Virtual reality is making farmed chickens believe they're roaming free

SCIENCEALERT STAFF 

TUESDAY, 20 MAY 2014

A new project is testing whether virtual reality headsets could help chickens believe they're living humanely while we mass produce them.

Image: Second Livestock

By strapping Oculus Rift headsets onto farmed chickens, Iowa State University assistant professor in design Austin Stewart hopes he can make them believe they're living a human existence.

He's named the project "Second Livestock", reminiscent of the game Second Life.

But to us, it sounds more like The Matrix, for chickens. 

Still, although it's a disturbing move, Stewart has an ambitious goal - he wants to get people talking about how we can improve chickens' lives while meeting the public's increasing demand for poultry.

We know it sounds like a joke, in fact, it's something Stewart gets a lot, journalist Liz Dwyer explains on TakePart.

Continued