Intro
This project explores movement prototyping, otherwise known as bodystorming. This allows us to generate many ideas relating to users’ relationship with spatial, social, and accessibility considerations. With bodystorming, we can anticipate any issues with our prototypes before building the physical product. It’s important to note, however, this particular assignment challenges the way we assess gestures with animals rather than humans.
The Personal Pet Cam is a device that allows you to record your pet’s activities and interpret their feelings through physical gestures. The physical device attaches to any wall, and with bluetooth pairing, connects the video footage to any mobile device. The purpose of this device is to create more awareness for pet owners, specifically dog owners, of their pet’s activities and feelings when they aren’t at home (or in the same room) as them.
Who
A device for pet owners to have security and surveillance over their pet’s actions.
What
A bluetooth camera that records, interprets, and reports a pet’s gestures.
Why
To be notified of what our pets are feeling when we aren’t available in the same room as them.
Sketches
The following gestures were sketches out prior to recording in order to plan what specific physical cues to capture, as the model for this prototype is an involuntary, non-human participant. The pet captured in the pet camera demo is a dog, but it’s important to note that some dogs have different physical cues for the following gestures:
Awake
When a dog wakes up and begins to wake up, they tend to stretch both their front and back legs. We may recognize these physical cues as the “downward dog” or “upward dog” in yoga. In a scenario where a pet owner sees their dog waking up and moving around, perhaps it’s time for them to go for a walk.
Hunger
According to BBC news, domesticated dogs have evolved in a way that they can use muscles to make their eyes appear “larger” to their human companions. Particularly, when a dog begs for food, they will use this as a way to grab the owner’s attention. When the personal pet camera captures this action, pet owners can be reminded that it’s time to feed their dog.
Defensive
When a pet gets in a defensive state, whether that’s out of fear or aggression, they have an innate response to “puff up” and look bigger. Additionally, dogs will bare their teeth or bark to indicate that they are upset about something. This cue can indicate to a pet owner that their pet is being disturbed by something in their environment. When a dog is distressed about a certain event, it prompts the pet owner to remove the source of the stress or the dog from that area.
Prototype
I quickly prototyped a small ‘camera’ using cardboard. I filled in the lens with a sharpie, and cut out a smaller circular shape to display a toggle button. This would reference whether or not the camera was on or off.
Recording Gestures
I decided to capture my participant’s gestures in the living room and kitchen of my home. I used this space particularly because it’s where my pet hangs out for the majority of the day, and given how spacious it is, I thought that this environment was where the camera would work best.
I took many recordings of my dog because I wanted to be able to capture a more “natural” timing for when she was displaying these gestures. For the gesture awake, I knew that I had to record my dog when she was getting up after a long nap. For hungry, I filmed during dinnertime when my dog actively participated in a staring contest with my family members. For defense, the recording was unintentional, I was vacuuming my work space and Fuji decided to chase after it.
Analysis
When I began my recordings for my dog’s gestures, I noticed that there was no physical prototype that she would be interacting with. This prompted me to create a model for my pet camera to demonstrate the relationship between the space and the device, and how the “user” would interact with it.
Reflection
Desirability
Something I realized as I was building this prototype was that there are so many ideas similar to a pet surveillance camera already. I recognize that pet cameras are available to and used occasionally by pet owners, however, there’s a distinct lack of intervention that prevents pet owners from doing something without being present. I also think that some pets have certain gestures that are specific to their personality, so there may be a misinterpretation in what these gestures mean across different breeds of dogs.
Usability
I think that this prototype is simple, but its physical appearance makes it look like a manual camera rather than a surveillance one that attaches to a surface. One person commented that they weren’t sure what the toggle button does, and suggested that including an icon would help them understand its functionality. In future iterations, I would consider designing interfaces to help illustrate how the Personal Pet Cam retrieves information about a pet’s gestures and translates them into insightful behaviors for the pet owner. Additionally, I think that the prototype’s relationship with a pet is
Feasibility
Realistically, it’s difficult to generalize and interpret gestures for all dogs because they each have unique ways of displaying various behaviors. While the personal pet camera relies heavily on visual cues, there are many other environmental things that can contribute to a dog’s behavior, such as sound, lighting, etc. There would need to be more technical considerations made with future iterations of the Personal Pet Cam, like whether or not it records audio.
Takeaways
In the future, I would reiterate on this prototype by creating a prototype that is more physically interactive for dogs to capture more contextual gestures with them. I think having a camera that fits in a specific setting, like a pet door or by the dog bed, can help with narrowing the scope of the prototype’s scenarios. Overall, I think that bodystorming gestures with animals is difficult because they’re unpredictable and it’s difficult to create intentional gestures for them through physical prototypes.
Demo