Researchers are exploring the potential of digital worlds in gaming and augmented reality to create a thrill for humans, but they’ve also begun testing its impact on smaller creatures – specifically, hoverflies and crabs – to gauge their responses.
Researchers at Flinders College are making groundbreaking discoveries about the aerodynamics of flying insects and other understudied animal behaviors, shedding light on how invertebrates interact, cooperate, and orient themselves within virtual environments generated by advanced recreational technology.
Developed by a team of experts at Flinders University in collaboration with Professor Karin Nordström, whose leadership of the Hoverfly Movement Vision Laboratory has been instrumental in driving innovation, the cutting-edge gaming software was published within the prestigious journal.
The novel research aims to build upon ongoing studies in innovative technologies, including aviation and precision instruments, providing global researchers with access to a custom-designed software platform tailored to their needs.
Researchers from Flinders University, including Dr Yuri Ogawa, Dr Richard Leibbrandt, and Raymond Aoukar, collaborated with a multidisciplinary team comprising biologists, neuroscientists, software program specialists, and colleagues from The University of Western Australia, namely Jake Manger.
According to Dr. Ogawa, a Research Fellow in Neuroscience at the Flinders Health and Medical Research Institute, “We designed laptop applications that simulate a digital reality experience for animals to navigate through.”
“By leveraging machine learning and computer vision algorithms, we have successfully observed animals and deciphered their actions, including instances where a hoverfly attempts to veer left in flight or a fiddler crab evades a simulated hawk soaring above.”
“The software programme seamlessly synchronises the virtual environment with the user’s actual movements.”
Dr. Richard Leibbrandt, a lecturer at Flinders University’s Faculty of Science and Engineering, notes that the machine learning technologies employed in these experiments are already transforming industries such as agriculture, where they are being used to robotically monitor crops and livestock, and inform the development of agricultural robots?
According to Dr. Leibbrandt, digital and augmented reality can have a profound impact on various sectors, including healthcare, construction, and transportation.
Scientists are pioneering a novel digital realm for the study of invertebrate behavior, allowing for more comprehensive observations than previously possible.
The past two decades have witnessed remarkable acceleration in algorithmic advancements and computing innovations, including the rapid development of digital reality, gaming, artificial intelligence, and high-performance capabilities enabled by specialized computer hardware in graphics processing units.
“Current applied sciences have reached maturity, allowing them to be deployed directly onto clients’ laptop equipment, thereby enabling the opportunity to study animal behavior within a rigorously controlled yet more natural environment than a traditional laboratory setting.”
The newly developed approach enables precise identification of tangible stimuli driving behavioral patterns.
As Professor Nordström notes, various analysis teams are already expressing interest in leveraging the innovative platform, which is comprehensively detailed in a forthcoming article that can be accessed for download.
“The success of this project is a testament to the collaborative spirit of our team, where every contributor played a vital role in bringing the Virtual Reality aspect to life.”
According to Professor Nordström, they spend long hours utilising virtual reality to study the underlying mechanisms of decision-making in insects.
The Unity Editor’s user-friendly interface simplifies experimental design and facilitates knowledge storage without requiring any coding expertise. The CAVE initiative is an open-source project created by the Hoverfly Movement Visionary Lab, aimed at simplifying the process of setting up a Tethered Flight Environment.
