How to Train Birds to Use Tablets: An Interview with Jennifer Cunha

After teaching inner-city children to read, Jennifer Cunha took this experience and began teaching her cockatoo phonics and reading skills using Tablets. During this experience, she has been interested in their behaviour, asking questions like how parrots can use communication boards and what they would use tablets for? Digging into this further, we interviewed her … Continue reading How to Train Birds to Use Tablets: An Interview with Jennifer Cunha

Tracking technologies for Reindeer Husbandry – A Chat with Luke Researchers

We asked Dr. Jouko Kumpula of the National Resources Institute in Finland (Luke) about the role of tracking technology in reindeer research and husbandry. Dr. Kumpula has previously used tracking devices to collect data in several reindeer research projects studying their habitat usage and monitoring the effect of climate change on reindeer behaviour and reproduction. … Continue reading Tracking technologies for Reindeer Husbandry – A Chat with Luke Researchers

Researchers Find Dogs Prefer Robots to Look like Dog-Like But Dog Owners Do Not

Robots are increasingly being used in our homes, from robot vacuums to help with cleaning to using voice-agents to play music. Especially for social robots such as Siri and Alexia which communicate with us, these robots take many different forms, from having human-like faces and features to static boxes that talk in human voices. Recently … Continue reading Researchers Find Dogs Prefer Robots to Look like Dog-Like But Dog Owners Do Not

Building Interactive Enrichment for Elephants

Elephants in captivity face several challenges - from not getting enough exercise (potentially leading to weight gain and foot problems) to not having enough stimulation to prevent them from getting bored. Addressing these problems is not always an easy task, as there is limited space in zoos and often few other elephants to interact with. … Continue reading Building Interactive Enrichment for Elephants

Scientists develop a sound device to allow monkeys living in a Finnish zoo to play sounds and music

Aalto University researchers designed a sound device for white-face sakis living in Korkesaari Zoo. Photo: Annika Sorjonen / Korkeasaari Zo Sound is a promising way to stimulate zoo animals and increase their welfare, as shown by a  study from Aalto University collaborating with Helsinki’s Korkeasaari Zoo. Researchers built a device that plays different sounds for … Continue reading Scientists develop a sound device to allow monkeys living in a Finnish zoo to play sounds and music

Tech for Farm Animals – 101

Who has not already heard about milking robots and the so-called Precision Agriculture? Yes, the tech for farm animals is gaining momentum and is taking advantage of recent trends in computing, such in cloud computing, edge computing and Internet of Things (IoT) computing, networking and sensing. Yet, technologies for farm animals is not just about … Continue reading Tech for Farm Animals – 101

Future of Dog Walks: A Leash Meter to Measure the Pulling Between People and Dogs

Dogs pulling on leashes is an age-old problem - both for the dog-owning public and the dog themselves. For dogs, leash issues have been cited as one of the leading culprits for otherwise healthy dogs being left in animal shelters. Additionally, excessive pulling on the leach can potentially damage the neck and the eyes of … Continue reading Future of Dog Walks: A Leash Meter to Measure the Pulling Between People and Dogs

Energy Harvesting with Farm Animals – Watts All The Fuss About?

A chat with David Blažević With the recent increase in the number of free-grazing farm animals, an area of interested has opened up in Animal-Computing to look at ways to monitor and keep track of animals whilst they are out alone foraging. One way this has been proposed is through tracking and monitoring animals whilst … Continue reading Energy Harvesting with Farm Animals – Watts All The Fuss About?