The world in color seen through the eyes of animals: it is now possible to capture it even in motion thanks to a super-camera that allows the colors that animals see in their natural environments, which can be very different from those perceived, to be replicated with high accuracy by humans.
The result of the research, coordinated by Queen Mary University of London, is published in the journal Plos Biology.
This technological breakthrough could help us better understand how animals communicate with each other and how they move and interact in the environment around them.
Different animals perceive the world differently due to the capabilities of the photoreceptors in their eyes.
For example, creatures such as bees and some birds also see ultraviolet light, which is outside the range of human perception.
Traditional methods used to recreate these colors often require a lot of time, specific lighting conditions and cannot capture moving images.
To overcome these obstacles, researchers led by Vera Vasas have developed a new camera and software system capable of shooting videos of moving objects from the animal's perspective under natural lighting conditions.
The device, made up of commercially available cameras assembled in a 3D printed casing, simultaneously records video in four wavelengths, corresponding to blue, green, red and UV.
The data is then processed using software to produce a 92% accurate video of how these colors are perceived by the animals, based on what is known about the photoreceptors in their eyes.
“We have long been fascinated by the way animals see the world,” comments Daniel Hanley of the American George Mason University, co-author of the study: “Here we provide the tools to ecologists and filmmakers to capture the colors perceived by animals even in movement".
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