From Human-Human to Human-Animal Connectedness: An Ambient Display Connecting Humans to Pet Dogs

Abstract

Distant pet owners suffer from negative feelings such as distress or anxiety when separating from their pet dogs. Informed by prior work on facilitating intimacy between distant couples and among distant family members, we present the design and evaluation of the cAMpanion ambient display to enhance distant owner’s sense of connectedness with their pet dogs. cAMpanion shows three statuses of pet dogs via different light colors in real-time enabled by sensor modules installed in pet dog’s living environment. We examined the impact and effectiveness of cAMpanion via a 14-day field study using mixed methods research. Our qualitative data suggested that cAMpanion helped raise awareness, while quantitative results indicated statistically significant decrease in owners’ negative emotions and increase in their perceived closeness. We discussed both advantages and limitations of cAMpanion from distant owners’ perspective, and provided implications for future researchers who would like to design similar display to enhance human-animal connectedness.