Do you know anyone who wants multiple pets (e.g. a cat, a dog, a fish), but only really has space for one? Thanks to augmented reality, the multi-pet-owning dream can come true!

Background:

Many people enjoy performing the stewardship of a beastly animal companion, generally referred to as a “pet.” Some people even like to have more than one pet!

The Issue:

It can be expensive and labor- and living-space-intensive to own multiple pets. For example, a single cat might be manageable, but owning a cat, and a dog, and a fish, and a bird, and a snake? This situation is probably just too much for most responsible pet owners.

Nevertheless, many people still wish they could have more than one type of pet.

Proposal:

We can fix this issue with the power of augmented reality!

The solution is so simple: the pet-owner must first acquire a single pet that can have varied behaviors during the day. (An especially-active cat or especially-relaxed dog might be good choices.)

Then, the user dons an augmented reality headset that shows their pet as a different animal under different conditions (Figure 1).

***Fig. 1:*** Here, the user’s “actual” pet is a cat (center, red), but the user will perceive this creature as a different type of animal, depending on the cat’s behavior. For example, when the cat is curled up in a cat bed, it will be displayed as a snake (bottom left).

Conclusion:

This system would also make it possible for any user to have 90% of the experience of owning an exotic and/or otherwise illegal-to-own-in-most-jurisdictions pet, such as a panda (fluffy dog → panda), elephant (large hairless dog → elephant), or tiger (basically any cat → tiger).

PROS: Brings exotic pet ownership to the masses with relatively few ethical concerns!

CONS: In order for the pet to be properly tracked by the augmented reality system, it might be necessary to glue some ping-pong balls (or other trackers, maybe QR codes) to the pet.