At first glance, the idea of creating video games for dogs would tend to make us smile. But Dersim Advar and Marco Jenny, co-founders of British startup Joipaw, are dead serious. They have every intention of integrating man’s best friend into the world of gaming.
An asset for the health of the dog
Concretely, the company has developed a personalized touch screen console that allows canines to play with their muzzle. A series of mini-games are already available and they could help develop the animal’s cognitive abilities. This method would be particularly useful for delaying the onset of canine dementia.
As you can see in this video, the dog goes through a series of exercises. Each time he succeeds, he is handed out a treat. A movement tracer present on his collar even brings a little more control for certain games.
The startup also stresses that there is no question of abandoning your animal in favor of a machine. It’s even the opposite that happens, and the dog only participates in the game if he is truly confident. At first, you will even have to spread peanut butter on the screen to encourage it to launch.
On its site, the British company specifies another advantage of its game: “Our company offers a holistic approach to preventative health care for dogs. We combine cognitive and physical stimulation in the form of a dog-friendly console, wearable, and software platform that allows you to track your dog’s health metrics”. In the event of a problem, Joipaw could even notify your veterinarian and thus better anticipate possible health problems.
Our colleagues fromAxios exchanged with Dersim Advar, and the genesis of Joipaw is particularly interesting. The latter is indeed a long-time gamer. One day, he thought he could design a video game for his particularly active and attention-seeking dog.
Towards e-sport for dogs?
He consulted a research paper from 2017 where scientists had tested certain touchscreen games for dogs. The first conclusions of the researchers were very promising in terms of cognitive gain, and the latter therefore considers today to continue their work.
If you are interested in this project, however, it does not yet have a release schedule. The device could be sold separately and a subscription system would also be offered. A world ranking of dogs should even be deployed, what, why not, introduce man’s best friend to e-sport?
