Star Wars and collision avoidance in bugs, 'bots
BoingBoing's embedded Lucasfilm correspondent Bonnie Burton says,Link. Photo. Canada.com article here.Claire Rind, a robotologist at the University of Newcastle Upon Tyne in England, screened a Star Wars film just for a bunch of locusts so she could monitor their brain activity for research to design a collision-avoidance system for cars.
Apparently, the research was to help her understand how locusts travel in dense swarms without getting tangled up in each other's flight. By showing them a Star Wars film (it's not specified which one of course) she studied their eyes and brain cells reactions to fast-moving objects and backgrounds in the film.
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Xeni Jardin
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