Animal Virtual Reality Box
April 17th, 2006 1:01 PM | by Christen da Costa | 2 Comments
If you’ve ever had the urge to play video games with your pet, you probably have a few screws loose. Researchers at Emerging Art and Architecture Research Group, or RASTER, and Singapore’s Mixed Reality Lab might disagree as they’ve developed a device that puts your hamster as the hunter, and you as the hunted. An infrared beam tracks and dictates the hamster’s movement to the on screen video game, while a piece of cheese or bait represents your avatar in the game. A special latex floor with hydraulic like jacks manipulate its surface to appropriately reflect your characters path of attempted escape. The team hopes to complete a prototype by November and have promised two additional games which include a chicken and a jelly fish. I’ll stick to my Xbox 360 and the occasional trip to the dog park, thank you.
VR Games Pit Pets Against Owners [Wired]
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[...] This new video game is the most bizarre, twisted and completely cool idea I have seen in a while. It is built around a box with an infrared beam in it. You stick your hamster, guinea pig or rat in the box and the beam tracks the movement of the rodent and puts it into a video game. For what purpose? Well, the rodent will be chasing a piece of cheese or other bait in the box. The cheese won’t show up on the video game screen, though. Instead, you will show up in place of the cheese. That’s right, this game features your hamster hunting you. I guess that that would be cool. (Gadget Review) [...]
really funny and super cute effects!(…)