NEWCASTLE UPON TYNE, U.K.—Engineers at Newcastle University here are studying how the 3D vision used by praying mantises could lead to simpler visual processing systems in robots. They recently equipped insects with miniature glasses that were temporarily glued on with beeswax.
“Humans are not the only animals that have stereo vision,” says Ghaith Tarawneh, Ph.D., an electrical and electronic engineering professor who has been working on the project with his colleagues at the school’s institute of neuroscience. “Other animals include monkeys, cats, horses, owls and toads, but the only insect known to have stereo vision is the praying mantis. [Their] vision works differently from all previously known forms of biological 3D vision.