Computer-enabled screen systems containing visual elements have long been employed with captive primates for assessing preference, reactions and for husbandry reasons. These screen systems typically play visual enrichment to primates without them choosing to trigger the system and without their consent. Yet, what videos primates, especially monkeys, would prefer to watch of their own volition and how to design computers and methods that allow choice is an open question. In this study, we designed and tested, over several weeks, an enrichment system that facilitates white-faced saki monkeys to trigger different visual stimuli in their regular zoo habitat while automatically logging and recording their interaction. By analysing this data, we show that the sakis triggered underwater and worm videos over the forest, abstract art, and animal videos, and a control condition of no-stimuli. We also note that the sakis used the device significantly less when playing animal videos compared to other conditions. Yet, plotting the data over time revealed an engagement bell curve suggesting confounding factors of novelty and habituation. As such, it is unknown if the stimuli or device usage curve caused the changes in the sakis interactions over time. Looking at the sakis’ behaviours and working with zoo personnel, we noted that the stimuli conditions resulted in significantly decreasing the sakis’ scratching behaviour. For the research community, this study builds on methods that allow animals to control computers in a zoo environment highlighting problems in quantifying animal interactions with computer devices.

Although much work has focused on designing touch interfaces for primates, little is known about how physical computer buttons for monkeys would look. Here, we employ the rapid prototyping method commonly used in human–computer interaction to design tangible buttons for monkeys allowing them to interact with computer enrichment. Our findings reflect on the process of altering rapid prototyping from humans to animals and how computer buttons for monkeys might look. On this basis, we make suggestions for monkey buttons, highlighting colour and pull/swing over push/touch interactions. We also reflect on lessons learned from transferring prototyping across species, such as the need to iterate on a few variables and for initial prototypes to be varied, and speculate on how to balance the designer (human) and user (animals) needs. More broadly, this paper builds upon HCI prototyping techniques for unconventional users, creating a method for rapid iterative prototyping with animals.

Though computer systems have entered widespread use for animals' enrichment in zoos, no interactive computer systems suited to giraffes have yet been developed. Hence, which input modes or audio stimuli giraffes might best utilise remains unknown. To address this issue and probe development of such systems alongside the animals themselves and zookeepers, researchers gathered requirements from the keepers and from prototyping with giraffes, then created two interfaces -- one touch-based and one proximity-based -- that play giraffe-humming audio or white noise when activated. Over two months of observation, giraffes utilised the proximity-based system more frequently than the touch-based one but in shorter episodes. Secondly, the study highlighted the significance of considering user-specific needs in computer systems' development: the lack of preference shown for any specific audio type indicates that the audio stimuli chosen were inappropriate for these giraffes. In addition, the paper articulates several lessons that can be drawn from human--computer interaction when one develops systems for animals and, in turn, what the findings presented mean for humans.