What if we designed tech for sleep needs? Our upcoming ACM TEI paper explores a smart pillow that controls audio via hugging & squeezing. Co-design with 16 participants showed that sleep onset is its own design context.
ilyenahirskyjdouglas.wordpress.com/... @teiconsortium.bsky.social
This sounds so beautiful, who doesn’t love a dance!
A composite image of parrots calling each other on tablets. Image from Kleinberger et al., 2023.
Pet parrots were taught to do video calls, and it was a hit.
The birds not only made friends with each other, and selected who they wanted to call and when, but also picked up new skills from fellow parrots.
Good enrichment option for improving captive parrot welfare.
🧪🦜
dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/...
My work on dog- and cat screen technologies is featured in today’s New York Times — discussing control, choice, and what “enrichment” really means in digital environments www.nytimes.com/2026/02/12/s...
@glasgow.ac.uk @uofgcompsci.bsky.social
My TEDxManchester talk, "What if your dog could FaceTime you?" was featured in the top 25 most essential talks playlist on the TEDx channel. Thank you to everyone who watched, shared, and nurtured these ideas!
youtu.be/Rgfi6DGDPBk?...
@glasgow.ac.uk @uofgstem.bsky.social
Grateful to see our cat café research getting attention from The American Animal Hosptial Association! 🐱 A reminder that animals don't always engage with tech the way we expect.
www.aaha.org/trends-magaz...
@glasgow.ac.uk
Big year, bigger one ahead.
With my ERC Starting Grant FUTUREFAUNA starting next year, it feels like I’m stepping into the next phase of what I can do. Excited for the next five years — and to kick it off with a keynote at HRI in March.
At the Association for the Study of Animal Behaviour conference, where Jiaqi presented her PhD work showing that multimodal technology (smell, sound, and visuals) engaged lemurs far better than visuals alone.
Paper: doi.org/10.1145/3706... @glasgow.ac.uk
If you missed Dr Ilyena Hirskyj-Douglas at British Science Festival in Liverpool yesterday talking about her work to connect animals through tech, check this out! 🦜💻 #BSF25
Dr Ilyena Hirskyj-Douglas of the School of Computing Science (left) and Dr Rachael Boyd of the School of Mathematics & Statistics. Dr Boyd photo credit: Patrick Orson
Congrats to Dr Rachael Boyd of the School of Mathematics & Statistics and Dr Ilyena Hirskyj-Douglas (@ilyena.bsky.social) of @uofgcompsci.bsky.social, who have received @erc.europa.eu Starting Grants to support groundbreaking new research projects.
Read more here: gla.ac.uk/news/headlin...
My TEDx talk has been featured on TEDx YouTube as an Editor's Pick! youtu.be/Rgfi6DGDPBk?...
In her TEDx talk, UofG's Dr Ilyena Hirskyj-Douglas reveals what happens when animals control their own technology. From parrots choosing their online friends to dogs scheduling video calls!
Learn about her groundbreaking research ⬇️
www.ted.com/talks/ilyena...
My group @uofglasgow.bsky.social continues to examine how we can ethically build shared interfaces between humans and animals, supporting welfare, education, and conservation goals through multispecies design. Find us next week at @chi.acm.org
ilyena.com/wp-content/u...
Analysing 968 questionnaires & 25k visitors, when people had similar tech to experience the stimuli and play a game about the lemurs' preferences, everything significantly improved: people spent more time and in increased numbers at the enclosure, increased empathy and learning
How can interactive technology support animals and humans in zoos? We developed a device for red-ruffed lemurs to trigger smell, sound, and visuals. Using the device 4021 times over 63 days, lemurs use the system significantly more with multimodal than unimodal stimuli
Yes! Excited about this publication ❤️
Red-ruffed lemurs at Blair Drummond Safari Park interact with the SensorySafari system
New technology developed by @ilyena.bsky.social of @uofgcompsci.bsky.social in partnership with Blair Drummond Safari Park which allows zoo animals and their human visitors to share experiences could have positive benefits for both.
Read more here: www.gla.ac.uk/news/headlin...
Thanks so much to our two speakers for an excellent seminar about starting new research groups. @ilyena.bsky.social and Sharon Ding provided fantastic advice and introspective reflections on their experiences.
Exciting times, the next GWiCS Seminar is coming soon!
Next week on Wednesday at 3pm Dr Ilyena Hirskyj-Douglas
@ilyena.bsky.social
and Dr Xianghua (Sharon) Ding will talk to us about their experiences establishing new groups as research leaders.
Come join us in SAWB room 423 or on Zoom!
Over the weekend, I gave a TEDxManchester talk on creating computer devices that enable animals to control their environment and social lives using the Internet.
The talk will be available on YouTube in a few months (link coming soon!).
@uofglasgow.bsky.social
@ilyena.bsky.social delves into building the Animal Internet, a realm where animals connect through technology, reshaping our bond with them. A must-see exploration! 🌍 #TEDxManchester
🥳!
My research group has been awarded a @ufaw.bsky.social
Large Grant to study the behaviour of Red-Ruff Lemurs with technology at @blairdrummond.bsky.social Zoo. Berkay Arslan will join my Animal-Computer Interaction group at @uofglasgow.bsky.social for six months - welcome!
What a beautiful campus the @uniofstandrews.bsky.social
has! Thank you for inviting me to talk about my animal-computing research at the Psychology and Neuroscience department and to Prof Amanda Seed for the ice cream and conversation.
I'll be giving a TEDx talk in March on my vision and work around the Animal Internet and how this can reshape our understanding of animal lives - exciting times!
I lectured at @northeasternu.bsky.social Animal-Computer Interaction class; students asked how I chose projects/animals to guide their choices. Ideas spark from institutions, papers and experience, but navigating animal and human desires for tech (of who wants what & why) is complex.
'POCA!' Is A Game Boy Camera Photobook Adventure & A Heartfelt Homage To 'Hip' Tanaka.
Pet tech offers many ways to transform how we care for animals. As someone who builds pet tech, I've seen the rise of quantified pets offering potential insights into animal health. I'm quoted in this article asking how we make meaning and use pet tracking data and its potential unexpected usage.
How was it? Do you mean smelling while doing VR?
I will present my parrot and dog interactive tech research tomorrow at Prof. Ludwig Huber's lab at the University of Veterinary Medicine Vienna. I'm looking forward to the comparative cognition perspective on my work and to thinking about wider implications. Thanks for the invite!
