process automation software to improve their processes. Unstandardized processes with high variance and unstructured data encumber the requirements elicitation for business process automation software. This study conducted a literature review to discover methods for understanding business processes and eliciting requirements for business process automation software. The review revealed many methods used to understand business processes, but only one was employed to elicit requirements for business process automation software. In addition, the review identified some challenges with methods for eliciting requirements in this context.</p
... In spite of these obstacles, in order for ACI to fulfil its core aim of designing technology for and with animals [30], correctly and accurately interpreting animal behavior is critical, as it is mostly through behavior that users communicate their needs and preferences [37]. Dogs are the most frequent users of technological products [55] and their representation in ACI research is on the increase. Therefore, it is in the interest of ACI researchers to investigate effective approaches to measuring animal behavior. ...
... To this end, the fields of animal behavior and welfare research can offer canine-specific knowledge, helping ACI researchers understand how individual differences within the same species can affect the design, implementation and outcomes of interactive technology for animals [55]. For example, personality assessments help establish individual differences among conspecifics allowing for a better understanding of behavior and coping styles of individuals based on their personality [16,23]. ...
Conference Paper
Animal Computer Interaction (ACI) aims to design user-centered interactions between animals and technology. In this regard, a major challenge for researchers is accurately assessing and interpreting animal behavior, in part, due to the invasive nature of data collection techniques and to the individuality of behavior. This paper presents a method that uses tail wagging, a communicative behavior in dogs used in animal behavior and welfare studies, as a non-invasive parameter used to measure canine user experience (UX). We present findings from a study based on an observational analysis of three mobility assistance dogs' tail wagging behaviors and canine personality scores. The findings show tail wagging is a communicative indicator, that the manner in which the tail is wagged correlates to personality, and that tail wagging provides a baseline to assess canine UX. A tail wagging ethogram was used as an evaluative tool for measuring canine UX during task training.
... Several researchers agree that requirement elicitation is the most critical, time-consuming, and expensive activity in software development, since the elicitors do not know the domain of the stakeholders and the stakeholders do not transfer knowledge of the domain or their needs properly to the elicitors [21,22,47,48,50,51,53,60,[65][66][67][68], which causes communication gaps and generates ambiguous, inconsistent, and incomplete requirements [52,60,68]. ...
Article
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Several organizations have invested in business process automation software to improve their processes. Unstandardized processes with high variance and unstructured data encumber the requirements elicitation for business process automation software. This study conducted a systematic literature review to discover methods to understand business processes and elicit requirements for business process automation software. The review revealed many methods used to understand business processes, but only one was employed to elicit requirements for business process automation software. In addition, the review identified some challenges and opportunities. The challenges of developing a business process automation software include dealing with business processes, meeting the needs of the organization, choosing the right approach, and adapting to changes in the process during the development. These challenges open opportunities for proposing specific approaches to elicit requirements in this context.
... The requirement elicitation process is expected to determine user expectations and obtain the essential requirements for the program's success [9][10]. The application of requirement elicitation in the manufacturing industry can help understand the problems that arise by translating inappropriate or incomplete needs and desires from users to obtain complete and precise specifications [11][12]. The constraints faced by the manufacturing industry in general and the furniture sector, in particular, are that producers do not have a reporting tool that allows them to estimate how much they will have to sell in the next few months, and the goods produced do not match what customers need. ...
... The requirement elicitation process is expected to determine user expectations and obtain the essential requirements for the program's success [9][10]. The application of requirement elicitation in the manufacturing industry can help understand the problems that arise by translating inappropriate or incomplete needs and desires from users to obtain complete and precise specifications [11][12]. The constraints faced by the manufacturing industry in general and the furniture sector, in particular, are that producers do not have a reporting tool that allows them to estimate how much they will have to sell in the next few months, and the goods produced do not match what customers need. ...
