The Echoes of Flowers

To detect plants, bats emit ultrasonic pulses and decipher the various echoes that return. A research group in Tübingen, Germany has developed a computer model to imitate this process of plant identification.

clipped from www.sciencedaily.com Computers Show How Bats Classify Plants According To Their Echoes ScienceDaily (Mar. 24, 2008) — Researchers have developed a computer algorithm that can imitate the bat's ability to classify plants using echolocation. The study represents a collaboration between machine learning scientists and biologists studying bat orientation. Fruit bat in flight. To detect plants, bats emit ultrasonic pulses and decipher the various echoes that return. (Credit: iStockphoto/Gijs Bekenkamp) clipped from sciencenow.sciencemag.org Homing in. As bats can hear their way to favorite plants, so can a computer program produce distinct patterns of different plant species (top panels) purely from sonar reflections. clipped from www.medicalnewstoday.com clipped from www.ios.htwg-konstanz.de Yovel, Y., Franz, M. O,, Stilz, P. and H.-U. Schnitzler: The statistics of plant echoes as perceived by echolocating bats. Computational and Systems Neuroscience Meeting (Cosyne 2008), 249 (2008) [pdf].

Related:
Computers Show How Bats Classify Plants According To Their Echoes
Bats Use Plant Echoes For Classification, Computer Model Simulates
What Does a Plant Sound Like? -- Berardelli 2008 (321): 1 -- ScienceNOW
Matthias O. Franz, home page
PLoS Computational Biology: Plant Classification from Bat-Like Echolocation Signals