Pets Chase Owners in Virtual Reality Games

Posted on April 17, 2006

Gamers are used to playing against the computer in video games but VR software will eventually let people play against pets and other animals. Wired reports on some games being developed that could have you running away from your hungry pet hamster on a virtual screen.

As in a traditional video game, players navigate a virtual world in a bid to stay alive. The twist? Computerized movements in Mice Arena are mapped to and from the real world, where an actual predator (your hamster) gives chase to a digital avatar (you) by pursuing a real piece of bait. The avatar's movements in the virtual environment direct the bait around a small tank fitted with actuators that mold and twist an elastic latex floor into the changing terrain of the game map. The hamster's pursuit in the tank is monitored by infra-red sensors that relay its position to the computer screen.
Researchers at Emerging Art and Architecture Research Group, or RASTER, and Singapore's Mixed Reality Lab have so far developed a game engine for Mice Arena, and they're currently syncing it to actuators that manipulate the shape of the arena floor. They are also in the process of building a remote-control bait mechanism for the hamsters to chase. They expect to demonstrate a fully functional prototype by November.

Raster's Valdimir Todorovio tells Wired, "We want to enable pets to play games in a way very similar to the way human players' play. To play a computer game with your hamster would definitely make us think about where we have come with digital tradition now."

Wired says another game is Chicken Petman, where "a real chicken will don the role of a ghost and chase movable bait controlled by a person within a maze." With the technology in place there are lots of games that could be devised. The creators hope the technology will be a tool to add a new layer to pet-human interaction. They also hope to "develop new technologies that could close the gap between the species."