Electrical engineer and neurosciences researcher Charles Higgins sees a time in the future when scientists will design robots that have the powerful vision of a moth or dragonfly, or even have such insects built in them directly to carry out phenomenal tasks involving sight and motion detection. Science fiction, you say? While Charles does admit to a healthy penchant for such flicks as Star Trek, Terminator, The Matrix and Source Code, his cutting-edge research today is steadily turning insect-inspired robotics into reality -- work that is helping scientists harness and apply the electrical…
dragonflies
grrlscientist | July 8, 2009tags: dragonfly vision, facets, opsin, compound eyes, insects, dragonflies, Dennis Paulson, David O'Carroll, Robert Olberg
Male Megaloprepus caerulatus, PANAMA, Rio Chico Masambi, near Gamboa,
11 August 2005; photo by Julie Craves, a Natural Science Research Associate
at the University of Michigan-Dearborn.
Color vision in humans depends upon three light-sensitive proteins, called opsins, that are present in our retinas. Each type of opsin absorbs one color of light in the spectrum. In humans, the colors absorbed by these opsins are red, green or blue. The many wavelengths of light…
grrlscientist | September 25, 2007tags: odonata, dragonflies, wandering glider, Pantala flavescens, Image of the Day
Wandering glider, Pantala flavescens. Houston, Texas.
Image: Biosparite [wallpaper size].