Shiso, a ring-necked parakeet, can't speak English but she knows how to make her preferences known. She has screaming fights with the dogs and cats in her household, snorts for attention and food, and perches on her human to interact with her.
"She always likes to stand on different parts of my body, like my head or my shoulder or fingers," said Nanyi Jiang, a doctoral student in the field of information science. "I feel like sometimes she uses me like a tree."
To expand on this playtime activity, Jiang worked with Shiso to co-design NomadicPerch, a felted wearable that temporarily turns her hand into a mobile perch. Their design process involved seeing how Shiso responded to prototypes with various materials, shapes and colors. Jiang hopes this project will encourage others to design technology with - not for - animals, and to think more deeply about the relationships between humans, animals and technology.
Jiang, who is advised by co-author Malte Jung, associate professor of information science and the Nancy H. '62 and Philip M. '62 Young Sesquicentennial Faculty Fellow in the Cornell Ann S. Bowers College of Computing and Information Science, presented their project, "NomadicPerch: More-Than-Human Co-Design of a Shared Perch," at the ACM Designing Interactive Systems meeting, held June 13-17 in Singapore.
Nanyi Jiang with her parakeet.
This isn't the first time researchers have consulted with animals to develop new technologies. Most previous attempts, however, have brought in animals as end users to test the final product, not as collaborators in the design process.
Birds have the potential to be excellent collaborators. They have construction experience through nest building, and some species even build communal dwellings, like the sociable weavers of South Africa that weave multiroom nests housing more than 100 birds.
NomadicPerch evolved over time in response to Shiso's preferences. If Shiso ignored a design component, it was scrapped, but if she interacted with it, the part stayed.
Jiang started with a simple woolen finger cot, which then became a finger grid to improve grip. Later she included a wrist attachment and an extra blob of fibers on the finger for Shiso to chew on.
Instead of gently exploring the perch, Shiso showed her interest through destruction. The more excited Shiso was about a material or design, the more she chewed it to bits. "I started to change my mindset from, 'oh my gosh, she's destroying my prototype!' to 'oh my gosh, she actually loves it because she destroys it,'" Jiang said.
Strings are dangerous because they can tangle a bird, so Jiang crafted the designs through felting. In addition to wool, she tried different plant fibers, including hemp, flax, nettle and seacell, a fiber made from brown seaweed. Flax was the clear winner, as indicated by Shiso's enthusiastic chewing.
Jiang added lights and sensors to the design so she could monitor where Shiso spent the most time and infer her preferences. The sensors were unnecessary, however, because Shiso was very clear about what she liked.
For future iterations, Jiang plans to add a sleeve with a cave for Shiso to explore. Wild ring-necked parakeets live in holes in trees, so Jiang suspects that Shiso will enjoy hiding out there.
This co-design process has added a new dimension to their interactions - one that goes beyond feeding and playing, Jiang said.
"I definitely feel this changed a lot of our relationship and what we do every day," she said. "We can actually create something together."
Jiang created the project as part of the DEC 6040 Future Body Craft course taught by co-author Cindy (Hsin-Liu) Kao, associate professor of human centered design in the College of Human Ecology.
Patricia Waldron is a writer for the Cornell Ann S. Bowers College of Computing and Information Science.
