Playtime for humans and pigs: new tablet game pioneering innovative approach to animal welfare
Relationships between humans and other animals are often strained and turbulent, but a unique new game developed by creative Dutch designers has added a new aspect to human-porcine relations. And to boot, this out-of-the-ordinary interactive game could help farmers meet EU requirements on animal welfare. The game, titled 'Pig Chase', lets player one, the pig, interact with light effects on a special screen in its pen, while player two, the human, controls these light effects from a remote tablet device such as an iPad. While many popular app games already feature animals, the designers from Utrecht School of the Arts (HKU) and Wageningen University have taken this one step further by giving gamers the opportunity to play with real live pigs. EU legislation requires pig farmers to provide entertainment in pigpens to combat boredom, aggression and tail biting, thereby reducing the need for routine tail docking. Under Commission Directive 2001/93/EC, farmers must ensure that all categories of pigs have permanent access to materials for rooting and playing. The directive also sets out light requirements and maximum noise levels, the requirement for permanent access to fresh water, additional restrictive conditions concerning pig mutilations, and a minimum weaning age of four weeks. To meet the entertainment requirement, farmers have been trying out various different approaches, using a plastic ball or a metal chain with some plastic piping. However, these attempts don't seem challenging or cognitively stimulating enough for the savant swine. Step in the Dutch designers, who set out to tackle the problem by developing a game that would be more fulfilling for the pigs. In 'Pig Chase', which remains a prototype, the pigs play with a large touch-sensitive display screen, where the human-controlled ball of light moves around. When the pigs touch the ball with their snout, it fires off pretty firework-style sparks. When the human players look at their tablet device, they see the pigs' snouts as if they were on the other side of the screen in the pen. The aim is for both players to move together in a harmonious manner; the humans must maintain snout contact, and together they must move through a number of different targets to earn points and trigger ever-more impressive light effects. The game has been developed as part of the 'Playing with Pigs' project, a collaboration between HKU, Wageningen University and Wageningen UR Livestock Research. And like any design process, the end users were duly consulted throughout. During the test phase, the team analysed the reactions of both pig farmers and pigs to see how different elements of the game were received. Still in its early stages, the team plan some further tinkering and fine-tuning based on feedback from players - those both in and out of the pen. In psychological terms, the game is an opportunity to learn new things about the cognitive capacities of humans and pigs, and the launch of this game could also help spark debate about animal welfare and humans' role in improving quality of life for animals. However, despite the cooperative nature of the game, we are all aware of the unavoidable elephant in the room, or rather 'on the farm'. In a game where one player is soon likely to be served up onto the other player's plate, the latter player certainly seems to be more equal than the former.For more information, please visit:Playing with Pigs:http://www.playingwithpigs.nl/Video presentation of the game:http://vimeo.com/29046176Utrecht School of the Arts (HKU):http://www.hku.nl/web/English/UtrechtSchoolOfTheArts.htm Wageningen University and Research Centre:http://www.wur.nl/UK/
Countries
Netherlands