The ACI International Conference 2026 (ACI 2026) will be hosted at the University of Applied Sciences and Arts Northwestern Switzerland’s FHNW School of Business, Brugg-Windisch campus, in cooperation with the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM)’s Special Interest Group on Computer-Human Interaction (SIGCHI). This year’s General Chair is Oliver Bendel, who has been a professor at FHNW since 2009. On December 2, 2026, the first day of the conference, the full-day workshop „Audio for Animals: The Nuts and Volts of Acoustic Technologies in Animal Computer Interaction“ will take place in room 5.0B16 (Forumsraum/FutureHub), with additional audio experiments in room 5.2P01. Organized by Charles Ramey, Scott Gilliland, Melody Moore Jackson, and Thad Starner from the Georgia Institute of Technology in the United States, the workshop will explore the technical, scientific, and ethical challenges of developing acoustic systems for animals. Many commercially available audio devices are designed for human hearing and may fail to capture or reproduce sounds that are important to other species, potentially leading to misleading scientific observations. Through hands-on exercises, participants will investigate the physics of sound, build speaker enclosures, experiment with amplifier designs, and examine how sampling rates, bit depth, and audio encoding affect sound quality. They will also learn how to create portable high-resolution recording systems using Android smartphones and commercially available components, suitable for use in terrestrial and marine environments. Participants are encouraged to bring their own audio equipment for a show-and-tell session, allowing them to compare different systems and exchange practical experiences. The workshop aims to promote best practices for animal-centered acoustic technologies and strengthen collaboration within the animal-computer interaction community. Further information about the workshop and participation is available at audioforanimals.com.

Fig.: A whale in the ocean