Someone's Making a Virtual Reality Headset for Chickens, Allowing them to Virtually Roam Free

We as a culture have spent so much time worrying about making virtual reality for humans, that we’ve forgotten what’s just as important: VR for everything else. I’d be amiss not to mention the need for virtual reality for man’s most vital avian friend, the chicken. Chickens deserve the right to live out their dreams virtually just as we do, but why haven’t we given it to them yet?

Thankfully, someone is. Someone is working on chicken VR. Finally.

A new project at the Iowa State University is determined to see how VR goggles could make chickens believe they’re free-range, country-field chickens, even when they’re not. With this special headset designed for poultry, these homely hens can explore a virtual grassland, and when the technology improves, have full-on chicken head tracking to follow each peck and bob.

It sounds like I’m being facetious, but I’m not. Okay, maybe a little bit. But stick with me.

The Second Livestock project is actually more seriously taken than you might initially think, especially when you take a look at the official website – which features deadpand serious promises of high density chicken condominiums that recycle waste and use animal body heat to keep the place up and running.

This could be the future of ethical animal husbandry. But let’s not count all of our chickens before they hatch. We don’t want to put all of our eggs in one basket.

Okay, this joke flew the coop.

You can learn more about this project at the Second Livestock website.