A new Israeli development makes it possible to project a virtual reality to marine animals in the laboratory, thus studying their behavior as if they were in the natural environment. Will the new technology solve the octopus camouflage puzzle?
By Racheli Vox, Angle, Science and Environment News Agency
When using virtual reality glasses, we sometimes have to stop and remind ourselves that what we're seeing isn't real, and that even if it seems like we're riding a roller coaster speeding down a steep and menacing descent, we're still stinking on the couch in the living room.
In recent years, virtual reality technology has developed at a dizzying pace and has become more and more common. Recently, an Israeli researcher took the idea one step further, outside the gaming world, and developed Virtual reality device which is specifically intended for marine animals, this is in order to try and better understand mysterious and surprising aspects of their behavior.
Dr. Noam Yosef, director of the Ecological Behavior Laboratory at Ben Gurion University in Eilat, created the new development as part of his post-doctorate at the Mote Marine Laboratory and the Institute for Human and Machine Cognition in Florida, USA. The new development is somewhat reminiscent of the "holodeck", the virtual reality room from "Star Trek": the animal swims in a white painted tank whose sides and bottom are projected using a photo or video projector that simulates its natural living environment. Thus, researchers can create in the laboratory any visual environment they want: coral reefs, sandy environments, rocks, open water and more. The researchers can also represent the movement and behavior of other marine creatures in the environment if necessary, and easily change it as they wish, thus investigating the animal's natural behavior under controlled laboratory conditions. The development also includes a camera, which tracks the exact location of the animal inside the tank, and changes the environment accordingly if the researcher so desires.
Are the animals convinced that they are in a real natural environment? It seems so. Joseph tested the system on seven different octopuses. When a video showing a crab was projected onto the tank, the octopus tried to capture it as if it were real prey. When a video of a shark or eel was shown, the frightened octopus fled from the predator. "This is a positive confirmation that the system represents a reliable visual environment from the point of view of the octopus - for him, he sees a crab," says Yosef. "Although elements such as 3D and smell are missing, the visual signal is enough to produce behavior."
According to Yosef, the new method is relatively simple to implement, and is superior to the current methods, in which the animals are usually surrounded by a printed, non-dynamic background, the replacement of which involves disturbing their natural behavior. "With this automatic and computerized method, we minimize our impact on the animal, I'm not even in the room when I change the background," says Yosef.
The method can be used to study any animal that can see well underwater. For example, the method can be used to study fish behavior, because it is possible to simulate a whole school around a single fish that swims with it in any direction it moves, as happens in nature.
The million dollar question
Yosef developed the system in order to better understand the intriguing topic of camouflage in octopuses. "According to all the evidence, octopuses are unable to see colors, but they manage to camouflage phenomenally, including a lot of use of color," says Yosef. "We don't know how they do it, that's the million dollar question in this field."
Octopuses change the color patterns on their skin to protect themselves, hunt, scare enemies and communicate with each other. They are able to display a very wide variety of colored patterns on their skin and even change the texture of their skin, almost instantly. This camouflage can be very convincing: many divers tell of cases where they were very surprised to suddenly discover that a certain rock or seaweed is actually Octopus in disguise. The color patterns that the octopuses use to scare enemies are also very impressive - such a model, for example, is of white skin with dark spots, two of which, especially large and dark, create the illusion of a pair of menacing eyes. When the octopus uses such a model, it spreads its arms and the membrane between them and tries to look as big and scary as possible, similar to a tiny kitten trying to look big and threatening in front of an enemy.
alien animal
The camouflage of the octopuses is made possible thanks to the chromatophores in their skin: special color cells, which are surrounded by the tissue of ring muscles. As these muscles expand and contract, they expand and close the color sacs. In the octopus, there is a separate nerve connection to almost every chromatophore, so that the octopus is able to create a very high resolution image on its skin. "They can produce any model, any color, almost any shape, and immediately," says Yosef. "Their camouflage is almost perfect."
"We more or less know how the octopuses line up in the technical aspect, but not in terms of decision-making," says Yosef. The new method allows the examination of various aspects of the subject, some of which he has already begun to investigate himself using it. "For example, you can create environments in different colors, to see what the animal will do," says Yosef. Since the system also tracks the position of the animal in the tank, the researcher can change the background according to its movement. "When an octopus is about to move to a different background, it anticipates what's to come and moves to a new look even before it reaches the new environment," Yosef explains. With the new method, the researcher can, for example, make the background move with the octopus, so that its environment does not change or changes more slowly, as well as better understand how the octopus orients itself in space.
"An octopus is an alien animal, it is different from us in every way," says Yosef. "It has three hearts, two brains, blue blood, it has no bones, it tastes with its arms, it's a very strange animal, but still in some things, like orientation in space, they behave just like mammals." According to him, octopuses are a mollusk with an extraordinary ability to solve complex problems. "Octopuses are the coolest animal in the world, there is a lot to learn from them," he concludes.
More of the topic in Hayadan:
- The genome of a common octopus species, which allows them to have three almost completely independent hearts and minds in each arm, has been deciphered
- How do the octopus's arms not get tangled in each other?
- The mechanism behind the ability of squids and octopuses to change their color has been discovered
