Communicative intelligence: from biology to design perspectives

n nature, organisms communicate to each other exchanging key information, primarily for intra and interspecific recognition (e.g., between parents and offspring, pred- ators, members in a herd’s hierarchy), as well as for defense, attack, or attraction. The fun- damental types of animal communication involve chemical signals, such as pheromones, as well as, auditory signals sound, tactile interactions and visual signals, including colors, shapes, patterns, and movements. All organisms aim to enhance their fitness, which refers to their ability of surviving and reproducing. In this perspective, communication plays a crucial role in pursuing these goals. Nearly every organism in nature employs complex visual strategies based on communicative hierarchies of colors and shapes to highlight, emphasize or conceal body parts, send messages, convey intentions or physical states, in- dicate gender or demonstrate social hierarchy. All of these communication aspects rep- resent a vast repository of unconventional communication codes that designers can use and be inspired by. In this complex framework, the article presents case studies of natural communication processes and models from various branches of biology, exploring their potential application in communication protocols that can be applied to artifacts and di- verse technical fields.