(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2014-09)
Valentin, Giancarlo; Alcaidinho, Joelle; Friel, Larry; Zeagler, Clint; Jackson, Melody Moore; Starner, Thad
We designed an experiment with the goal of assessing wearable reachability for canines. We investigated the effect of placement on the ability of dogs to reach on-body interfaces with their snouts. In our pilot study, seven placements along the front legs, rib cage, hip and chest are tested with six dogs. The results showed that the front leg placements are reachable with the least amount of training and are also the most invariant to small changes in location. With training, the lower half of the rib cage area had the fastest access times across subjects. We hope that these results may be useful in mapping the constraint space of placements for snout interactions.
Working dogs have improved the lives of thousands of people.
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 pilot study, the FIDO team investigated
on-body interfaces for assistance dogs in the form of wearable technology
integrated into assistance dog vests. We created four different sensors that
dogs could activate (based on biting, tugging, and nose gestures) and tested
them on-body with three assistance-trained dogs. We were able to demonstrate
that it is possible to create wearable sensors that dogs can reliably
activate on command.