An example of biomimicry, an example of biomimicry

Cat's eye night vision.

When it comes to night vision, you can't have to mention cats. In the dark of night, the cat can clearly observe the mouse's every move and grasp it with agility.

Why do cats' eyes see clearly in the dark? The reason for this is that the retina of the cat's eye has cone cells and cylindrical cells, which can sense the intensity and color of ordinary light during the day, and cylindrical cells can feel light at night. Animals that can only move during the day, such as birds and chickens, often have only conus cells in their retina; Other nocturnal animals, such as owls, have only cylindrical cells on their retina.

In addition, the cat's eye has the ability to automatically adjust its pupil to the different intensities of light when it perceives low light. So, in the middle of the day, when the sun is strong, you will see the cat squinting its eyes, and the pupils have shrunk into thin straight lines, ensuring that only a small amount of light enters the pupils. At night, when the light is very low, the pupils can be dilated to form a circle, so that various objects can be seen clearly in the dark.

The cat's eye has such a mystery, and military scientists have imitated the cat's eye to develop a very useful low-light night vision device.

The key to the development of low-light night vision technology is the image intensifier, its function is to enhance the brightness of the input image and display, after the low-light through the image intensifier, its visual distance is up to 2000 meters, but in terms of performance, structure and weight, compared with the cat's eye, there is still a large gap. Fisheye reconnaissance aircraft.

High-altitude reconnaissance planes use ordinary cameras to shoot the ground from high altitudes**, and can only capture an area of 10 square kilometers at a time. In order to learn more about the enemy, the reconnaissance planes had to go deep into enemy territory and thus run the risk of being hit by enemy missiles.

As a result, scientists have developed a high-performance camera that can take pictures of large areas from high altitudes with very clear images. This new camera uses a fisheye lens that is modeled after a fisheye structure instead of an ordinary lens.

What are the characteristics of fisheyes that are worth emulating? Generally, the visual field or image field angle of animal eyes is relatively small, and you can only see the scenery in front of the eyes, while the image field angle of fish eyes is very large, which can reach 220 degrees, and you can not only see the scenery within 180 degrees in front of you, but also turn around to see some scenes on both sides of the body. The fisheye lens, which is modeled after the fisheye of this "six-way view", also has an image field angle of more than 200 degrees, which is three times larger than that of ordinary cameras.

In addition, many fish have "amphibious eyes" that allow them to observe targets both in the water and in the air. This is the case of a four-eyed fish that lives in the Amazon River in the Americas. Its eyes are special in that they are separated by a horizontal diaphragm that divides the eyes into upper and lower halves, with the upper half protruding above the head, suitable for observing things in the air and the lower half for observing things in the water.

In the future, devices can be designed to observe objects in the air and in the water, imitating the eyes of a four-eyed fish, so that ships can see objects on the water as well as underwater objects when they sail on the surface.

Succeeded in the imitation of a very peculiar small gas analyzer by a nasty fly. It has been installed in the cockpit of a spacecraft to detect the composition of the gases in the cabin.

2。From fireflies to artificial cold light;

3。Electric fish with volt batteries;

4。The downwind ears of jellyfish, imitating the structure and function of jellyfish ears, designed the jellyfish ear storm instrument, which can predict the storm 15 hours in advance, which is of great significance to the safety of navigation and fishery.

5。According to the visual principle of frog eyes, people have successfully developed an electronic frog eye. This electronic frog eye can identify objects of a specific shape with the same accuracy as a real frog eye.

After the electronic frog eye is installed in the radar system, the anti-jamming ability of the radar is greatly improved. This radar system can quickly and accurately identify specific shapes of aircraft, ships, missiles, etc. In particular, it can distinguish between real and fake missiles and prevent the real from being confused with the real.

Electronic frog eyes are also widely used in airports and traffic arteries. At the airport, it can monitor the take-off and landing of aircraft, and can issue an alarm if it detects that the aircraft is about to collide. In the traffic arteries, it can direct the driving of vehicles and prevent the occurrence of vehicle collisions.