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Full-text available
The development of the industrial revolution 4.0 in manufacturing has changed conventional business processes to become automated, especially in the furniture sector. The constraints faced by the furniture manufacturing industry are that producers do not have a reporting tool that estimates how many products to sell, goods produced do not match their needs and stock errors. Therefore, the process of extracting needs is an important phase in the development of information systems because it determines the final outcome of the program. The research aims to define system requirements, so that it can help the decision-making process based on real-time data. This study describes the use of system planning techniques in the form of collaborative techniques, observational techniques and contextual techniques, which are combined with the Wellsandt evaluation criteria and measured using the low, medium and high scales. The results of this study are the acquisition of any business process areas that have a high level of difficulty to be prioritized and described in the form of a spider diagram. Implication of this research is that requirements can be used by developers to prioritize areas of business processes that must be improved in making decision support systems.
... This process is not dissimilar to the role adults take in child-computer interaction systems with very young children [32]. Requirements gathering in proxy in ACI ranges from consulting caretakers of the animals such as their keepers [12,39] or owners [16,17,33], to consulting animal welfare and behavioral specialists [45]. Humans also explore through design [10,18,44] but this often does not involve the animal. ...
... Given the sensory, physical and cognitive differences between human evaluators and animal users, and the biases that inevitably influence designers' expectations, the assessment of animals' responses against empirical measures is key. In this regard, the accurate analysis and interpretation of data collected during empirical studies with animals is paramount [31,32]. To minimize the impact of the human evaluator's bias on the interpretation of the animals' behavior, our method applies various data collection metrics and design compliance rating scales to help designers assess the extent to which the interaction being evaluated adheres to relevant usability goals. ...
... Behavior analysis is an important tool in the assessment of animal welfare used for the assessment of pain, injury and disease. Behaviour is also of crucial importance in gauging what animals want (Zamansky et al., 2017), most obviously in the use of choice and preference tests, but also through other methods that are particularly suitable for on-farm welfare assessment (Dawkins, 2004). ...
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The field of veterinary healthcare informatics is still in its infancy, and state of the art solutions from human healthcare are not easily adapted. IoT and wearable technologies may be bringing a wind of change, as large amounts of health data of animals are now being produced. It makes this a timely moment to initiate a discussion on the possibilities for cross-fertilization between the worlds of human and animal health informatics. In this position paper we report on an ongoing project developing a framework for automatic video-based analysis of animal behavior and describe its concrete application for decision support of behavioral veterinarians. The framework is generic, allowing for reuse across species and different analytical tasks. We further discuss the possibilities for cross-fertilization between human and animal behavior analysis in the context of health informatics.
... Developing T4A is unique in the sense that involving animals as users and stakeholders places rigid demands on all phases of the development process. We have discussed these challenges in earlier work [17,20], focusing on requirement elicitation with non-human users, communicating with animal experts and handlers, and searching for innovative ways of getting feedback from animals. In what follows we focus on three aspects that form the basis for the proposed development model: agile development, animal welfare considerations, and involving animal experts. ...
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Advances in modern technology, such as the Internet of Things (IoT) and ubiquitous computing, open up new exciting opportunities for technology for animals. This is evidenced by the explosion of products and gadgets available for pets, digital enrichment for captive animals in zoos, sensor based smart farming, etc. At the same time, the emerging discipline of Animal-Computer Interaction (ACI) marks a new era in the design and development of animal technologies, promoting a more animal-centric approach, considering the needs of the animal in the development process. In this article, we reflect on the ways in which ideas of animal-centric development may impact the development of technology for animals in practice. We start by looking at the process of development for and with animals, and propose a development model facilitating the principles of Agility, Welfare of Animals, and eXperts’ involvement (AWAX) within the development lifecycle. While promoting the animal-centric approach, it is important to acknowledge that an animal usually uses technology through humans and in a particular environment. We further extend the AWAX model to include considerations of the human in the loop and the environment, and discuss some practical implications of this view, including aspects such as security and privacy.
... In this lecture we discussed ways to involve animals in the development process. We revisited stakeholder theory and its extensions to non-human users [6], general design science methodologies [36] and how they can be tailored to ACI development [35,43]. We surveyed requirement elicitation techniques [46] and discussed their suitability for non-verbal users. ...
