We've posted these bird stabilization videos before (chickens are amazing!) but they never cease to impress. As good as we are with digital electronics, nature always does better with analog circuits.
(via Kottke)
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If I knew how to use neural network software to build algorithms, I'd attach an IMU and camera to the chicken and collect data. Train the network to match the chicken in performance and then export the algorithm in C and put it on a chip. Cracker Jacks still hasnt sent my PhD, so it will be awhile.
Somebody has already started work on using a chicken as a Steadicam:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UytSNlHw8J8&feature=player_embed...
But it still needs some work. Obviously, it's hard to control the aim point. And the chicken's PID loop needs to be retuned to accomodate the weight of the camera. You can see some jitter, especially after fast movements.
What's interesting is that the tendency to hold the eyes level to the horizon is common to pretty much all animals, whether owl, human, or insect.
Also, you have to keep in mind that not only is the head held in one orientation, but the eyes themselves are another layer of stabilization.
As for analog vs. digital- the firing of a neuron is a 1/0 activity, but the timing of the neuron firing isn't. It's pretty complicated, and it can be said that "the brain" has both analog and digital processing in it. But the digital processing is nothing like the algorithmic processing you see in an Arduino (or a supercomputer).
no your right chris the mind works in analog always had, in fact like you said the sell don't work in on off stats the closest digital analog (lol pun) would be a balanced trinary (-1,0,+1) but that's still more limited.
Jake: You may be right; I don't know enough neuroscience to be sure. I know the pulses in calcium channels are not pure digital on/off step functions, so I called them analog, but perhaps I'm getting the semantics wrong.
@Scott: i like that version better as well.
This is sure to start some sort of IMU-owl-crossover-fetish stream of viral videos..
@Adrian: I totally believe that vision is key here. There's a whole thing on pilots learning not to trust their "inner" inertial sensors in dense fog/night flight, isn't there? Because IMU's on things not attached to the ground just don't give any absolute attitude info* .. (* .. yes, indirectly, drag, etc etc)
I always wonder how much this has to do with the birds inner ear or if it’s more like a steadicam? Using tendons and muscles responses instead of complex though would be far more efficient in my view.
How about this version!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=9hBpF_Zj...!
Kind of funny regarding the central ear IMU. The knowing that there is a gravity pull down made the bird react accordingly.
Hummingbirds are always my favorites at this. They pull up near a flower or a feeder and their head stops completely while their center of gravity keeps swinging around all over the place:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cly6Y69WOYk#t=3m22s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hjnc1kHMDDo
It would be nice to close the loop this well in such a small package...