Valli and vibrotactile buttons

Valli explores vibrotactile button

Finished knitting another elephant button in Carmarthen last night.

Details at: http://toys4elephants.blogspot.co.uk/2015/12/vibrotactile-controls.html

Skomer comes to London

Skomer

Skomer (named after puffin island off the coast of Pembrokeshire) arrived today.  Her mum's a Jack Russell and her dad's a Yorkshire terrier so we assume she'll keep the ubiquitous rats on their toes.

Probably a good squirrel chaser too...

Foot pedal button

We visited Skanda Vale again on Saturday to catch up with Valli.  Brother Stefan has been making her a hosepipe football - she's been having some fun with it, but only plays when there is someone else joining in.  She looks like a gigantic puppy.  http://www.skandavale.org/elephant-plays-football/

Foot pedal button

This time, we were testing a giant button made from an old sewing machine foot pedal. 

This would normally provide a variable output, but I simplified it to ON/OFF and we created a wooden housing that surrounded the case so that Valli wouldn't be able to grasp the button with her trunk, only push it.

The button was bolted to the fence across the balcony. 

Valli explores the button casing

Wire out the back (on the non-elephant side) connected Arduino to my laptop and activated  a Processing sketch that played a 1 second audio sample.

We tested a low rumble, didgeridoo, tuba, double-bass and contra-bassoon.

Valli seemed interested in exploring the shape and contours of the new button, but was reluctant to push it.  Brother Stefan thinks that an alternative embedded sensor that just requires touch will be more successful with acoustic stimulation.

Blair Drummond Safari Park

Mondula heads outside

I went up to Stirling during half term week to meet Chris Hales, Head of Large Mammals, and Alistair Gillies, Chief Research Officer at Blair Drummond Safari Park.

Blair Drummond keep two African elephants, Mondula and Toto.  
We chatted about concepts for providing elephants with alternative enrichment, using technology to enable various systems.  I'm still keen to pursue acoustic stimulation, while Ally and Chris would like to offer control over different features in the environment, such as heat lamps and showers.

The inner walls of the barn have ready-made holes, designed for browsing.  This means that a system could potentially be mounted on the other side, so the elephants would need to reach through with their trunks to use controls.  This would be a good idea, as it would prevent them from using their full strength on the device.

Mondula at the fence

Chris showed me dents in a stainless steel bar 3m above the ground, caused by Mondula tusking.  He suggested that anything mounted inside the walls would have to be encased in a steel box to be elephant-proof!

Plans to follow up this visit with some concept sketches and suggestions for future research.

Skanda Vale

Skanda Vale is a multi-faith ashram in the Welsh countryside, who keep a temple elephant, Valli.   I went to visit Valli and her keepers at the Ashram on 21st Oct 2015, invited by Brother Stefan, who is interested in developing some novel enrichment for her.
 

Valli says "Good morning"

Valli came to Skanda Vale as an orphan when she was 2 months old and slept initially on Brother Peter’s chest, so he is her natural leader (mother figure). Valli is Full Contact with her keepers, and indeed, everyone she meets at Skanda Vale.

Elephant shed outside

Valli has a new elephant shed, which featured recently in Green Building magazine (Vol 24.  No. 2) because of its clever environmentally (and elephant) friendly design, conceived and project-managed by Brother Stefan.  The shed has sandy substrate and also a padded flat floor, for washing. There are 2 doors, one of which can be opened form inside, leading to paddock with electric fence. The other can only be opened by keeper, and leads to exit when Valli goes for walks.

Elephant shed inside

There is a small pool with waterfall and a fenced area which has access to the corridor outside, with bars wide enough for people to easily access. There are 2 heated walls, pipes set in concrete, with a wood-fired boiler and large insulated tank. A balcony overlooks the shed and there is also living accommodation – Brother Peter stays here.

The balcony area would be ideal for mounting a system of inverted bucket-buttons that Valli could reach. She could break the beams and a sound would be activated. She would have to keep her trunk inside the bucket to continue playing the sound. The speakers can be placed on the balcony, where there is an electricity supply, so the button would control an aspect of the environment next to it. Similarly, buttons to control wall temperature, for example, could be situated beside the wall.

Valli currently shares the space with Raf, an old male macaw which has been ill and is taking medication from Bro. Peter.  We take her for her second long walk of the day - up into the woodland.

Woodland walk with Valli

During the walk, Valli repeatedly attempts to stop and eat grass and leaves. B. Stefan says that at this time of year, the nourishment in grass is limited, compared with spring grass, which is full of nutrients. He regularly stops her from eating, because the idea of the walk is to give Valli exercise,  so she works to get to a meadow where she can stop and forage. She likes willow and broom, sometimes brambles.

Raf

When we return, it is time to play Valli some audio, to check that the different sounds do not make her scared. B. Peter says that a wildlife program terrified her when she was younger; B. Stefan says that she does not enjoy drums. It is likely that she can hear the drums being played at the temples at the bottom of the hill. There are 6 sets of prayers every day. B. Danny says he often plays her Grateful Dead, while B. Peter plays Bluegrass.

I have a selection of didgeridoo tracks by Ancien, Outback, Reiki Music Academy and some Bass Mekanik tracks from their album “Sonic Overload”, which includes very low frequency tracks, designed to test people’s speakers. There are samples ranging from 100Hz down to 10Hz. We connect my laptop (which can’t produce any sound lower than about 80Hz, but which can nevertheless play the MP3s) to Skanda Vale speakers and play Valli some didgi music and some low freq samples. I video her reactions. She appears to be listening.

Valli is not scared by the sound production and her keepers are enthusiastic about giving her an opportunity to control the production of audio. When she understands that she can control an aspect of her environment, and is confident doing this, the plan will be to use similar buttons/controls to allow her to control other things, such as the temperature of the wall, the lighting, showers or dust baths etc.

Student Environmental Enrichment Course

I attended the 17th S.E.E.C. (Student Environmental Enrichment Course), run by The Shape of Enrichment, from 4-7 August 2014.

We attended lectures and did some practical workshops in rope splicing and fire-hose weaving at Lakeview Monkey Sanctuary, followed by a design and production session to create new toys and environmental enrichment for the inhabitants.

Here we are, installing some new devices - dynamic branches, seesaw, herb baskets and hammocks.  The best part was standing back to watch the capuchins and macaques enter their enclosures again and begin to explore all the toys...

I

Capuchin exploring packet of ice and strawberries

Macaque on the swinging branch, playing with rope

Elephants at Howletts

I recently visited the Howletts herd of elephants, largest in UK.  There were 16 animals living together, with a wide range of age-groups (they have a high birth rate), including some small calves.

They're African forest elephants who obviously love a good chew on some branches, protected contact, with access to a huge muddy field as well as a yard with toys and forage and shelter.  At the end of the day, they all trooped obediently back to their own sheds.

They appeared to be having an excellent time.  There was lots of playful behaviour from both youngsters and fully grown elephants, barging and tussling; one youngster spent a long time head butting and charging an old tyre, another enjoyed clambering over logs.  Squelching in the mud was everyone's pleasure.