The BBC is reporting about a new type of vibration sensor that is sensitive enough to detect minute vibrations such as blood flow and speech.
The new type of sensor uses a thin layer of platinum embedded on a polymer that mimics sense organs present in the joints of some spiders. Vibrations cause cracks in the platinum to open and close, which can be detected and quantified. I can see many applications for such sensors, including ultra-sensitive body activity sensors, vibration detection in highly sensitive experimental gear, and the ever popular choice, spy equipment. The research is presented in an article published recently in Nature.
From the BBC News article:
Speaking to BBC News, Prof Mansoo Choi said the project began two years ago, when one of his colleagues at Seoul National University read a paper in the same journal.
It described how a particular species of wandering spider communicates with potential mates, metres away on the same plant, by scratching the leaves and "hearing" the vibrations. The organ in the spiders' legs that detects these incredibly faint vibrations is made up of a series of slits. It is called the "lyriform organ" because the slits vary in length, like the strings of a lyre. "We tried to mimic the cracked shape of the organ," Prof Choi said.
(Score: 2) by Jeremiah Cornelius on Sunday December 14 2014, @10:26PM
Or maybe it's just the 3-way vibrational shower-head?
You're betting on the pantomime horse...
(Score: 3, Interesting) by dlb on Sunday December 14 2014, @10:40PM
vibration detection in highly sensitive experimental gear
Already there are vibration cancelling gadgets, which work like noise cancelling earphones, but for vibrations in solids rather than sound waves. Assuming we have the delicate hardware to match the feedback, now this can be done for achieving nearly complete stillness.
Some of my layman guesses where this would be put to good use: The search for gravity waves. And the less jumping about of a telescope, the more narrow the field of view can be focused on a distance objects, allowing for greater resolution. Or how about stilling a laser to the point where it can be shot millions of miles into space and hit a target the size of a plate?
(Score: 2) by mtrycz on Sunday December 14 2014, @10:45PM
I love and am always fascinated by the other species on the planet have senses that are so much different for ours.
It would obviously take an incredible amount of complexity to make a working ear on a spider, it would certainly not fit. Including the brain power needed to process the signal.
Instead these spiders developed a "lyriform organ" for comunication. It's much simpler but also very effective, much better than a human ear, at the thing it's used for.
Nature keeps surprising, and I can only marvel at the sheer quantity of things we haven't discovered yet.
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(Score: 2) by NotSanguine on Sunday December 14 2014, @11:13PM
I love and am always fascinated by the other species on the planet have senses that are so much different for ours.
Absolutely. The wonderful complexity of biology is endlessly fascinating. Whether it be our own traits or vastly different ones which evolved in different circumstances to meet the same needs, life is incredibly interesting stuff!
No, no, you're not thinking; you're just being logical. --Niels Bohr
(Score: 2) by carguy on Monday December 15 2014, @12:06AM
Yet another piece needed to make a functioning "tricorder" ?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday December 15 2014, @02:55AM
Located the G-Spot with one!
(Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Monday December 15 2014, @02:33PM
Your comment reminds me of the body hacker culture that has arisen over the last couple of decades. There was a blog I saw where the guy had a magnet implanted in his finger [iamdann.com], which enabled him to physically perceive EM fields. And I thought then, why not? If we can give ourselves extra senses and abilities through augmentation, why not?
We already do it, although we don't think of it as body modification. For example, when I was 30 they discovered I had an idiopathic propensity to tachycardia, and implanted a defibrillator to ensure I would survive some future tachycardiac event. I don't think about it anymore, but it's there. So the drawbacks of infection surrounding implanted devices, rejection, etc., have already been solved. Upgrades are mostly not as simple as downloading a software patch, but if you're talking about subcutaneous implants or even prostheses, it's not terrible to perform.
So it would be excellent to have moddable sensors to increase our abilities. A spider sensor would give us a real "spidey sense." Infravision would greatly improve our ability to act in the dark. Until genetic engineering advances to the point where we can have those abilities organically, augmentation seems a sensible stepping stone.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 2) by mtrycz on Monday December 15 2014, @04:25PM
I understand what you're saying, but I think I'd go with more caution in these lands.
First, there's the "computation" problem - we don't see with our *eyes*, but with our *mind* (note I didn't say brain). Adding a "sense" to oneself should probably be far more complex than an implant, as you'd have to also dedicate a part of mind to that too. Organic implications arise. Lot's of ocmplex stuff.
Then, don't get me started on the ethics of it. It's such a hazy line that's it's ridiculous. Military will do it anyway, so...
Anyway I think we're not giving enough love to the senses we have, for the senses we'd want. There's so much cool stuff still to discover about ourselves.
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(Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Monday December 15 2014, @08:26PM
I don't have enough experience personally to say. My own implant is never felt unless it's needed, and it is never needed. Other people with synesthesia or implants say they come to take their extra-sensory perception as a given, and never think of it as an additional cognitive burden. If you read the blog of the guy with the magnetic implant I originally linked to, he says as much: it becomes so second-nature he never even thinks about it anymore.
We more normal humans maybe have a little bit of a window into what it would be like through the immersive experience of video games. How many dozens of hours of playing Deus Ex does it take before you stop taking extra powers as anything less than autonomic? Yes, the twitch in the joystick that activates power X is a physical interaction, but before that it is a mental one. The mind has to think a thought has outcomes. And perhaps that is the real measure of what it would mean to control tech implants. At first it seems awkward and wrong, but becomes so second nature we cease considering it outside the set of abilities we even have, in much the same way we have come to consider having the collected knowledge of our civilization at our fingertips through our smartphones.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 2) by pixeldyne on Sunday December 14 2014, @10:55PM
Do space agencies use such sensitive equipment already? It would be very useful in the ignition and liftoff stages, perhaps even as early warning for the abort rocket. Just figure out the minima/maxima parameters.
(Score: 2) by NotSanguine on Sunday December 14 2014, @11:17PM
Do space agencies use such sensitive equipment already?
It could also be useful for spacecraft in space, to detect micro-meteorite impacts or atmosphere leaks too small to be identified otherwise.
No, no, you're not thinking; you're just being logical. --Niels Bohr
(Score: 2) by jimshatt on Sunday December 14 2014, @11:37PM
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday December 15 2014, @03:20AM
great, juuuuust great.
(Score: 2) by NotSanguine on Monday December 15 2014, @04:04AM
Lizard beings need love too, friend.
No, no, you're not thinking; you're just being logical. --Niels Bohr
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday December 15 2014, @05:25AM
"Lizard beings need love too, friend."
they must all be tread upon.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 16 2014, @12:37PM
Based on Human Female Organ...