Dogs that help humans in danger can do so much more when they have technology designed especially for paws and noses
CLARA MANCINI'S colleagues used to laugh when she talked about her work. Mancini finds ways to improve our experience of interactive technologies. Should there be buttons? How many, how large, what colour? As gadget designers well know, little things can make a big difference.
But Mancini had shifted her focus to a group of users with very different needs. Dogs. "It was very hard at the beginning," says Mancini. "People saw this as something not quite to be taken seriously, as something a little bit funny and cute."
Yet dogs are an integral part of our everyday lives, and that creates a growing need for them to interact with technology. "Dogs are already used in search and rescue, in medicine, as service animals, to help autistic kids and ...
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