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Six years ago the ACI manifesto marked the birth of ACI as a scientific discipline. Since then ACI has been rapidly evolving, as can be witnessed by the variety of publications, conferences and workshops on the topic. This evolution makes it timely to explore the issue of ACI education. What constitutes the toolbox of practitioners working in the field of ACI, and how can we teach ACI to the next generation of students? This short paper invites the ACI community to engage in a discussion of these topics by presenting our own experiences and lessons learnt in designing and teaching a course on ACI to information systems and computing students at our University.
... These challenges have recently been discussed [20] in the context of interaction, and stresses the need for adapting research methods in HCI to the context of non-human users. Additionally, we have discussed [21] the unique challenges of requirement elicitation for non-human users, which call for non-verbal elicitation techniques and the need to involve animal experts, making reference to a large body of knowledge of animal behavior. ...
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This paper presents an overview of the field of software systems requirements engineering (RE). It describes the main areas of RE practice, and highlights some key open research issues for the future. 1 Introduction The primary measure of success of a software system is the degree to which it meets the purpose for which it was intended. Broadly speaking, software systems requirements engineering (RE) is the process of discovering that purpose, by identifying stakeholders and their needs, and documenting these in a form that is amenable to analysis, communication, and subsequent implementation. There are a number of inherent difficulties in this process. Stakeholders (including paying customers, users and developers) may be numerous and distributed. Their goals may vary and conflict, depending on their perspectives of the environment in which they work and the tasks they wish to accomplish. Their goals may not be explicit or may be difficult to articulate, and, inevitably, satisfactio...
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Hardware capable of 3D sensing, such as the Microsoft Kinect, has opened up new possibilities for low-cost computer vision applications. In this paper, we take the first steps towards unsupervised canine posture classification by presenting an algorithm to perform canine-background segmentation, using depth shadows and infrared data for increased accuracy. We report on two experiments to show that the algorithm can operate at various distances and heights, and examine how that effects its accuracy. We also perform a third experiment to show that the output of the algorithm can be used for k-means clustering, resulting in accurate clusters 83 % of the time without any preprocessing and when the segmentation algorithm is at least 90 % accurate.
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Interactive technology for dogs is on the rise with there now being a whole TV channel supplying videos for dogs as well as several examples of interactive technology designed for the purpose of ‘entertaining’ dogs and other pet mammals. The Animal-Computer Interaction (ACI) research field has moved into the study of such technologies having earlier focussed mainly on technologies for working animals where there are two main stakeholders, the dogs and the humans, and where there is an expectation often, that the dog is doing a certain task. In studies of what might be referred to as entertainment interaction, there is a need to understand what, if anything, attracts a dog's attention whilst being mindful that where the only real stakeholder is the dog, there may be some methodological considerations in regards to the level of control and the level of autonomy given to the dog in such studies. This paper presents a study of dogs’ attention between three screens to explore the movement of attention between screens, and between videos in a relatively uncontrolled research environment. The study demonstrates that the method used, which was to be as ‘dog-centred’ as possible, yielded useful data. For the design community it is shown that the dogs were seen to attend mainly to a favoured screen (left and centre in this case) and three of the videos appeared to be preferred over the others.
Conference Paper
There is an increasing demand for digital games developed for pets, in particular for dogs and cats. However, play interactions between animals and technological devices still remain an uncharted territory both for animal behavior and user-computer interaction communities. While there is a lot of anecdotal evidence of pets playing digital games, the nature of animal-computer play interactions is far from being understood. In this work-in-progress we address the problem of analyzing and interpreting user behavior in such interactions using the tool of ethograms from applied ethology, which are catalogs of typical behavior patterns.
Conference Paper
We report on participatory design research where interaction designers, and canine behavioral specialists, together with their cancer detection dogs, teamed up to better support the dogs' life-saving work. We discuss interspecies communication challenges in cancer detection training, requiring the dogs to use human signaling conventions that perturb their detection work. We describe our effort to develop a technology that could resolve those challenges, and how in the process our design focus gradually shifted from a human-centered to a canine-centered interaction model. The resulting interface, based on honest signaling, re-centers cancer detection practices on the dogs themselves, enabling them to better express their potential as cancer detection workers; it also provides a model for re-thinking human-computer interactions.
