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

How Bats Fly

clipped from news.nationalgeographic.com PHOTO IN THE NEWS: Bats Use Same Aerial Tricks As Bugs clipped from www.telegraph.co.uk Bats use same tricks as insect to fly Bats use the same aerodynamic trick as flying insects do to stay aloft, much to the relief of scientists. Today, Prof Anders Hedenström of Lund University says he is "pleased to report" that when the bat wing flaps downward, the motion also produces a tiny cyclone of air above the wing, called a "leading edge vortex," that pulls the animal upward. By watching the swirling fog particles, the researchers were able to figure out that leading edge vortices provide a large portion of the lift force that helps the bats to stay in the air. This kind of work paves the way for a new generation of bat like robots, or "micro air vehicles" measuring just a few inches in size to be built, says Prof Hedenström.