Complexity Digest 2008.13 - 12.01

27-Mar-2008

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Computers Show How Bats Classify Plants According To Their Echoes, ScienceDaily Bookmark and Share

Excerpts: 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. To detect plants, bats emit ultrasonic pulses and decipher the various echoes that return. Bats use plants daily as food sources and landmarks for navigation between foraging sites. Plant echoes are highly complex signals due to numerous reflections from leaves and branches. Classifying plants or other intricate objects, therefore, has been considered a troublesome task for bats and the scientific community was far from understanding how they do it. (...)