Star Trek inspired virtual reality arena built for animals

Scientists have developed a 'holodeck' - a virtual reality arena inspired from the sci-fi series Star Trek - that can replicate any environment to study behaviours in animals. Dubbed FreemoVR, the arena is a cylindrical space in which the floor and wraparound wall are made from flexible computer displays. Animals placed into the environment can be monitored by overhead cameras and sensors that track their movement and behaviour around the 3D space.

In the Star Trek series, the holodeck was used as a training platform, Enterprise or as a recreational space, where officers immersed themselves in nature. However, the new arena at University of Freiburg in Germany will be used as a controlled setting for examining animal perceptions and behaviour. The principal benefit of the FreemoVR system is that the device allows animals to move about freely within the environment.

Using specially developed software, the researchers can adjust the visual imagery on the fly, as it were, and project elements based on the animals' behaviour and movements in real time. "The most important thing is that the animal is actually moving and gets all the appropriate mechanosensory feedback," Andrew Straw, of the University of Freiburg in Germany, was quoted as saying by the 'Live Science'.

"This is really important for studies of navigation and spatial cognition, because if the animal doesn't believe it is moving, it will be difficult to study how the animal updates its 'mental map' as it moves," said Straw. The study was published in the journal Nature Methods.