Samsung may have built the Galaxy S III exclusively for humans, but Apple was thinking a little more broadly when they created the iPad. The new iPad is apparently designed for all primates, not just us elitist humans. At least, that’s what employees of Miami’s Jungle Island Zoo have recently discovered.
Zoo employees decided that sign language as a means of inter-species communication between humans and orangutans is too antiquated for the modern world. Instead, the zoo workers are using iPads to teach twin 8-year old orangutans how to draw, play games, and work on vocabulary skills via Apple’s latest tablet as part of a mental stimulus program.
The Zoo is using iPad software originally intended for helping parents of children with Autism spectrum disorders better communicate with their parents and other family members and friends. Trainers select objects from the program, identifies them verbally to the primate, and the orangutans can touch a corresponding button that pictures the object identified. Zookeeper’s believe this technology will eventually allow zoo-goers to communicate in a non-verbal way with orangutans, as CNET notes the primates don’t actually have vocal chords or voice boxes.
There are, of course, a few key setbacks when it comes to how readily the orangutans can adopt the iPad as primary communication device. If you’ve ever seen an orangutan, their hands are flipping huge, and the trainer therefore needs to hold on to the iPad while communicating (TV-sized iPad or touch-screen iTV, anyone?). The zoo plans to do essentially that, and plans on ordering larger touch-screen interfaces for the general public to communicate with the evolutionary ancestors.
One thing’s for sure; with inter-species communication between humans and orangutans in our not-too-distant future, we’ll soon have many more people to awkwardly reject Facebook friend requests from.
[via CNET, Associated Press]