Dr Clara Mancini

Senior Lecturer in Computing and Communications

I am senior lecturer in Interaction Design and head of the Animal–Computer Interaction (ACI) Lab.
My research focuses on:
- studying the interaction between animals and technology in naturalistic settings, whether the interaction is direct or indirect, dyadic or distributed, active or passive, synchronous or asynchronous
- developing animal-centered technology that can improve animals’ wellbeing, support animals in their activities and foster intra- and inter-species relationships
- informing multidisciplinary animal-centered approaches that can enable animals to participate in the design process as legitimate stakeholders and contributors.
I have led and supervised a range of ACI projects, including ambient interfaces for mobility assistance dogs, communication systems for medical detection dogs, interactive enrichment for captive elephants, and wearable animal biotelemetry. My research interests cover the design of systems to support multispecies cohabitation, collaboration and participation, as well as animal welfare and ethical conservation.
I am particularly interested in the methodological challenges and innovation opportunities presented by ACI, and in the potential that this emerging discipline has to contribute to human and animal wellbeing, social inclusion, interspecies cooperation and environmental restoration.

Keywords

Animal-Computer Interaction, Animal-Centred Computing, Multispecies Interaction Design, Human-Animal Interaction, Smart Systems, Ubiquitous Computing, Wearable Computing, Multimodal Interfaces, Interface Design, Animal Welfare, Animal Ethics, Animal Conservation

Publications

French, Fiona, Mancini, Clara and Sharp, Helen ,(2020). More than Human Aesthetics: Interactive Enrichment for Elephants. In: 2020 ACM Designing Interactive Systems Conference (DIS 2020), 6-10 Jul 2020, Eindhoven, Netherlands.

Paci, Patrizia, Mancini, Clara and Price, Blaine ,(2020). Understanding the Interaction Between Animals and Wearables: The Wearer Experience of Cats. In: DIS'20: Designing Interactive Systems 2020, 6-10 Jul 2020, Eindhoven, The Netherlands.

Ruge, Luisa and Mancini, Clara ,(2019). A Method for Evaluating Animal Usability (MEAU). In: Sixth International Conference on Animal-Computer Interaction, 12-14 Nov 2019, Haifa, Isrel.

Chisik, Yoram and Mancini, Clara ,(2019). P for Politics D for Dialogue: Reflections on Participatory Design with Children and Animals. In: Sixth International Conference on Animal-Computer Interaction, 12-14 Nov 2019, Haifa, Israel.

Paci, Patrizia, Mancini, Clara and Price, Blaine ,(2019). Designing for wearability: an animal-centred framework. In: 6th International Conference on Animal-Computer Interaction, 12-14 Nov 2019, Haifa, Israel.

Paci, Patrizia, Mancini, Clara and Price, Blaine A. ,(2019). Wearer-Centered Design for Animal Biotelemetry: Implementation and Wearability Test of a Prototype. In: ISWC2019: International Symposium on Wearable Computing, 11-13 Sep 2019, London, UK.

Cox, Elizabeth, Ruge, Luisa, Mancini, Clara and Luck, Rachael ,(2018). User Centered Design Approaches to Measuring Canine Behavior: Tail Wagging as a Measure of User Experience. In: Fifth International Conference on Animal-Computer Interaction (ACI2018), 4-6 Dec 2018, Atlanta, Georgia, USA.

Swagerman, Sanne, Mancini, Clara and Nack, Frank ,(2018). Visualizing Cat GPS Data: A Study of User Requirements. In: Proceedings of the Fifth International Conference on Animal-Computer Interaction, ACI2018, 4-6 Dec 2018, Atlanta, Georgia, USA.

Mancini, Clara and Lehtonen, Jussi ,(2018). The Emerging Nature of Participation in Multispecies Interaction Design. In: Proceedings of International Conference on Designing Interactive Systems, 9-13 Jun 2018, Hong Kong, China.

Paci, Patrizia, Mancini, Clara and Price, Blaine ,(2017). The Role of Ethological Observation for Measuring Animal Reactions to Biotelemetry Devices. In: Proc. Fourth International Conference on Animal-Computer Interaction, ACI2017, 21-23 Nov 2017, Milton Keynes, United Kingdom.