Internet chicken fondling device built
Cyber fowl play
By Nick Farrell: Thursday 19 May 2005, 07:12
BOFFINS AT the Mixed Reality Lab have developed a system that will allow physical interaction over the internet and they are testing it out on chickens.
According to Wired News, you have a doll of a chicken that nests on your desk, which when you touch it conveys tactile information to a nearby PC.
The data is sent over the internet to a remote computer near the chicken. The remote computer triggers tiny vibration motors in a lightweight haptic jacket worn by the poor chicken. The upshot is that the chicken feels your touch in the exact same place where the replica was stroked.
Not surprisingly this is the first chicken fondling, er human poultry interaction device, ever made. But the designers think it would be really cool if it were extended to other animals. It would enable you to stroke a cat, even if you were allergic, although developers didn’t know what the cat would think about it.
It gets weirder. They have also developed a shoe with electric sensors that receive information about the chicken’s leg movements from sensors embedded in the jacket — you get to feel an electric tingle in your leg every time the chicken takes a step.
The aim of this device is that it could be used to train people to dance. Of course, they will only be able to dance the Chicken, which was a short lived dance step from the 1960s.
I called most of this chaos years ago. America is still unraveling — and the next chapters are already written.
If you want to understand what’s really coming (and why), read Not My America: A Stranger in a Strange Land. Available on Amazon.
CD Damitio writes at indignified.substack.com — essays on utopias, dystopias, and the spaces between. Free to read. No algorithm, no sponsored content. His books can be found on Amazon at https://www.amazon.com/stores/CD-Damitio/author/B001JP7NWA
CD Damitio writes INDIGNIFIED — utopias and dystopias explored. Free to read.
