I have to admit I have no idea what is going on in this video, but it’s probably too weird to be a prank.
Apparently there’s a research lab in Singapore that has developed a system involving robot chickens and real chickens that wear some kind of jacket loaded with sensors and vibrators. The researchers claim that when the system is in effect, people and poultry will get to know each other better. Or something like that. Just watch the video; the soundtrack is soothing.
Link (Thanks, Joe!)
Reader comment: Thomas J. Brown says: “Mixed Reality labs specializes in augmented reality. This chicken video is demonstrating their proposed ‘Poultry Internet,’ which is useful because, ‘There is also a tradition of keeping poultry as pets in some parts of the world. However in modern cities and societies it is often difficult to maintain contact with pets, particularly for office workers. We propose and describe a novel cybernetics system to use mobile and Internet technology to improve human-to-pet interaction.’
“Honestly, who’s funding this research?”