Virtual and augmented reality is not only a good interactive tool for creating entertainment content, but also a way to do some research that was not possible before. For example, recently, scientists from the New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT), studying the behavior of a knife fish, decided to place it in a special tube with augmented reality. But why did they need it?
The fact is that the experts decided to study the behavioral mechanisms and how the fish behave in case of danger. Scientists also wanted to understand whether AR can deceive the senses of the fish and whether the animal will understand that it is in a "fake" environment.
Naturally, it would be problematic to put on an AR headset on a fish. Therefore, scientists in the water constructed a pipe on which the image was projected. So, technically, this is probably something between virtual reality and augmented reality.
Scientists have synchronized the movement of the "pictures" of the pipe, simulating its movement, with the movement of the eyes. Moreover, when the fish changed the direction of movement of the eyes, the movement of the AR-tube also changed in accordance with this. The most interesting thing was that at a certain moment the animal understood the "rules of the game" and began to control the AR-pipe as it needed. Most likely, the fish realized that it was in a virtual environment.
Promotional video:
Vladimir Kuznetsov