6。According to the principle of the bat ultrasound locator, people also imitated the "pathfinder" for the blind. This pathfinder is equipped with an ultrasonic emitter that a blind person can carry to spot people on electric poles, steps, bridges, etc. Today, "ultrasound glasses" with a similar effect have also been made.

7。An incomplete photosynthesizer that mimics cyanobacteria will be designed to bionic photolyzed water, so that a large amount of hydrogen can be obtained.

8。Based on the study of the human skeletal muscular system and bioelectric control, a human augmenter - a walking machine has been imitated.

9。The hooks of modern cranes originated from the paws of many animals.

10。The roof corrugated roof mimics the scale armor of animals.

11。The oars mimic the fins of a fish.

12。The saw learns the mantis arm, or sawgrass.

13。Xanthium was inspired to invent Velcro.

14。Lobsters with a keen sense of smell provide ideas for people to make odor detectors.

15。Gecko toes offer an encouraging prospect for creating adhesive tapes that can be used over and over again.

16。The colloids produced by shellfish from their proteins are so strong that they can be used for everything from surgical sutures to ship repairs.

The contribution of birds to biomimicry.

From the emergence of Archaeopteryx to the present, in the long process of evolution over hundreds of millions of years, birds have formed many effective navigation, identification, calculation, energy conversion and other systems, and their sensitivity, efficiency, accuracy, and drought resistance are amazing. These structural and functional principles have been studied and simulated to improve the existing curtains.

Birds are highly capable of flying, and of course modern airplanes far surpass birds in many performances, but when it comes to saving energy, they are dwarfed in dexterity. For example, a bird flies more than 4,000 kilometers over the ocean continuously and loses kilograms; The small hummingbird can not only rise and fall vertically, but also take an upright position when sucking nectar, and hang in the air to advance and retreat freely, which is extremely flexible. The research and use of these special functions will further improve the performance of the aircraft.

For example, wild ducks can fly leisurely at an altitude of 9,500 meters, while people can already feel difficult to breathe when they reach 4,500 meters. Studying why birds can still have cerebral blood vessels open under thin air conditions can be of great significance for humans to live normally and prolong life in an environment with insufficient oxygen supply.

Pigeons make a great contribution to biomimicry. It has a small and sensitive special structure on its legs, and people imitate a new instrument according to its principle to make the forecast more accurate. Its eyes have a special ability to recognize due to the presence of 6 functionally specific ganglion cells in its retina

Leaf brightness detector, ordinary edge detector, convex edge detector, direction detector, vertical edge detector, horizontal detector, people imitate the cell structure on its retina to make the pigeon eye electronic model, although the structure is not as complex and perfect as it, but installed on the warning radar, applied to the electronic computer to process the relevant data has broad prospects.

Seawater accounts for 97% of the total amount of water on Earth. The artificial desalination of seawater is currently equipped with huge equipment, complex structure and high energy consumption. However, seabirds such as seagulls and albatross can expel salt from the seawater they drink through a salt gland near their eyes, and once this function is simulated, the prospects for human use of the ocean will be even broader.

In addition, people are developing the Hawkeye system missile based on the structure of the Hawkeye, which can automatically find and identify the target and track the attack when it flies over the target.

The plane ——— wild geese.

Robots – people.

Butterfly: Camouflage uniform.

Fly --- small gas analyzer.

2。Fireflies--- artificial cold light;

3。electric fish --- volt battery;

4。Jellyfish --- Jellyfish Ear Storm ** Apparatus, 5. Frog eyes --- electronic frog eyes.

6。The principle of the bat ultrasound locator ---pathfinder".

7。Apparatus for photohydrolysis of water --- cyanobacteria, 8. The study of the human skeletal muscular system and bioelectric control ,—— walking machines.

9。The animal's paws --- hooks of modern cranes.

10。Scales of animals --- corrugated roofs.

11。The fins of the fish --- the oars.

12。Praying mantis arms, or saws --- saws.

13。Xanthium --- velcro.

14。Lobster --- odor detector.

15。Gecko toes --- adhesive tapes.

16。Shellfish --- surgical sutures to mending ships, etc

17。Shark --- swimsuit, 18. - Bird --- airplane.

19。Fish --- submarines.