Edible Physics

Kebab sticks and midget gems - build as high as you can!

Londonmet FLSC Summer Show 2014

Amazing work from my students, who produced fantastic games and toys for this year's Digital Toybox  Summer Show:  www.thinkmakeplay.co.uk/show.

Designing smart toys for the cognitive enrichment of elephants

http://doc.gold.ac.uk/aisb50/AISB50-S14/AISB50-S14-French-extabst.pdf

Paper delivered at AISB 2014 (conference for The Society for the Study of Artificial Intelligence and Simulation of Behaviour), ISAWEL (Symposium on Intelligent Systems for Animal Welfare)

track.

My co-authors were Clara Mancini, Neil Smith and Helen Sharp from The Open University.

Tanya playing in the mud, Colchester Zoo, Feb 2014

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.

Elephants

So I'm currently undertaking a PhD in Animal Computer Interaction at The Open University...  "Designing smart toys for the cognitive enrichment of elephants". 

I've been doing some behavioural studies of elephants at Colchester Zoo - Tanya, Opal, Zola and Tembo.  Check the link for some video-clips: https://www.flickr.com/photos/thinkmakeplay/sets/72157642927226824/


Paper presented next week at AISB 2014.