From Living Eyes to Seeing Machines

Anyone who has watched a kangaroo bounding rapidly through a dense forest, or seen a falcon swooping down to catch a field mouse knows that the animal kingdom has evolved fast, reliable, and precise visual systems. A fly evading a swat and executing a flawless landing on the rim of a teacup is the result of such a system. If animals are using clever short-cuts to vision and navigation, can they be exploited for other applications, such as robot design and novel algorithms? This book explores that possibility; the articles, written by scientists from evolutionary biology to computer science, are written with minimal technical jargon and invite a fresh approach to an area normally dominated by engineering methods.