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Orangutans To Skype Between Zoos With iPads

Posted by Soulskill on from the 2011-in-a-nutshell dept.

MrSeb writes "For the last six months, orangutans — those great, hairy, orange apes that go 'ook' a lot — at Milwaukee Zoo have been playing games and watching videos on Apple's iPad, but now their keepers and the charity Orangutan Outreach want to go one step further and enable ape-to-ape video chat via Skype or FaceTime. 'The orangutans loved seeing videos of themselves — so there is a little vanity going on — and they like seeing videos of the orangutans who are in the other end of the enclosure,' Richard Zimmerman of Orangutan Outreach said. 'So if we incorporate cameras, they can watch each other.' And thus the idea of WiFi video chat between orangutans — and eventually between zoos — was born. It might seem like folly, but putting (ruggedized!) iPads into the hands of apes could really revolutionize our understanding of great ape behavior."

13 of 149 comments (clear)

  1. Sexting... by j35ter · · Score: 4, Funny

    Yay :)

    --
    Delta-Mike November Bravo Tango
    1. Re:Sexting... by similar_name · · Score: 5, Funny

      Is there an ape store?

    2. Re:Sexting... by IANAAC · · Score: 5, Funny

      Is there an ape store?

      Yes. There's an ape for that.

  2. It's so simple an ape can use it by betterunixthanunix · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Let's put it in schools!

    Sorry, I just had to. Still, the fact that we have software that is simple enough for apes to use probably means that we crossed a usability threshold at some point in the past few years. Apes have similar psychology and brain structures to humans (this should make sense) so we seem to have discovered more "natural" computer interfaces.

    --
    Palm trees and 8
    1. Re:It's so simple an ape can use it by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      I think you might be going a little far here. If you watch the video, the apps they can actually use are things like "touch the screen and it changes color". And it's not like they can actually launch an app themselves, or pick a video and watch it. They're not about to open up a Skype phonebook and say "I want to call Ookokook", the trainer would has to do everything and then hold it up for them.

    2. Re:It's so simple an ape can use it by The+Pirou · · Score: 4, Interesting

      I think you might be going a little far here. If you watch the video, the apps they can actually use are things like "touch the screen and it changes color". And it's not like they can actually launch an app themselves, or pick a video and watch it. They're not about to open up a Skype phonebook and say "I want to call Ookokook", the trainer would has to do everything and then hold it up for them.

      Just because these particular Orangutans haven't learned (or might not have the capacity) how to properly utilize an iPad in the way that humanity has, doesn't mean that given the opportunity and the funding of such research in regards to apes that such walls can't eventually be torn down.

      It is a relatively simple process to program apps and change the icons of apps to lexigrams geared towards apes, and I find the idea of giving apes like Kanzi, as well as other apes that have worked extensively with primatologists, exposure to such technology as worthy enough to hold sufficient merit.

      Much like learning a foreign language, if we teach all these exposed and inclined apes the same 'words' it isn't a huge leap to believe that in a few generations it could manifest itself as something that is passed on within the confines of each society of apes from generation to generation.

      Even across species Kanzi the Bonobo picked up some ASL from watching videos of Koko the Gorilla. With a little determination on our part, this could be the start of something much greater.

      Humans came up the hard way, but that doesn't mean that apes have to go that route.

    3. Re:It's so simple an ape can use it by Kenja · · Score: 5, Funny

      Have you not heard? We fixed all the schools already. Children are no longer hungry and the economy is going great. Now we can dedicate all our resources to getting monkeys to use Twitter.

      --

      "Have you ever thought about just turning off the TV, sitting down with your kids, and hitting them?"
  3. Old news, /. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    My mother-in-law already uses Skype!

  4. Understanding of Apes... by BoRegardless · · Score: 5, Funny

    "Putting iPads into the hands of apes could really revolutionize our understanding of great ape behavior."

    Thought we did that in a lot of legislative bodies already...

  5. Finally by Haedrian · · Score: 4, Funny

    Apple products found the ideal user market.

    Let the flaming begin.

    1. Re:Finally by AresTheImpaler · · Score: 4, Funny

      - AresTheImpaler reads Haedrian's post
      - AresTheImpaler notices his ipad, iphone and mac mini on top of his desk
      - AresTheImpaler contemplates the situation
      - AresTheImpaler flings poo at Haedrian

  6. Re:Hmm... by xMrFishx · · Score: 4, Funny

    Can't tell if serious...

    or just monkeying around.

  7. To my downmodder... by denzacar · · Score: 5, Informative

    Please read the following part of the parent post out loud and tell me it isn't even a tiny bit ambiguous.

    It is a relatively simple process to program apps and change the icons of apps to lexigrams geared towards apes, and I find the idea of giving apes like Kanzi, as well as other apes that have worked extensively with primatologists, exposure to such technology as worthy enough to hold sufficient merit.

    Much like learning a foreign language, if we teach all these exposed and inclined apes the same 'words' it isn't a huge leap to believe that in a few generations it could manifest itself as something that is passed on within the confines of each society of apes from generation to generation.

    Even across species Kanzi the Bonobo picked up some ASL from watching videos of Koko the Gorilla. With a little determination on our part, this could be the start of something much greater.

    Humans came up the hard way, but that doesn't mean that apes have to go that route.

    Just to clarify, paragraphs above include:
    - proposal for development of software, GUI and an alphabet aimed at apes.
    - describing equipping apes with 21st century entertainment technology as "worthy enough to hold sufficient merit".
    - inventing an "ape Esperanto", teaching it to apes - hoping it will catch on as their Lingua Simia,
    - the following line: "Kanzi the Bonobo picked up some ASL from watching videos of Koko the Gorilla".
    - and finally, suggestion that apes SHOULD aim for some not clearly defined position (Evolutionary? Cultural? Civilizational? Consumerist? Political?...) which is currently being occupied by humans.

    --
    Mit der Dummheit kämpfen Götter selbst vergebens