Human Pointing Motion during Interaction with an Autonomous Blimp

We investigate the interaction between a human and a miniature autonomous blimp using a wand as pointing device. The wand movement generated by the human is followed by the blimp through a tracking controller.The Vector Integration to Endpoint (VITE) model, previously applied to human-computer interface (HCI), has been applied to model the human generated wand movement when interacting with the blimp. We show that the closed-loop human-blimp dynamics are exponentially stable. Similar to HCI using computer mouse, overshoot motion of the blimp has been observed. The VITE model can be viewed as a special reset controller used by the human to generate wand movements that effectively reduce the overshoot of blimp motion. Moreover, we have observed undershoot motion of the blimp due to its inertia, which does not appear in HCI using computer mouse. The asymptotic stability of the human-blimp dynamics is beneficial towards tolerating the undershoot motion of the blimp.

Ontogenetic Origins of Infant Pointing

Human pointing is foundational to language acquisition and sociality. The current chapter explores the ontogenetic origins of the human pointing gesture in infancy. First, the authors define infant pointing in terms of function, cognition, motivation, and morphology. Then, the authors review current evidence for predictors of infant pointing on child and caregiver levels, because any predictors provide insights into the basic developmental factors. From this review, the authors introduce and discuss a number of pertinent accounts on the emergence of pointing: social shaping accounts (pointing-from- reaching; pointing-from-non-communicative pointing) and social cognition accounts (pointing-from-imitation; pointing-from-gaze-following). The authors end by presenting a synthesis, which holds that child-level cognitive factors, specifically directedness andsocial motivation, interact with caregiver-level social factors, specifically responsiveness and assisting actions relevant to infants’ directed activity. The interaction of these factors creates social goals and formats that scale up to pointing acts expressing triadic relations between infant, caregiver, and entities at a distance in the context of joint activity and experience.

ManyDogs 1: A Multi-Lab Replication Study of Dogs' Pointing Comprehension

To promote collaboration across canine science, address reproducibility issues, and advance open science practices within animal cognition, we have launched the ManyDogs consortium, modeled on similar ManyX projects in other fields. We aimed to create a collaborative network that (a) uses large, diverse samples to investigate and replicate findings, (b) promotes open science practices of preregistering hypotheses, methods, and analysis plans, (c) investigates the influence of differences across populations and breeds, and (d) examines how different research methods and testing environments influence the robustness of results. Our first study combines a phenomenon that appears to be highly robust, dogs’ ability to follow human pointing, with a question that remains controversial: do dogs interpret pointing as an informative gesture, as an imperative command, or as a simple associative cue? We collected preliminary data (N = 61) from a single laboratory on two conditions of a 2-alternative object choice task: (1) Ostensive (experimenter pointed to a baited cup after making eye-contact and saying the dog’s name); (2) Non-ostensive (experimenter pointed to a baited cup without making eye-contact or saying the dog’s name). Dogs followed the ostensive point, but not the non-ostensive point, significantly more often than expected by chance. Preliminary results also provided suggestive evidence for variability in point-following across dog breeds. The next phase is the global participation stage of the project. We propose to replicate this protocol in a large and diverse sample of research sites, simultaneously assessing replicability between labs and further investigating the question of dogs’ point-following comprehension.

Ontogenetic origins of infant pointing

Human pointing is foundational to language acquisition and sociality. The current chapter explores the ontogenetic origins of the human pointing gesture in infancy. First, the authors define infant pointing in terms of function, cognition, motivation, and morphology. Then, the authors review current evidence for predictors of infant pointing on child and caregiver levels, because any predictors provide insights into the basic developmental factors. From this review, the authors introduce and discuss a number of pertinent accounts on the emergence of pointing: social shaping accounts (pointing-from-reaching; pointing-from-non-communicative pointing) and social cognition accounts (pointing-from-imitation; pointing-from-gaze-following). The authors end by presenting a synthesis, which holds that child-level cognitive factors, specifically directedness and social motivation, interact with caregiver-level social factors, specifically responsiveness and assisting actions relevant to infants’ directed activity. The interaction of these factors creates social goals and formats that scale up to pointing acts expressing triadic relations between infant, caregiver, and entities at a distance in the context of joint activity and experience.

Fifteen ways of looking at a pointing gesture

The human pointing gesture may be viewed from many angles. On a neutral description, it is an intentional movement, often of the hand, by which one person tries to direct another’s attention—it is, in short, a bodily command to look. But this bland definition is only a start. Pointing may also be seen as a semiotic primitive, a philosophical puzzle, a communicative workhorse, a protean universal, a social tool, a widespread taboo, a partner of language, a part of language, a fixture of art, a graphical icon, a cognitive prop, a developmental milestone, a diagnostic window, a cross-species litmus test, and an evolutionary stepping-stone. These fifteen ways of looking highlight the diverse dimensions of one our most unassuming, ubiquitous behaviors. Pointing appears so widely, and in so many guises, because of what it embodies: a distinctively human preoccupation with attention.

Goats follow human pointing gestures in an object choice task

Dogs (Canis lupus familiaris) are extremely adept in interpreting human-given cues, such as the pointing gesture. However, the underlying mechanisms on how domestic non-companion species use these cues are not well understood. We investigated the use of human-given pointing gestures by goats (Capra hircus) in an object-choice task, where an experimenter surreptitiously hid food in one of two buckets. Subjects first had to pass a pre-test where the experimenter indicated the location of the food to the subject by a proximal pointing gesture. Subjects that succeeded in the use of this gesture were transferred to the actual test. In these subsequent test trials, the experimenter indicated the location of the food to the subject by using three different pointing gestures: proximal pointing from a middle position (distance between target and index finger: 30 cm), crossed pointing from the middle position (distance between target and index finger: 40 cm), asymmetric pointing from the position of the non-baited bucket (distance between target and index finger: 90 cm). Goats succeeded in the pointing gestures that presented an element of proximity (proximal and crossed) compared to when the experimenter was further away from the rewarded location (asymmetric). This indicates that goats can generalise their use of the human pointing gesture but might rely on stimulus/local enhancement rather than referential information. In addition, goats did not improve their responses over time, indicating that no learning took place. The results provide a greater understanding of human-animal interactions and social-cognitive abilities of livestock, which allows for the provision of enhanced management practices and welfare conditions.