Using analyses of human-animal social interactions to inform human interactions with ambient technologies

The domestic dog (Canis familiaris) coexists with humans in almost every society worldwide. Somewhat surprisingly, until recently, dogs have not been considered by biologists as a serious subject for scientific study – they were thought of as not ‘real’ animals and any accounts of interesting social cognitive behaviour were dismissed as anthropomorphism (e.g. see Horowitz and Bekoff 2007). However, due to the pioneering work of a few ethologists, it is becoming clear exactly how important a species the dog is – in fact its domestication and close bond with humans is what ironically has made it such an interesting species. There is increasing evidence which suggests that not only has the dog evolved unique abilities to accurately understand human behaviour (e.g. Miklósi et al 2003, Hare & Tomasello 2005) but that humans have co-evolved to adapt accordingly (Schleidt and Schalter 2003). Furthermore it is clear that interaction between our two species has measurable, enjoyable, psychologically binding physiological consequences. People persevere with dogs when they get things wrong, or behave badly. Dogs and humans cooperate to herd sheep, find bodies in collapsed buildings, track criminal suspects and locate suspicious packages. Additionally, dogs are often trained to support vulnerable humans in safety-critical situations (e.g. Whitmarsh, 2005; Collins et al, 2006), to assist physically-disadvantaged people in household chores, and to infer, in real-time, the health status of their owners to a level that no artificial system or even other humans can, at least currently, attain (Lawson et al, 2004; Wells, 2007).