Brian's Blog

items I see across my tribes

Ants have “pedometer-like” brain cells

July 16
by briancarter 16. July 2011 11:05

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Many of you who studied computer science probably wrote a program based on the Ant colony optimization algorithm.  The algorithm is based on how ants find optimal paths between their colony and a source of food.  The key to this is how ants use their pheromone trails to find the shortest trail to the food source.

Harald Wolf from the University of Ulm conducted experiments on desert ants that showed they have a pedometer in the head.  The experiment showed that by increasing or decreasing the size of ants legs 1/2 way through their journey – they returned a different distance.  Further if extended, less distance if legs shortened.

I’ve been doing a lot of work on pedometers lately and wonder if we too have such built in pedometers.  Watch the video… good stuff to think about.

Ants That Count!

http://www.npr.org/blogs/krulwich/2011/06/01/120587095/ants-that-count

Categories: Development

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The opinions, thoughts, and comments made in these blog posts are solely my own (unless otherwise stated). They do not reflect the opinions, thoughts or practices of my employer, my universities, my family, or anyone else. Also, I retain the right to change my mind about anything I publish here without having to go back and edit posts that occurred in the past. 

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