Sofya Baskin

Bio: Sofya Baskin is an academic researcher from University of Haifa. The author has contributed to research in topics: Comparative genomics & Ethology. The author has an hindex of 6, co-authored 9 publications receiving 80 citations. Previous affiliations of Sofya Baskin include Ariel University.

The Player is Chewing the Tablet!: Towards a Systematic Analysis of User Behavior in Animal-Computer Interaction

Abstract: There is an increasing demand for digital games developed for pets, in particular for dogs and cats. However, play interactions between animals and technological devices still remain an uncharted territory both for animal behavior and user-computer interaction communities. While there is a lot of anecdotal evidence of pets playing digital games, the nature of animal-computer play interactions is far from being understood. In this work-in-progress we address the problem of analyzing and interpreting user behavior in such interactions using the tool of ethograms from applied ethology, which are catalogs of typical behavior patterns.

Serious Games: Is Your User Playing or Hunting?

Abstract: There is an increasing demand for entertainment applications developed for pets, in particular for dogs and cats. However, play interaction between animals and technological devices still remains an uncharted territory both for animal behavior and entertainment computing scientific communities. While there is a lot of anecdotal evidence of pets playing digital games, the nature of animal-computer play interactions is still not understood. In this paper we report on empirical findings based on observing and analyzing dog-tablet game interactions. Using categories emerging from our data analysis, we construct an ethogram, a “catalogue” of behavioral patterns typical of dog-tablet interactions. Based on our data analysis, we hypothesize that the nature of the observed interactions is that of predatory behavior, in response to stimuli in the form of “prey-like” virtual objects displayed on the screen. Based on our hypothesis, we further propose some questions for future investigation, and raise some issues that need to be addressed by game developers when targeting dogs as their users.

Pushing Boundaries of RE: Requirement Elicitation for Non-human Users

Abstract: With the advance of modern technologies, computer-based systems for animals are gaining popularity In particular, there is an explosion of products and gadgets for pets: wellness monitoring applications (eg, FitBark and PetPace), automatic food dispensers, cognitive enrichment apps, and many more Furthermore, the discipline of Animal-Computer Interaction has emerged, focusing on a user-centric development of technologies for animals, making them stakeholders in the development process Animal-centric technologies have already been developed to support activities of rescue and assistance dogs, to provide environmental and cognitive enrichment for animals in captivity, and to support conservation and animal behavior research Going beyond human stakeholders poses new exciting challenges for requirement engineering and can be used to significantly expand its boundaries under broader theoretical and methodological frameworks This paper highlights these challenges and proposes a research agenda for developing methodologies for requirement elicitation and analysis for a user-centric development of computerized systems for non-human users

Is My Dog "Playing" Tablet Games?: Exploring Human Perceptions of Dog-Tablet Interactions

Abstract: Playful interaction of pets with tablets is a spreading phenomenon. Thousands of videos of people giving tablets to their pets to "play" can be found online, and training schools are offering classes teaching tablet skills for dogs. While the nature of pets "playing" with tablets is yet to be fully understood, some works highlight the potential dangers of such interactions. Humans -- both pet owners and pet professionals, play a pivotal role in shaping the way pets interact with technology, both in terms of promoting pet-oriented technologies, as well as posing requirements for them. This paper presents an exploratory study of human perceptions and attitudes towards playful interactions of dogs with tablets. Our results reveal mixed feelings towards this phenomenon, and awareness of the potential dangers of such interactions. Moreover, roughly half of the participants do not consider such interactions as "play", leading to further questions concerning the motivations of pet owners for exposing their pets to technology and the future of mobile apps for pet play.

FarmJam 2017: Designing Enrichment for Farm Animals

Abstract: This workshop will allow participants to work together to devise novel forms of technically enhanced enrichment for farm animals. It will take the format of a gamejam, whereby teams will be given clear briefs, they will brainstorm concepts and present their ideas to the group for feedback and analysis.

Genetics and the Social Behavior of the Dog

Abstract: second half of the book presents the information that the authors were able to gather with the assistance of two public health teams supported by the Greek Ministry of Health in relation to medical examinations, hygienic knowledge and practice, and interpretation of illness. This book is written in a simple, straightforward style which is equally readable by ethnologists, physicians, public health workers, and laymen. Major defects of the report are that the three villages studied were in no sense representatives of average Greek villages, since they were mostly populated either by Greek refugees from other countries or by nomadic populations who had been settled in villages. Also, the authors' conclusions about \"infanticide as a means of birth control\" and the belief that \"unbaptized babies are creatures somewhat apart from the human family\" are entirely incorrect. Infanticide and abortion are illegal in Greece as in all other European countries. Also, the authors have some misconceptions about Greek social structure. Among these are their view that physicians are relatively low in the social scale, that folk healing is as widespread as they indicate, and that the traditional spiritual role of the priest in a Greek village conflicts with that of the physician. Despite these criticisms the book is valuable, interesting, and important as a statement of certain public health problems seen in some areas of Greece.

