TamagoPhone: A Framework for Augmenting Artificial Incubators to Enable Vocal Interaction Between Bird Parents and Eggs

Abstract

For some precocial bird species, vocal interactions occur pre-hatching between parent and embryo within the egg. Such prenatal sensory experiences may affect development and have long-term consequences on postnatal behavior. Although artificial incubators increase survival rate, they prevent vocal communication, potentially hindering the development of species identity and behaviors. This work introduces a research design predicated on the review of relevant literature, aimed at new applications for animal management. We propose an approach and set of considerations to augment artificial incubators with two-way, low-latency audio streaming to reestablish the vocal communication channel between parent birds and eggs. In the nest, the real egg is replaced by an augmented “dummy” egg, embedded with a microphone and speaker. We present our motivations, followed by an overview of the system and a series of considerations in terms of engineering, design, species-specific and evaluation requirements. Finally we elaborate on different application contexts such as research, farming, and preservation.