Conference Paper
There is growing interest in technology that quantifies aspects of our lives. This paper draws on critical practice and speculative design to explore, question and problematise the ultimate consequences of such technology using the quantification of companion animals (pets) as a case study. We apply the concept of "moving upstream" to study such technology and use a qualitative research approach in which both pet owners, and animal behavioural experts, were presented with, and asked to discuss, speculative designs for pet quantification applications, the design of which were extrapolated from contemporary trends. Our findings indicate a strong desire among pet owners for technology that has little scientific justification, whilst our experts caution that the use of technology to augment human-animal communication has the potential to disimprove animal welfare, undermine human-animal bonds, and create human-human conflicts. Our discussion informs wider debates regarding quantification technology.
Conference Paper
There is an increasing demand for entertainment applications developed for pets, in particular for dogs and cats. However, play interaction between animals and technological devices still remains an uncharted territory both for animal behavior and entertainment computing scientific communities. While there is a lot of anecdotal evidence of pets playing digital games, the nature of animal-computer play interactions is still not understood. In this paper we report on empirical findings based on observing and analyzing dog-tablet game interactions. Using categories emerging from our data analysis, we construct an ethogram, a “catalogue” of behavioral patterns typical of dog-tablet interactions. Based on our data analysis, we hypothesize that the nature of the observed interactions is that of predatory behavior, in response to stimuli in the form of “prey-like” virtual objects displayed on the screen. Based on our hypothesis, we further propose some questions for future investigation, and raise some issues that need to be addressed by game developers when targeting dogs as their users.
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Through short presentations, collaborative design exercises and plenary discussions, this one-day workshop aims to explore questions and possibilities for the development of ACI as a discipline.
Conference Paper
Digital games for animals within Animal Computer Interaction are usually single-device oriented, however richer interactions could be delivered by considering multimodal environments and expanding the number of technological elements involved. In these playful ecosystems, animals could be either alone or accompanied by human beings, but in both cases the system should react properly to the interactions of all the players, creating more engaging and natural games. Technologically-mediated playful scenarios for animals will therefore require contextual information about the game participants, such as their location or body posture, in order to suitably adapt the system reactions. This paper presents a depth-based tracking system for cats capable of detecting their location, body posture and field of view. The proposed system could also be extended to locate and detect human gestures and track small robots, becoming a promising component in the creation of intelligent interspecies playful environments.
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The latest generation of wearable devices, such as the FitBit and Apple Watch, are companions to smartphones that don't warrant mass adoption. This article looks at some emerging wearable products that are not only improving lives but also serve a real need in society.
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The authors introduce the fundamental building blocks for a cyber-enabled, computer-mediated communication platform to connect human and canine intelligence to achieve a new generation of Cyber-Enhanced Working Dog (CEWD). The use of monitoring technologies provides handlers with real-time information about the behavior and emotional state of their CEWDs and the environments they're working in for a more intelligent canine-human collaboration. From handler to dog, haptic feedback and auditory cues are integrated to provide remote command and feedback delivery. From dog to handler, multiple inertial measurement units strategically located on a harness are used to accurately detect posture and behavior, and concurrent noninvasive photoplethysmogram and electrocardiogram for physiological monitoring. The authors also discuss how CEWDs would be incorporated with a variety of other robotic and autonomous technologies to create next-generation intelligent emergency response systems. Using cyber-physical systems to supplement and augment the two-way information exchange between human handlers and dogs would amplify the remarkable sensory capacities of search and rescue dogs and help them save more lives.
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The industry of pet-related products and services has increased 10 times since the late 1990s, yet little is known about how pet owners consume pet-related services, let alone how best to segment owners into distinctive groups and market petrelated products to them strategically. To examine the segments within this market, this study forms its framework by incorporating factors from human–pet relationships, consumption values, information search behaviors and retail selection preferences. The main study included 578 Taiwanese pet owners. By using pet-related services, this research identified three segments of pet owners through cluster analysis. With this study's findings, the owners’ characteristics are elaborated with potential strategic implications for the service industry. The contributions of this research's findings are discussed in light of recent consumer studies literature.
