You rarely read that the hobby of video games should now also be optimized for your own pet. But that’s exactly what a company called Joipaw is currently working on. As a British start-up, this is currently developing a touch screen concept with which the four-legged friends can interact thanks to their snouts. At the moment, the prototype and suitable games are being tinkered with, including a smash the mole game. If a task is successfully completed, for example hitting a mole with its snout, the dog receives a treat. Although this idea may seem relatively bizarre to some at first, the mini-games are also intended to help dogs in terms of health. So there should also be a portable tracker for the dog in the package in order to recognize unusual body signals at an early stage and pass them on to a doctor. In addition, the playful component is intended to help the dog’s cognitive abilities. The delay in dementia is also cited as a factor.
From heart to dog
Joipaw was founded by Dersim Advar and Marco Jenny. While the idea was once only intended as a way to keep Advar’s dog busy when he needs to spend time alone, health concerns quickly came into play. The co-founder Advar refers to a study published in 2017, which suggested possible cognitive benefits for dogs that are confronted with touch-screen games.
Axios emphasizes that the project will be advised by Clara Mancini. Specifically, Mancini is a professor of computer-animal interactions at the Open University in the UK.
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An idea of two nerds
“To understand how we came up with the idea for our product, you have to understand one simple thing: We’re big nerds. And we love dogs. And video games,” Avdar said on the project’s website. It remains to be seen how the project will develop and be funded. In the course of life, Avdar hopes, for example, for a versatile game library. The console is not yet available for sale. A price range or a release period are also not yet known.
Sources: Videogameschronicle, Axios, Joipaw
