Researchers Place 3D Glasses On Cuttlefish And Gain Interesting Results

Scientists in a bid to investigate the depth perception of cuttlefish have proven they can watch 3D movies and react to them in the same way they would have seen the real thing in the ocean.

Trevor Wardill, an assistant professor of ecology and evolution and behavior at the University of Minnesota and the lead author on the research, told media outlets their team glued Velcro to the skin of the cuttlefish.

They proceeded to fasten 3D glasses with one red and one blue filtered lens to the Velcro.

The researchers proceeded to play a video of shrimp, which is one of cuttlefishes’ favorite prey.

Wardill claimed the hardest thing was to get the cuttlefish to wear the glasses as they preferred to play with it instead.

Once they donned them, the cuttlefish extended their tentacles and attacked the shrimp on screen the same way they would, had the situation been real.

In the study, Wardill and his team tested how 11 different European cuttlefish, responded to the videos they were being shown while in the tank.

It was found that cuttlefish have camera-like eyes, cornea, lens, retina, and an iris even.

They can use stereopsis, meaning they can discern distance because their brains can interpret the difference between the signals attained from both of the eyes.

When the scientists experimented with the cuttlefish wearing the glasses, they could see the fish adjusting their position as relative to the screen.

Wardill stated the cuttlefish could do depth perception better than human beings.

The research showed like humans, the brains of cuttlefish could compute distance with the use of incoming information from both of the eyes at the same time.

Though, the paper claims that cuttlefish stereopsis is probably afforded through different algorithms than within human beings and not just a different implementation.

The study using 3D glasses builds on a similar case, which was on praying mantises. The research was also done by Wardill and his team, concentrating on the eyes of praying mantises.

The insects wore the world’s tiniest 3D glasses, and the results gained attention within the robotics field.

The study seemed to be the first time; scientists found neurons in an invertebrate that had supported the stereoscopic vision.

Wardill mentioned that different brains compute stereo vision in different ways. They thought there was something unique about the praying mantis.

The manner they process stereoscopy is different from the method human beings do it.