Researchers from the University of Konstanz and the Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior in Germany have worked out a way of watching what schooling fish are looking at when they swim
Researchers from the University of Konstanz and the Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior in Germany have worked out a way of watching what schooling fish are looking at when they swim together in near perfect synchrony - despite each fish having a limited view of its surroundings.
Using a newly developed 3D eye tracking methodology for interpreting video, the researchers can detect millisecond differences in a fish’s body posture and eye position to determine its field of view.
What they found was that each fish moves in such a way that one eye is always focused on the fish in front. The other eye is often looking entirely the other way.
The aim of the technology is to help clarify what sensory perceptions the fish base their decisions on as they move.
It’s of interest to the understanding of collective behavior and to the study of robotics.
"If you understand biology better, then you can build better robots. And better robots would help us to better understand biological systems," said researcher Liang Li.
Other researchers at the university have considered the role of social networks in how groups respond to their environment. Again studying fish, they
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