Conceptualizaciones acerca de los aspectos metodológicos

In order to learn about animals people have traditionally visited zoos, museums or natural habitats. A new medium is now available to us, the “Electronic Zoo” (Davies, 2000). Virtual environments allow the modelling of both animals and their environment, thus allowing the study or modelling of virtual ecosystems, individual species behaviour, or even the enclosure design of captive animals. Heleno and dos Santos (Heleno and dos Santos, 1998) looked at modelling a virtual ecosystem of an estuary of the River Sado. The ecosystem contains mullets, dolphins and jelly fish. All of the animals have the same underlying 39 | P a g e

architecture. However, some are drawn to each other, such as predators, and some are repelled as prey. The surrounding environment can also affect the ecosystem, using for example a pollution variable to affect animal health. In a species specific study, Tomlinson et al. simulated the emotions and behaviour of gray wolves (Tomlinson and Blumberg, 2001) with the aim of enabling users to better understand a species relationships with its environment. Stricklin et al. (Stricklin et al., 1995) used animats (virtual animals) to investigate enclosure design. They undertook this using a two dimensional approach. The enclosure is modelled and the animats are monitored to record space usage. The outputs included distance moved, direction changes, boundary collisions and personal space violations. The author suggests that this technology has potential uses for animal welfare.

2.4.3.1 Virtual Pets

Virtual animals and creatures have become commonplace in games from Tamagotchi pets (Bandai, 2016) to Nintendogs (Nintendo). In typical examples, the game player must feed the animal and play with it. Failure to look after the animal correctly will result in its demise (Fogg, 2002). Kaplan (Kaplan, 2000) looks at the role of uselessness in the design of virtual pets and suggests that one of the intriguing design features of virtual pets is that they are useless and have no practical application, yet people of all age groups spend time playing with them, perhaps suggesting that users feel a duty of care for them. Other research illustrates the use of virtual pets to improve mirror neuron function in autistic children (Altschuler, 2008) and to help children with cognitive impairments who have difficulties with interpersonal relationships (Marti et al., 2005). The use of virtual pets allows most children to develop emotions towards them (Chen et al., 2011, Kusahara, 2001) and studies have examined how emotional attachment to virtual pets can be used to encourage

behavioural change (Dillahunt et al., 2008). Using virtual pets might enable zoos to teach visitors about different species in a more entertaining way, allowing them to continue learning after the visit. This would, therefore, contribute to conservation education.

2.4.3.2 Virtual Primates

Piccault and Collinot (Picault and Collinot, 1998) investigated the creation of multi agent systems by simulating primate societies. They suggested that there are links between primate behaviour and multi agent systems, by simulating a Macaque group of between five and thirty individuals. They used a reactive model to simulate social concepts and to look at distinctions between organisational levels and they split the organisational levels into three using the Cassiopeia method. Level one included domain dependant roles such as threat, submit and eat. Level two looked at relational roles such as affiliation, dominance and kinship. Level three considered organisational roles such as coalitions and alliances. The study then went on to look at social cognition using the pheromone model. In this model, when an event occurs, a social pheromone is given off into the environment which, when perceived by an animal, causes a change in its relational and organisational behaviours and knowledge. Piccault and Collinot then looked at simulating attention using distance and field of view. They ran a test with a population of between five and thirty agent animals looking at dominance behaviour and found that a linear hierarchy would form, aggression would go down and coalition go up. This would then collapse and the process start again. In a separate study examining Chimpanzee behaviour using artificial intelligence (AI), Chimpanzees search for food and mates resulting in a group hierarchy being simulated, with males demonstrating grouping behaviour and females being more solitary (Irenaeus et al., 1994).

In Gorillas in Bits (Crowell, 1997) the user becomes an adolescent gorilla and part of a gorilla family. An adult male and female in the habitat are both resting. The user can approach the adults. However, there are rules. The male has a large personal space and intrusion into this in an aggressive way will result in behaviour such as chest beating, charges, vocalisations or even physical attack. The female gorilla is easier to approach and will allow the user to approach her in a slow submissive way. If she does not respond then the user can groom her. However, an incorrect approach to the female gorilla will also result in an aggressive behaviour. One nice feature of this simulation is the “Time Out” function. The authors knew that if children had the opportunity to invoke an aggressive response they may, in some cases, deliberately do so. If they did this the screen would turn black and a message would come up telling them that they were in “Time Out”. This is an excellent idea as the simulator is teaching users about gorillas and their behaviour, not how to annoy them. This approach would be sensible to adopt in the current project if the simulation was to be used by the general public. Hay et al.’s (Hay et al., 2000) aim was to help children gain a greater understanding of the biomechanics of gorilla behaviour/movements, such as grooming and knuckle walking. The children in the study also used the Virtual Gorilla simulator at Zoo Atlanta. They utilised a HMD, were inside a gorilla habitat, and assumed the role of an adolescent gorilla. After using the simulator they made models of gorillas in poses using pipe cleaners. They also wrote down some instructions for behavioural rules that were input into the simulator and could be viewed by them to see what had occurred. The study demonstrates how VR can be used to teach young children on visits to zoos.

2.4.4 Summary

To summarise, the literature informs us that zoos have an obligation to teach visitors about their animals and exhibits (WAZA, 2005) and need new and innovative ways of doing this (Davies, 2000). The literature identifies that certain animals respond positively when keepers care for them by mimicking the animal’s behaviour (Jenvoid, 2008, Case et al., 2015). Some research has been carried out regarding teaching zoo visitors about primate behaviour (Hay et al., 2000) (Crowell, 1997) while other studies have successfully used AI to simulate primate society (Picault and Collinot, 1998) (Irenaeus et al., 1994). The literature also shows that people can develop emotional connections with virtual pets (Chen et al., 2011, Kusahara, 2001) and that this connection can be a good tool for engaging people with bigger issues (Dillahunt et al., 2008). All of the above suggests that VR and serious gaming could be a good way of facilitating learning for students, zoo staff and visitors. However, before moving onto discussing more advanced studies, it is important to understand whether CGI used in VEs contains sufficient detail for the identification of animal behaviour. By isolating the visual variable and scripting the user experience, it is possible to ensure that users see the appropriate learning material. A comparison can then be made with fixed viewpoint film, before moving onto unscripted user controlled interactions and the added benefits or distractions that they bring in later studies. In this, and subsequent studies, the researcher aims to build on these foundations and show evidence in support of using serious games and virtual animals as a new and exciting way to educate people on animal behaviour, whilst ensuring that 3D technologies are not used simply for the sake of using them.