The Animal-Computer Interaction International Conference 2026 invites contributions on three different tracks: research papers, emerging work papers, and workshop proposals. The following considerations apply to all tracks.

 

Animal-Computer Interaction (ACI) is concerned with studying and theorizing the interaction between animals and computing technology from an animal-centered perspective, with designing animal-centered technology and with developing animal-centered research methodologies.

 

ACI is a transdisciplinary field, which can benefit from contributions from a wide range of disciplines, including computer science, informatics, engineering, interaction design, animal behavior and welfare science, veterinary science, ecology, sociology, philosophy, and more. Consistent with its transdisciplinarity, the field benefits from philosophical and theoretical analyses, system developments and deployments, methodological and design frameworks, empirical studies of different kinds, and more. Each of these disciplines and contribution types brings a different and valuable perspective to the field, so diverse contributions with a focus on animal-centered interactions involving technology are both valuable and encouraged.

 

Particularly in light of computing advances such as pervasive systems, internet of things, and artificial intelligence, the notion of interaction has to be understood in the broadest possible sense, whether interactions are direct or indirect, dyadic or distributed, passive or active, cognitive or physical, co-located or remote, synchronous or asynchronous. We live in a world that is increasingly networked and (nonhuman and human) animals are increasingly entangled in webs of interactions that affect them in different, more or less obvious ways, whether positively or negatively. For example, an algorithm that influences how an animal species is portrayed online may bias people's behavior towards that species, thus producing an indirect, asynchronous and remote, but very real, impact on those animals. Wearable trackers used to monitor the members of a species may have direct physical impacts on animal wearers and, at the same time, the data recorded via the technology may inform conservation policies, thus producing indirect and more distributed but highly consequential impacts. Smart feeders provided across cities to support urban wildlife during months when food is scarce may alter the animals' intra-species social dynamics as well as interspecies predator-prey dynamics, thus producing both dyadic, direct and synchronous impacts and distributed, indirect and asynchronous impacts. In other words, interactions between animals and computing technology may take many different forms, as they are part of ever more complex socio-technological entanglements. Shedding light on these entanglements, understanding the influence of computing technology on animals, and ensuring that technology is developed and used for animals' benefit is what ACI is all about.

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For detailed information and guidance on how to submit contributions, please visit the following pages:

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Research Papers (submission deadline Midnight May 1, 2026)

Emerging Work Papers (submission deadline Midnight May 1, 2026)

Workshop Proposals (submission deadline Midnight June 1, 2026)

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All times are Anywhere on Earth (AoE).