Rest Assured

What if instead of constant surveillance, technology could nurture a calm, reciprocal connection between us and our furry babies? Rest Assured is an IoT ambient notification system for pet dog owners to feel confident and less anxious about leaving their dogs home alone. Consisting of a smart figurine, a tail-tracking harness using IMU sensing, and a pressure-sensitive cushion for rest detection, the system achieves the intended user goals by strengthening their emotional bond and encouraging the dog to rest longer within a closed feedback loop. Through user research, iterative prototyping, and pilot user testing, we 1) gained insight into the contextually-structured user perception of rest, and user interpretation of the form factors and tangible interactions, 2) confirmed such an interactive system’s value of facilitating technology-mediated-human-animal interactions, and 3) speculated that such a system would benefit contexts where rest is lacking, such as anxious home-alone dogs. Future work includes longitudinal user studies with participants with anxious home-alone dogs in their naturalistic environment, emotion detection via tail movement with more expressive figurine behaviors, gestural control for nuanced remote interactions, and a supplemental mobile application.