Animal Ludens: Building Intelligent Playful Environments for Animals

Abstract

Looking for effective ways to understand how animals interact with computer-mediated systems, Animal-Computer Interaction (ACI) research should rely on the most natural and intrinsic behavior among the majority of living species: play. Animals are naturally motivated towards playing. Playful environments are, therefore, a promising scenario in which to start developing animal-centered ecosystems, and there are plenty of circumstances where playful environments could help to improve animals' well-being. However, developing a custom system for each possible context remains unfeasible, and more appealing solutions are required. If playful environments were equipped with intelligent capabilities, they could learn from the animals' behavior and automatically adapt themselves to the animals' needs and preferences by creating engaging playful activities for different purposes. Hence, this work will define intelligent playful environments for animals and explain how Ambient Intelligence (AmI) can contribute to create adaptable playful experiences for animals in order to improve their quality of life.