BETA
Chapter 1
Bug eyes and super sensors
Chapter 2
Shadows, lasers, and nocturnal hunters
Chapter 3
Moving without a map
Chapter 4
Cameras that work like brains
YOUR GOAL
Master of How nature taught computers to see
Ch 3 · Moving without a map
007skaty Adjust compound lens filters to learn how computers mimic insect vision to navigate.
007skaty Ant-Inspired Robot Navigation
Read the polar sky, count the strides on by, find the way home
007skaty Salticidae spiders use multi-layered retinas to create sharp and blurry images, inspiring a single-lens depth-from-defocus sensor.
007skaty Glowing neon vectors trace biomimetic computer vision data across a honeybee flight path.
Fun Fact
Spider math: Despite having a brain the size of a mustard seed, jumping spiders perform complex geometric calculations to ambush their prey.
Glossary
optic flow (noun)
The pattern of apparent motion of objects in a visual scene caused by the relative motion between an observer and their environment. Mandyam Srinivasan showed in 1996 that honeybees use this visual motion to navigate tunnels safely.
The pattern of apparent motion of objects in a visual scene caused by the relative motion between an observer and their environment. Mandyam Srinivasan showed in 1996 that honeybees use this visual motion to navigate tunnels safely.
Quiz
Which university's researchers mimicked the jumping spider's depth perception to build a low-power depth sensor in 2019?
Quiz
Which laboratory modeled dragonfly visual neurons in 2020 to improve target interception systems?
Quiz
What is the name of the polarized-light-navigating robot built by French researchers in 2019?
Quiz
How far from its nest can the Sahara desert ant travel and still return in a straight line?
Quiz
How do jumping spiders calculate depth with their specialized multi-layered retinas?