Can't swat flies? Scientists come up with a new idea: Let them play VR...

With the advent of the 5G era, virtual reality (VR), which became popular a few years ago, has once again entered people's field of vision. Although the related industries of this technology are still in their infancy, its vitality has begun to show in all walks of life. Not only for humans, but even VR for animals is under development. You must be very curious about what animal VR can be used for? After reading this article, you will understand that animal VR can completely become a powerful tool for zoological research.

Insects' ability to fly has completely conquered most of the world's skies. Humans have always been curious about the mechanism by which insects' brains control their flight, and countless mysteries have never been fully solved. For example, how do insects navigate? How developed is their vision? Can they distinguish between food and threats based solely on vision? Do air currents and odors affect insects' tendency to move?

Recently, Indian scientists built a luxurious VR "entertainment" system for insects in the laboratory, and they can swim in it just by flapping their wings. In this virtual world, there are their favorite foods, good smells and airflows that can be used as a boost. They can fly in front of the display screen for hours without stopping. It sounds a bit mysterious, but the question is, is it necessary to go to great lengths to build such an insect VR system? What meaningful information can we get from it?

The user of this system, the apple fruit fly, is a species that is extremely picky about its diet. It is only interested in one kind of food, that is, apples (on apple trees). The apple fruit fly spends its entire life around apples. It lives in orchards, eats, drinks, defecates, urinates, mates and lays eggs on apples. Apart from the opposite sex, apples are the only meaningful things in the world for them. This kind of partial eating behavior, which is very unprogressive from an evolutionary perspective, can make Darwin angry. However, for insect behavior research, they are precious model animals.

The phrase "flies flying around without a head" is about the unpredictability of insect flight routes and destinations. To study them, we need a simple enough model. The VR system and the fruit fly provide a sufficiently simplified research platform and research object, which is a perfect match.

Virtual reality entertainment system (Photo courtesy of Visual China)

During the experiment, the fruit flies were fixed in the middle of the instrument. Although their movements were restricted to a certain extent, it was not as cruel as being pierced by a needle. Instead, a long needle was fixed to their chest exoskeleton with glue, similar to the position between the two shoulder blades of the human body. The reason for this is very simple. First, even if the research subjects are insects, it is likely to attract criticism of animal abuse. Therefore, the researchers tried to conduct the research in a way that did not harm the fruit flies. Secondly, the greater the restrictions imposed on the research subjects' bodies, the more likely they are to cause discomfort, and the research conditions will deviate further from the ideal situation.

It took five years to build this system. If it was based on the VR game developed by humans, the game company would have gone bankrupt long ago. The reason for such a great effort is that insect VR has many characteristics different from human VR, which forced the researchers to conduct sufficient research and improvement.

Finally, with the joint efforts of humans and insects, this insect VR experimental system was officially launched. Its display screen contains all the elements found in a natural orchard, including blue sky, white clouds, green grass, and apple trees. When apple flies see them, they can't help but want to fly. Once they start flapping their wings, the picture will be updated accordingly, and can even correspond to the turning of the apple flies within a certain angle. In addition to the display module, this system is also equipped with a multi-directional duct that applies airflow and odor.

What results has the insect VR system brought us? The researchers found that if there was no apple tree on the screen at all, the apple fruit fly would not have any particular flying tendency. However, once an apple tree appeared, they would immediately move towards it and try to land on the tree. This shows that the apple fruit fly can recognize the three-dimensional entities that appear in the VR system. It is worth mentioning that the Aedes aegypti, the crane mosquito and the tail maggot fly can distinguish specific entities from the background through this VR system.

If there is no visual signal at all, such as keeping the background image unchanged, what signal will the apple fruit fly use to achieve navigation? The answer is airflow and smell. In the absence of effective visual and odor information, the apple fruit fly will use its antennae and the hairs distributed throughout its body to sense the direction of airflow, thereby choosing a reasonable flight route, going with the flow, and reducing energy loss. Once an odor signal is involved, the apple fruit fly will immediately move in the direction where the odor comes from. This experiment confirmed for the first time that insects can still navigate through other means even when they lose their vision.

Studying the flight and navigation behavior of insects has great practical significance in real life, and the relevant results can play a role in pest control, crop pollination, and prevention of insect-borne diseases. Perhaps in the future, we can invent fly swatters that will make flies sacrifice their lives, and hitting flies will no longer be a difficult task that requires holding your breath and concentrating.

What is Virtual Reality

Virtual reality (abbreviated as VR), also known as virtual environment, is a virtual world in three-dimensional space created by computer simulation. By simulating the user's visual senses, objects in three-dimensional space can be observed instantly and without restriction, giving the user an immersive feeling. When the user moves, the computer can immediately perform complex calculations and transmit accurate three-dimensional world images back to create a sense of presence. This technology integrates the latest developments in computer graphics, computer simulation, artificial intelligence, sensing, display and network parallel processing, and is a high-tech simulation system generated with the assistance of computer technology.