Understanding Animal Welfare: The Science in its Cultural Context

Abstract: Academic and scientific literature continues to explode at an unprecedented rate. A student entering any scientific field must initially navigate a massive resource of information. The logarithmic growth of the current scientific knowledge base has created a significant knowledge transfer market niche between the excessive specificity of the peer-reviewed journal article and the broad, generally considered to be true, knowledge captured by the student textbook. Reflecting a growing obsolescence of the traditional hardcover textbook, I would suggest that there is an apparent need and an increasing market for the “paperback textbook” one of which is the subject of this review. David Fraser is a Canadian pioneer of animal welfare science. He has published widely on animal welfare research, its practical applications, and its philosophical basis. He is currently Professor and NSERC Industrial Research Chair in Animal Welfare at the University of British Columbia, and serves as an advisor to many international organizations including representing Canada at the Office international des epizooties, in development of international standards for farm animal welfare. His recent book, Understanding Animal Welfare: The Science in its Cultural Context is the 4th of the current 5, in the Animal Welfare Book Series, which is produced in collaboration between UFAW (The Universities Federation for Animal Welfare), and Wiley-Blackwell. Another book and author in this series, recognizable to many readers, is Animal Welfare: Limping Towards Eden, by John Webster, 2005. This series would fall into the genre of the paperback textbook. I believe the market for this genre is the academic consumer (instructors, students, and curriculum designers), the applied professional and the rare especially interested and intelligent citizen. If we adopt the premise that all knowledge is temporary and recently constructed, then the criteria to judge a paperback textbook would include the cutting-edge quality of the information, quality of writing, and utility in transitioning the relatively ignorant but interested student to a more informed and engaged academic or researcher. It should be noted that this book has a single author in a genre that usually is constructed by a compilation of experts with a senior editor. This single author organization provides both strengths such as excellent coherence and weaknesses to the final product. A primary challenge in the book is the title and the effort to link widely divergent schools of study, the life experience of the animal(s) under question, the social and cultural matrix that placed the animal in its environment and the resultant types of animal welfare questions being asked. From a historic review of the development of the speciality of animal welfare research, the book is very well organized and delivered. The historical philosophical deliberation on what is an animal and the ethical evolution of what moral consideration animals are due is well documented. The cognitive evolution of animal welfare science is supplemented by specific examples that illustrate various scientific methods of evaluating the experiences of animals. The book is divided into 3 sections: “animal welfare in context,” provides a philosophical background of animal use and the human-animal cultural evolution; section 2 “studying animal welfare” is an excellent review of the history, ideologies and methodologies of the major schools of current animal welfare research. In Section 3, “drawing conclusions about animal welfare” on the other hand, the author deals primarily with 2 separate and significantly different concepts. Chapters 11 and 12 essentially deal with the evaluation of the various schools of animal welfare science and how can animal welfare scientists best communicate new knowledge to society to effectively result in better animal welfare. The final 2 chapters bravely attempt to deal with, or at least identify, the serious epistemological problems in the field of animal welfare science. The problem that well meaning and informed people genuinely disagree on central issues of animal welfare and use, as any individual will believe some sources of knowledge are more legitimate or valuable than other sources of knowledge. This question is fairly well handled, despite the inherent resistance to be solved. There are some topics absent from discussion in this book, especially if your reader expectations lean toward an interest in the “Cultural Context” commitment in the books title. Cultural context is somewhat ambiguous as it may refer to the culture of scientific investigation or the greater culture of an evolving society. The book adequately discusses the culture of scientific investigation. There is limited recognition of cultural environments other than the dominant Anglo-American and European society where the science of animal welfare has evolved. This may be expected as the current science of animal welfare is limited to the dominant culture of the highly developed world. Promulgation of laws, the most visible evidence of cultural change, is only briefly touched upon; however, there is a discussion of how scientists can best inform this discourse. As a primer for veterinary or animal science students interested in pursing further studies in animal welfare, it is an excellent resource. A close reading will result in the veterinary audience reconsidering the application of veterinary medicine versus veterinary science in informing daily decisions. Dr. Fraser has published so widely in his long career that individuals with an intermediate knowledge of the animal welfare literature will be familiar with much of the information presented in this book. However, as an introductory reader for the undergraduate or the professional returning to academia it provides an excellent synthesis of the science and current epistemology of the questions around our concern for non-human animal welfare.