Project Hail Lassie
Is the next great digital revolution… four-legged?
Could technology dramatically improve the lives of animals and the humans that care for them? Our current relationship with domestic and captive animals is defined by total control as we dictate their nutrition, movement, and social circles. Computer scientist Ilyena Hirskyj-Douglas reveals how emerging systems from sensor-driven devices to animal-controlled video calling are opening the door to a new frontier.. a social internet for animals and humans.
Starting with DIY prototypes built using tools like Arduino and Raspberry Pi, her work has evolved into interactive systems that allow dogs, parrots, and primates to trigger media, make choices, and even initiate live video calls with each other. The results have been nothing short of surprising, even occasionally stunning in terms of the animals ability to adopt technology and show a surprising level of sophistication around its use.
With 40 billion animals existing in the human sphere as pets and livestock, could technology be on the brink of dramatically improving the welfare of animals as well as the humans responsible for their care?
Ilyena Hirskyj-Douglas’s Bio
Dr. Ilyena Hirskyj-Douglas is at the forefront of a digital revolution that isn’t built for humans. A leading expert in the emerging field of Animal-Computer Interaction (ACI), she is redefining the boundaries of the internet by asking a radical question: What happens when we give animals the “login” to our digital world?
With a deep technical background in computer science, Ilyena specializes in designing and engineering hardware and software specifically for non-human cognitive needs. From building Arduino-based sensory devices for primates to inventing the world-renowned “DogPhone,” her work moves beyond simple pet-tech. She treats animals not as passive subjects of technology, but as active users with the right to agency and choice.
Based at the University of Glasgow, Ilyena’s research is published in top-tier human-computer interaction (HCI) journals and has sparked a global conversation on the ethics of the “Animal Internet.” Her experiments, ranging from video-calling parrots to music-selecting monkeys, provide the first empirical evidence that animals can intentionally navigate digital interfaces to mitigate isolation and express emotions and preferences.
As an academic researcher and tech engineer, Ilyena is currently building the frameworks for a future where technology doesn’t just monitor the animal world, but allow genuine two-way interactions that have the potential to fundamentally enrich the lives of both the human and animal world.
