Virtual Reality Platform Created For Lab Animals
Scientists have devised a virtual reality platform for lab animals. Let that sink in. Zebrafish have swum with the aliens from the video game Space Invaders, mice were afraid of virtual heights, and fruit flies circled illusory obstacles.
This new holodeck for animals can help researchers see how freely-moving animals respond to a variety of illusions—work that could help scientists better understand human genes and brain circuitry, researchers say. The researchers, from the Vienna Biocenter in Austria, detailed their findings in today’s edition of the journal Nature Methods.
FreemoVR, immersed animals in arenas where the walls or floors were computer displays. Each screen depicted photorealistic images that accounted for each animal’s perspective as it walked, flew, or swam.
Up to 10 high-speed cameras monitored the precise 3D position of each animal. FreemoVR then updated its video imagery within milliseconds of each animal's movements to create the 3D illusion that they were moving in environments that changed in response to their actions.
The animals apparently found the illusions realistic. For instance, fruit flies circled virtual pillars just as they did real ones placed in the platforms. Moreover, mice generally avoided tracks that looked as if they were suspended at great heights, just as they would in real life.
See the full story here: http://spectrum.ieee.org/the-human-os/computing/hardware/virtual-reality-platform-created-for-lab-animals