A new camera system and associated software package allows scientists to produce videos that accurately replicate the colors that different animals see in natural settings.
Different animals perceive the world differently because of the capabilities of the photoreceptors in their eyes.
For example, animals like honeybees and some birds can see UV light, which are outside the range of human perception.
Reconstructing the colors that animals actually see can help scientists better understand how they communicate and navigate the world around them.
False color images give us a glimpse into this dynamic world, but traditional methods such as spectrophotometry are often time consuming, require specific lighting conditions, and cannot capture moving images.
“How do animals see the world?” said senior author Dr. Daniel Hanley from George Mason University and colleagues.
“This simple question has captured our imaginations and spurred discovery since the advent of modern science.”
“Each animal possesses a unique set of photoreceptors, with sensitivities ranging from ultraviolet through infrared, adapted to their ecological needs.”
“In addition, many animals can detect polarized light,” they said.
“As a result, each animal perceives color differently. As neither our eyes nor commercial cameras capture such variation in light, wide swaths of visual domains remain unexplored.”
“This makes false color imagery of animal vision powerful and compelling.”
To address these limitations, the researchers developed a novel camera and software system that captures animal-view videos of moving objects under natural lighting conditions.
The camera simultaneously records video in four color channels: blue, green, red and UV.
These data can be processed into ‘perceptual units’ to produce an accurate video of how those colors are perceived by animals, based on existing knowledge of the photoreceptors…
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