Image credit – Ministry of Agriculture and Food of the Moscow Region
Thanks to the magic of virtual reality (VR) technology, it allows us to be transported into virtual worlds while staying in one place. This is a pretty awesome feeling if you’ve ever taken a VR headset for a spin, and apparently it looks like the concept is now being tested on animals, in particular, the cow.
It seems that over in Moscow, the country’s Ministry of Agriculture and Food have conducted an experiment in which they are testing to see if cows wearing VR headsets could not only help reduce their anxiety, but at the same time improve on the production of milk. While donning a VR headset, these cows are apparently being placed in a summer field simulation program.
This gives the cows the illusion that they are out in a huge summer field instead of being on a farm, which in turn could potentially lead to them feeling less anxious and thus improve on the quality of the milk produced. So far based on their experiment, they have found that it really does what it’s supposed to do, which reduces anxiety and improves the overall emotional mood of the herd.
It is an interesting experiment, if not a bit novel. Plus, it also raises additional questions of how practical such a setup is and why not just put the cows in a field to begin with? Wouldn’t that be more practical and cheaper?
Filed in . Read more about Science, Social Hit and Virtual Reality (VR). Source: theverge