I-Corps: Cloud apps for animals: cutting costs and improving welfare

与动物一起工作对社会非常有价值。动物作为宠物提供陪伴和充分证明的健康益处。动物园和水族馆通常是公共文化机构，在美国所有主要城市都可以找到有执照的动物参展商。对药物、行为和发展的研究需要使用活体动物。例如，法律规定，未经活体动物试验的药物不能进入市场。对于动物帮助我们的每一种有价值的方式，都有大量的动物护理和数据收集工作。当工作量无法满足时，从家庭宠物到动物园最爱的动物的生活质量都会下降，我们从动物身上得到的价值也会降低。繁重的工作负载会导致糟糕的数据、更少的宠物和看起来很悲伤的动物园动物。拟议的项目侧重于一个类似于视频游戏系统的系统，该系统允许与动物相关的活动自动化。这个提议的系统可以给动物物理玩具和谜题，让它们忙碌起来，为它们提供有趣的挑战，让它们解决，并奖励它们的体育锻炼，所有这些都有助于保持动物的身心健康。它还将为人们与宠物建立联系、自动进行实验和记录数据提供新的方式。I-Corps项目的目标是确定能够改善动物福利和自动数据收集的设备的市场需求。这个团队将在三个潜在的市场领域进行广泛的访谈：宠物主人，研究实验室的决策者，以及动物园和水族馆的工作人员。在团队成员探索市场需求的过程中，他们会根据市场需求定制自己的原型系统。该团队将利用德克萨斯农工大学的舒伯特外来鸟类健康中心进行实地测试和科学验证原型，然后通过产品演示重新访问他们的市场区域。如果成功，他们将开发出一种低成本、简单易用的系统，使动物饲养员、参展商和研究人员能够自动完成大部分动物研究和饲养任务。通过这种方式，团队将允许1)宠物主人在他们不在的时候让他们的动物保持忙碌和快乐，并从宠物饲养中获得更多的好处；2)研究人员可以更有效和经济地提供丰富和运行实验；3)动物园管理员可以开发新的互动展示，并为他们的动物提供高度刺激的活动。该团队设想，新设备将以以下方式工作：加载游戏文件，填满物品分配器，然后离开，知道系统将锻炼、娱乐、喂养、教育、研究或治疗动物。

Work with animals is very valuable for society. Animals as pets provide companionship and well documented health benefits. Zoos and aquariums are often public cultural institutions, and licensed animal exhibitors can be found in all the major cities in the United States. Research on drugs, behavior, and development require the use of live animals. For example, by law a drug cannot be brought to market without testing on live animals. For each of these valuable ways animals help us, there is a heavy workload of animal care and data collection. When the workload cannot be met, animals from home pets to zoo favorites suffer from a lower quality of life, and the value of what we get from animals is reduced. Heavy workloads lead to poor data, fewer pets, and sad looking zoo animals. The proposed project focuses on a system, similar to a video game system, that allows for automation of animal-related activities. This proposed system can give animals physical toys and puzzles to keep them busy, provide fun challenges for them to solve, and reward them for physical exercise all of which help keep the animals physically and mentally healthy. It will also provide new ways for people to bond with their pets, automatically conduct experiments, and record data.The goal of this I-Corps project is to identify the market need for devices which can improve animal welfare and automate data collection. This team will extensively interview in three potential market areas: pet owners, research laboratory decision makers, and zoo & aquarium staff. As the team members explore the market need, they will tailor their prototype system to meet market needs. The team will utilize the Schubot Exotic Bird Health Center at Texas A&M University to field test and scientifically validate the prototypes, then revisit their market areas with a product demonstration. If successful, they will develop a low cost, simple to use system that will allow animal caretakers, exhibitors, and researchers to automate much of their animal research and husbandry tasks. In this way the team will allow 1) pet owners to keep their animals busy and happy when they are away and to derive more benefits from pet ownership, 2) researchers to more efficiently and economically provide enrichment and run experiments, and 3) zookeepers to develop new interactive displays and provide highly stimulating activities for their animals. The team envisions the new device will work in the following way: load a game file, fill the object dispenser, and walk away knowing the system will exercise, entertain, feed, teach, research, or medicate the animal.