Canine-Centered Interface Design: Supporting the Work of Diabetes Alert Dogs Charlotte Robinson1, Clara Mancini1, Janet Van Der Linden1, Claire Guest2, Rob Harris2
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Session: Participatory Design CHI 2014, One of a CHInd, Toronto, ON, Canada Canine-Centered Interface Design: Supporting the Work of Diabetes Alert Dogs Charlotte Robinson1, Clara Mancini1, Janet van der Linden1, Claire Guest2, Rob Harris2 1Open University 2Medical Detection Dogs Milton Keynes MK7 6AA, UK Great Horwood MK17 0NP, UK {charlotte.robinson, clara.mancini, {claire.guest, rob.harris} janet.vanderlinden} @open.ac.uk @medicaldetectiondogs.org.uk ABSTRACT have been researched and developed which use skin Many people with Diabetes live with the continuous threat conductance or glucose sensors [2, 6]. However, these of hypoglycemic attacks and the danger of going into coma. machines have a certain margin of error and are often not a Diabetes Alert Dogs are trained to detect the onset of an practical stand-alone solution to manage day to day attack before the condition of the human handler they are hypoglycaemic attacks [10]. paired with deteriorates, giving them time to take action. We investigated requirements for designing an alarm As a result, Diabetes Alert Dogs (DAD) have increased in system allowing dogs to remotely call for help when their popularity over the last two decades. DADs are paired with human falls unconscious before being able to react to an human diabetes patients and are trained to warn their alert. Through a multispecies ethnographic approach we owners of oncoming hypoglycaemic attacks, giving them focus on the requirements for a physical canine user time to call for help or take steps to prevent the attack [23]. interface, involving dogs, their handlers and specialist dog Diabetic alert dogs use their olfactory capabilities to detect trainers in the design process. We discuss tensions between changes in blood sugar in real-time [5, 33] and act as an the requirements for canine and the human users, argue the early-warning system for their assisted humans with shorter need for increased sensitivity towards the needs of reaction times and higher precision than existing alarm individual dogs that goes beyond breed specific physical machines, thus significantly contributing to their owners’ characteristics, and reflect on how we can move from quality of life and safety [23]. However, some designing for dogs to designing with dogs. hypoglycaemic attacks can be so sudden that the owner falls into a coma before being able to react to their dog’s alert. If Author Keywords no other humans are around, the dog is then unable to help Diabetes Alert Dog; human-animal interaction; animal- further, left alone with the unconscious person. But what if computer interaction; user-centered design; multispecies technology existed that empowered the dog to take action ethnography even in a situation such as this? ACM Classification Keywords Recently there has been an increase in the availability of H.5.m. Information interfaces and presentation technological artefacts for companion animals (e.g. INTRODUCTION programmable pet-food feeders [20], remotely-played It is estimated that, worldwide, 371 million people currently interactive pet toys [8,18] location pet tracking devices suffer from diabetes, a serious disorder in sugar metabolism [29,17,12,28,], and “doggie doorbells” [19]). However, many [25]. Insulin treatment to manage diabetes can cause sudden of these technologies are for leisure or for pet-owner drops in blood glucose levels, which are known as convenience. Indeed, so far there has been very little hypoglycaemic attacks. Since these attacks can be fatal attention to researching and developing technology that can [31], they are greatly feared by diabetes patients. To try and support the work of animals such as DADs in tasks of critical prevent them, wearable hypoglycaemia alarm machines importance. Therefore we are interested in investigating how computing technology can be designed to assist animal Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for workers in tasks they are already performing. More personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are specifically, our work aims to investigate the development of not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies a system that enables a dog to remotely call for help on their bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. Copyrights for components of this work owned by others than ACM must be honored. owner’s behalf, precisely for those situations in which the Abstracting with credit is permitted. To copy otherwise, or republish, to owner is unable to act upon their dog’s alert. post on servers or to redistribute to lists, requires prior specific permission and/or a fee. Request permissions from [email protected]. HCI recognises the importance of user-centred design in CHI 2014, April 26 - May 01, 2014, Toronto, ON, Canada. order to best support humans in their tasks and daily life. Copyright 2014 