Hack the Senses - S01E04 Animal Perception

What are the limits of human perception? How could we stretch and expand them?

The team that brought you Hack the Brain in 2015 is taking on the senses!

We will focus our attention on the wonderfully varied sensory universes that insects, birds, reptiles and other animals inhabit. If our perception of the world is shaped by the sense organs we are equipped with then our view of the world is just one among a range of possibilities. How can we draw inspiration from the animal kingdom and build technologies that allow us to experience other sensory worlds? Come along to meet some fascinating speakers who are leading exciting research into animal perception. And while you're there, why not strap on an Oculus to get a VR taste of what it's like to be a honeybee.

Following this series of events we will organise a hackathon between 24-26 June at FabLab London, where you can try your hand at creating new sensory substitution and augmentation devices.

As always, we'll have drinks and cookies.

Event schedule:

6.30pm - Arrival, registration, drinks and chat

7.00pm - Welcome

7.10pm - Dr. Vivek Nityananda will give an overview and introduction to animal senses, and discuss his groundbreaking work around 3d vision in 'man, mantis and machine'. 

7.35pm - Dr. Marc Holderied will talk about bat biosonar and bio-inspired applications from robotics navigation to adaptive radars.

8:00pm - Prof. Thomas Nowotny will provide a glimspe into olfaction research in insects and its applications.

8.30pm - Q&A chaired by Shama Rahman

9pm - Chat, drink, chill and try that honeybee VR kit

Speakers

Dr. Vivek Nityananda is a sensory ecologist at Newcastle University, where his research combines neuroscience, ecology, evolutionary biology and psychophysics to study animal behaviour. @VivekNityananda

Dr Marc Holderied is a researcher of behavioural acoustics at the University of Bristol

Prof. Thomas Nowotny is professor of informatics at Sussex University and Head of the Evolutionary and Adaptive Systems (EASy) group. (@DrTNowotny)