Conference Paper
One of the many challenges in developing ground response robots for Urban Search and Rescue (USAR) is endowing them with mobility that allows traversal of challenging terrain. In a preliminary study we introduced a new approach to the mobility problem that utilizes USAR dogs to deliver robots close to human victims in rubble. The results indicated that some search dogs are able to carry a small robot to a victim. This paper extends the original work - this time employing a more capable snake robot. Snake robots have much better maneuverability within rubble than wheeled or tracked robots. Unfortunately they are very slow - making timely rubble traversal a moot point. The premise of this work is that our hybrid system exhibits the advantages of rapid canine mobility with the flexibility and sensing capability of a snake robot.
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Recent years have seen growing sociological interest in the role that objects and non-human actors perform in everyday life. Whether as machines, information technologies, artworks, commodities or architectures, objects today raise issues of complexity and controversy (Pels et al., 2002). Borrowing from actor network theory the idea that humans and non-humans are actively involved in the making of social worlds, there are already those who call for a post-social world and an object-centred sociality (Knorr-Cetina, 1997). But how can non-humans be observed? Sociologists are accustomed to socio-constructionist approaches to the sociology of science, or to analyses of tools and innovations couched in terms of networks of actants; methodologically, however, it seems that ideas about how to proceed methodologically are not very well worked out. On the basis of a four-month ethnography conducted in a hospital that has recently introduced a digital clinical records system, I discuss the methodological aspects of shadowing non-humans. In particular, adopting Star’s insight of an ‘ethnography of the infrastructure’ (Star, 1999), I concentrate on how to account for contexts characterized by multiple and non-homogeneous actors and practices and on the implications of such a perspective for organizational analysis.
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Anthropologists have been committed, at least since Franz Boas, to investigating relationships between nature and culture. At the dawn of the 21st century, this enduring interest was inflected with some new twists. An emergent cohort of “multispecies ethnographers” began to place a fresh emphasis on the subjectivity and agency of organisms whose lives are entangled with humans. Multispecies ethnography emerged at the intersection of three interdisciplinary strands of inquiry: environmental studies, science and technology studies (STS), and animal studies. Departing from classically ethnobiological subjects, useful plants and charismatic animals, multispecies ethnographers also brought understudied organisms—such as insects, fungi, and microbes—into anthropological conversations. Anthropologists gathered together at the Multispecies Salon, an art exhibit, where the boundaries of an emerging interdiscipline were probed amidst a collection of living organisms, artifacts from the biological sciences, and surprising biopolitical interventions.
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Most definitions of the concept of stakeholder include only human entities. This paper advances the argument that the non-human natural environment can be integrated into the stakeholder management concept. This argument includes the observations that the natural environment is finally becoming recognized as a vital component of the business environment, that the stakeholder concept is more than a human political/economic one, and that non-human nature currently is not adequately represented by other stakeholder groups. In addition, this paper asserts that any of several stakeholder management processes can readily include the natural environment as one or more stakeholders of organizations. Finally, the point is made that this integration would provide a more holistic, value-oriented, focused and strategic approach to stakeholder management, potentially benefitting both nature and organizations.
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This article furthers the argument for a stakeholder theory that integrates into managerial decision-making the relationship between business organizations and the natural environment. The authors review the literature on stakeholder theory and the debate over whom or what should count as a stakeholder. The authors also critique and expand the stakeholder identification and salience model developed by Mitchell and Wood (1997) by reconceptualizing the stakeholder attributes of power, legitimacy, and urgency, as well as by developing a fourth stakeholder attribute: proximity. In this way, the authors provide a stronger basis for arguing for the salience of the natural environment as the primary and primordial stakeholder of the firm.