ACM 978-1-4503-2473-1/14/04…$15.00. Consistent with this, the growing area of Animal-Computer http://dx.doi.org/10.1145/2556288.2557396 Interaction (ACI) aims to develop a user-centred approach to 3757 Session: Participatory Design CHI 2014, One of a CHInd, Toronto, ON, Canada the design of technology intended for animals, in order to owner is in trouble but there is no one else in the house he best support both their welfare and work [13,15]. To this can alert; he is now powerless at his owner’s side. effect, ACI aims to develop frameworks that can account for Scenario B species-specific characteristics both at the level of usability When Dan, at home alone with Buddy, starts having a and user experience, involving animals in the design process hypoglycaemic attack, Buddy knows how to use his special as participants and design contributors. However, pursuing alert system to remotely contact Dan’s partner and./or user-centred design for non-human users presents unique other friends or family, as soon as Dan has become challenges due - on the one hand - to sensory, ergonomic, unconscious. Unless Dan is conscious and intentionally cognitive, and cultural differences between canines and stops the alert by typing in an override code, the system is humans, and - on the other hand - to the difficulty of relying preconfigured to send an SMS to relevant people, who are on verbal communication, so often relied upon by interaction prompted them to call him and to call emergency services if designers. Recently researchers have begun to explore the he doesn’t answer. If none of them responds within a set possibility of adapting HCI research methodologies which time, the system calls emergency services directly with GPS combine verbal communication with observational coordinates of Dan’s house. Buddy paces worriedly for a techniques [14,33]. However, this work is yet to be few minutes, but then help arrives. Dan’s chances of concretely applied in the context of specific interaction avoiding brain or heart damage, or even death, have just design projects for and with animals. Thus here we explore skyrocketed and Buddy has been spared hours of stress. how existing HCI verbal and nonverbal methodologies such as multispecies ethnography and iterative dynamic prototyping, combined with ethologically informed What would the part of the system that Buddy uses look like? behavioural observation, can be concretely applied to How would Buddy engage with it? How would his sensorial, develop specific user-centred interface designs for assisting ergonomic, cognitive and cultural characteristics, together the work of DADs. with the characteristics of the tasks and his working environment, inform the interface design for such a canine The contribution of this paper is therefore twofold: 1) we alarm? And, critically, how would the researchers developing acknowledge DADs as a specific user group and explore such a system figure out what kind of interface Buddy might ways of eliciting their unique requirements and integrating want to do his job? In order to address these questions, we their input in the design process, in order to prototype and conducted ethnographic research at the UK’s leading DAD evaluate a range of interfaces for a canine alert system; 2) we training center. Working alongside dogs and their trainers, identify a number of design and methodological implications we explores ways of uncovering requirements of such an for the development of user-centred canine interfaces, thus alarm by involving the dogs themselves in the design contributing to the development of ACI as a research area. process. We took part in training practices to learn how SCENARIO trainers communicate with the dogs; interviewed human-dog Dan has Type 1 diabetes and lives in fear of partnerships to understand their needs; and engaged in rapid hypoglycaemia. Like approximately 25% of diabetic prototyping sessions with the dogs to identify their patients [3], he has developed ‘unawareness’ over the preferences. years and cannot tell when he is going hypo. Dan’s dog, Buddy, is trained to alert hypoglycaemia in Dan by RELATED WORK nudging him persistently until Dan acknowledges him and Alarm systems goes to test his blood sugar levels. Many times, Buddy’s Care home alarm systems and pervasive care monitors alerts have prevented Dan from undergoing a full-on [16,27] have been developed to enable vulnerable (e.g. older hypoglycaemic attack, allowing him to restore his blood or less-abled) people to remotely call for help. These systems sugar with food or drink before it becomes dangerously have been found to provide peace of mind and improve low. Dan feels lucky to have an alert dog by his side; quality of life for those who actively choose to use such knowing his dog will alert him has dramatically improved systems [1]. Many types of alarm are available, examples his quality of life. including tethered hanging pull-cord alarms, wearable alarms Scenario A triggered by either intentionally pressing a button, or One day, Dan’s partner is out and he is home alone.