If for one moment, you thought that Virtual Reality headsets are only for humans, think again because chickens are also getting in on the fun. The VR headset will be made using the Oculus Rift and it will be designed to fit on the heads of chickens.
You may be wondering, what's the purpose of placing chickens in a virtual world? The folks behind this peculiar project, which is called Second Livestock, may be trying to find a way to fool chickens raised in coops into thinking they are actually free range chickens. The people behind Second Livestock intend to pull this off using custom made chicken VR headsets.
The idea is to allow the chickens to socialize in a virtual world, roam around and do what chickens do as if they were doing it in the real world. It would be easy to that think there are better things to do than bringing animals into a virtual world, which is probably why Second Life may not be a completely serious proposal.
Second Livestock has no plans at the moment to manufacture any of these chicken headsets, though it is possible some strange farmer might view this idea as something worthwhile.
"The small and lightweight Animal-Computer Interfaces are designed to fit comfortably and allow chickens a full range of motion," says Iowa State University assistant professor Austin Stewart. "In short, we go to great lengths to ensure that our birds are treated as humanely as possible. It could be argued that they are better off in our facilities than they would be in the real world."
There are other ways to treat chickens humanely, however, despite how crazy the idea is, we can't help but view this plan as innovative. What could be the plan of action to get a VR headset on a chicken and would it be lightweight enough to hold without breaking their necks?
At the end of the day, if this idea should ever turn out to be something worthwhile, then expect virtual reality headsets for zoo animals, and maybe even domestic pets. Just imagine your pet dogs or cats living the good life in a virtual world. That would be interesting.
