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When you think of gaming and augmented reality, you probably imagine people wearing VR headsets dodging virtual bullets or exploring fantasy landscapes. But now the technology is being
When you think of gaming and augmented reality, you probably imagine people wearing VR headsets dodging virtual bullets or exploring fantasy landscapes. But now the technology is being used for something completely different: studying the behavior of small creatures like flies and crabs.
This new approach was born out of a desire to understand the aerodynamics of flying insects and other mysterious animal behaviors. Flinders University’s research gives us a completely new way to observe how invertebrates respond to, interact with and travel through virtual “worlds” that can be created by today’s cutting-edge entertainment technologies. This research can provide invaluable information that will advance new technologies such as aviation and precision devices.
The development of this unique software was a joint effort of several experts from Flinders University in Western Australia, in collaboration with researchers from Germany.
Key contributors include Professor Karin Nordström, who heads the Hoverfly Motion Vision Laboratory, and Dr. Yuri Ogawa, Dr. Its co-researchers include Richard Leibbrandt and Raymond Aukar. Their collective experience and dedication made it possible to open this custom-designed software platform to researchers worldwide.
Dr D., a research fellow in the Department of Neurology at the Flinders Health and Medical Research Institute. Ogawa explained how his team developed computer programs to create an immersive virtual reality experience for the creatures.
Dr. “Using machine learning and computer vision algorithms, we were able to observe animals and decipher their movements, from a fly trying to turn left in flight to a fiddler crab dodging a virtual bird,” Ogawa said.
But that’s not all; The software also changes the digital landscape to synchronize with the animals’ movements. Dr. Leibbrandt stated that the machine learning technologies used in this experiment have already revolutionized many fields, from agriculture to medicine, from architecture to transportation.
The advent of virtual reality for invertebrates has begun to unlock new methods for studying animal behavior in greater depth than ever before. Flinders University computer science graduate Raymond Aukar highlighted the importance of this project.
“The last two decades have seen rapid advances in gaming, artificial intelligence, virtual reality, and high-speed computing using dedicated computing hardware in graphics cards,” Aukar said. “Today, these technologies are sufficiently mature and ready to run on consumer computing devices. This accessibility provides the opportunity to look at animal behavior in an environment that is systematically controlled but more natural than a typical laboratory experiment.”
The intersection of technology and biology in animal behavior research is a vivid example of interdisciplinary collaboration. By combining knowledge from fields such as computer science, neuroscience, and biology, researchers can leverage technological advances to advance our understanding of biological processes. This collaboration fosters innovation and enables a more comprehensive approach to problem solving. The success of the project underlines the importance of bridging the gaps between different fields, leading to entirely new ideas and applications with far-reaching implications beyond the direct study of invertebrate behavior.
The implications of using virtual reality to study animal behavior are vast and promising. This cutting-edge approach promises to shift paradigms in environmental and biological research by allowing scientists to simulate complex environments and monitor interactions in real time. Future research could expand the application of these technologies to more animal species, potentially revolutionizing the way we study and interact with wildlife.
Moreover, this innovative intersection has the potential to influence other technological advances by setting an example for future efforts to bring together the fields of technology and nature to unravel the complex mysteries of the natural world. Such advances aim to contribute to more sustainable technological and ecological systems by improving our understanding and conservation of biodiversity.
In addition to simply observing and measuring behavior using virtual reality, the new approach also allows for the identification of visual triggers for specific animal behaviors. Other research groups have already begun to show interest in using this revolutionary platform.
Researchers are looking forward to using VR to delve deeper into insect decision-making processes.
To simplify experimental design and data storage, the team developed a user-friendly Unity Editor interface that requires no programming. CAVE, an open source project from Hoverfly Motion Vision Lab, simplifies the installation process of the Tethered Flight Arena. This new virtual playground for insects and other small creatures may have started as a fun experiment, but its results and potential are nothing short of exciting. The study was published in the journal Methods in Ecology and Evolution.
Source: Port Altele
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