Spec-tacular: Newcastle Uni researchers attach tiny 3D glasses to bugs
5mm 3D glasses attached to Praying Mantises with beeswax to help inform robot programming – and the pictures are hilarious
What is going on? In the latest bout of weird research, boffins at Newcastle Uni have created teeny 3D glasses for bugs.
Researchers at Newcastle University are assessing the reaction of Praying Mantises to 3D simulations of flies within striking distance of the creatures.
How I felt when I watched my first 3D film
But there is a reason for this madness. The research is to determine whether, despite their simple nervous system, they can process the images in the same way as humans.
Praying Mantises have been selected as they are the only invertebrate known to see using 3D vision – all other bugs are thought to see in 2D.
The leader of the project, Dr Jenny Read from the Institute of Neuroscience at Newcastle University, says: “Despite their minute brains, mantises are sophisticated visual hunters which can capture prey with terrifying efficiency. We can learn a lot by studying how they perceive the world.”
The tiny set of glasses measure half a centimetre wide
The results will inform and potentially change our current beliefs of 3D vision, and could provide cheaper and simplified versions of 3D technology.
Dr Vivek Nityananda, who is working on the project, says: “This is a really exciting project to be working on.
“So much is still waiting to be discovered in this system.
The poor thing thinks it’s getting a meal
“If we find that the way mantises process 3D vision is very different to the way humans do it, then that could open up all kinds of possibilities to create much simpler algorithms for programming 3D vision into robots.
“We can do this by fooling them into misjudging depth, in the same way that our brains are fooled when we watch a 3D movie.”
Glasses on bugs –> robot programming. An obvious link.
Either Newcastle Uni scientists are going mad, or they’re onto something bug. Sorry, big.
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