Chapter
Recently, wireless sensor networks (WSNs) have attracted much scientific interests as a short-range radio network technique. The traditional sensor system was implemented as one independent device, which only delivers a measured value from the monitoring object without interconnection. The wireless sensor network collects data and delivers to corresponding management control systems for the user. Because of advances in micro electro mechanical systems (MEMS) technology, low energy utilisation and low cost digital signal processors using wireless communication have resulted into a new networked embedded system. It can be applied to measure, process and communicate with each sensor node over wireless communication. A WSN can support an intelligent operation and smart environments using many WSN nodes. A WSN node consists of a sensor and a shortrange radio communication module, and it can detect and deliver local conditions such as temperature, sound, light, or the movements of objects. Therefore, there are wide ranges of applications envisioned for WSN. Military interests and applications such as enemy permeation perception and attack perception of the biological or chemical weapon have been studied (Nemeroff 2001). As a management of natural resources, WSNs have been applied for tracking or watching the precious animal (Kumagai 2004; Li 2004; Sikka 2004), the water containment monitoring, forest fire or flood watch (Lorincz 2004). For a health care system, WSNs have been applied for remote medical treatment system (Timmons 2004). In addition, WSNs have been applied to the home automation and industrial control fields such as the intelligent building, the factory and the nuclear plant (Tim 2005; Aakvaag 2005). By the explosive growth of indoor and outdoor wireless networks and network- enabled devices has led to a potential breakthrough in ubiquitous computing possibilities for pet dog management. To the best knowledge of the authors, a wireless management system for pet dog using WSNs has not been reported on yet in the technical literature. Therefore, this research can be a useful reference data for designing and implementing an intelligent pet dog management system using WSNs. In this article, WSNs are applied to wireless management system for a pet dog. The implemented WSN system is composed of wireless sensing modules, a central control system, and additional devices such as mini guidance robot, automatic feeder and etc. Wireless sensor module is attached on the pet dog neck. It measures data such as the luminance, temperature, and sound, and transmits measured data to the central control system. A graphic user interface (GUI) module is introduced for user monitoring module, which displays measured data from wireless sensor part as graphic form.
Article
The introduction of automatic milking technology, including on-line individual data acquisition and processing, requires adaptation of dairy management methods. Automatic milking systems allow the individual cow to be milked and fed according to her production performance and potential to achieve maximal profits with minimal resources. Because the farmer is not actually present each time a milking or feeding decision is needed, a new generation of control and management systems has been designed to assume the short-term dairy management and operational control. The overall management control still remains with the farmer or herdsperson, who is supported by the dairy control and management system. The paper discusses the influence on dairy management of the integration of the individual automatic milking and feeding systems. Then, the concept of a dairy control and management system, which includes a decision support and expert system, is described. A prototype, which enables automatic milking and feeding routines, was developed and tested.
Article
Compared with the visual system in human beings, the canine visual system could be considered inferior in such aspects as degree of binocular overlap, color perception, accommodative range, and visual acuity. However, in other aspects of vision, such as ability to function in dim light, rapidity with which the retina can respond to another image (flicker fusion), field of view, ability to differentiate shades of gray, and perhaps, ability to detect motion, the canine visual system probably surpasses the human visual system. This has made the dog a more efficient predator in certain environmental situations and permits it to exploit an ecological niche inaccessible to humans.
Pet triggered programmable toy
  • R J Thomas
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R. J. Thomas and R. B. Bonnell, "Pet triggered programmable toy," Jan. 8 2013, uS Patent 8,347,823.
Games for/with strangers-captive orangutan (pongo pygmaeus) touch screen play
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H. Wirman, "Games for/with strangers-captive orangutan (pongo pygmaeus) touch screen play," Antennae, 2014.
Towards a wearer-centred framework for animal biotelemetry
  • P Paci
  • C Mancini
  • B A Price
P. Paci, C. Mancini, and B. A. Price, "Towards a wearer-centred framework for animal biotelemetry," in Animal Computer Interaction, 2016.
Behavioral determination of critical flicker fusion in dogs
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C. DC, P. CH, and S. JC, "Behavioral determination of critical flicker fusion in dogs," Physiological Behavior, pp. 1087-1092, 1989.