Invited speakers
Find a list of some of our fascinating speakers contributing to the "Virtual Reality" Symposium at Behaviour 2015. (subject to final confirmation)
Prof. Gil Rosenthal, Texas A&M University, USA.
Gil Rosenthal is a professor in the Department of Biology and the Interdisciplinary Program in Ecology & Evolutionary Biology at Texas A&M University, as well as co-director of the CICHAZ field station in central Mexico.
He has spent his career studying the mechanisms and evolutionary consequences of sexual communication, mainly working on swordtails (Poeciliidae: Xiphophorus). He began applying video playback to mate-choice studies with the late Chris Evans in Peter Marler’s lab, then developed computer-animated stimuli as part of his PhD thesis.
More recently, he has worked on automated interactive playback of computer animations, as well as led the team that developed the anyFish software for developing animated stimuli.
Photo: Jim Wilkes Staff Reporter,
Published on Sun Feb 06 2011 Toronto Star
(http://www.thestar.com/news/2011/02/06/drunk_fish_may_hold_secrets_to_alcoholism_in_humans.html).
Prof. Robert Gerlai, University of Toronto Mississauga, Canada.
Robert Gerlai is a Professor at the Department of Psychology at University of Toronto. Read what he says about his work experience with computer animated stimuli:
"There are several advantages of using animated images to induce behavioural responses in the zebrafish. First, the zebrafish is a diurnal species and thus heavily relies on visual perception. Visual cues are easy to manipulate in a precise and well controlled manner. The equipment needed for the presentation of visual cues is cheap, commercially available (cameras, monitors, computers), because our own species use vision as a primary modality in our daily life. Second, the presentation of computer animated images is consistent across experimental situation and thus experimental error variation is greatly reduced. Third, computer animated images can be systematically altered and thus species-specific characteristics of perception and behavioural responses may be systematically analyzed."
Website: http://www.utm.utoronto.ca/psychology/research/research-area/behaviour-genetics-laboratory
Computer animation is an excellent manipulative tool to study how evaluative behaviors such as identification, recognition, and assessment are influenced by visual features such as size, shape, patterns of light and dark, and movement. However, when designing experiments that utilize this technique, it is important to understand the differences in vision between humans and other animals and the implications that these differences have as to what types of hypotheses are appropriate to test. I will go over these differences, as well as give a brief overview of how to use Adobe products to animate photographs. Finally, by highlighting some findings from my own work with jumping spiders, I will demonstrate how computer animations can be combined with cues in other modalities to test how different modalities interact in the minds of receivers.
Dr. Cynthia Tedore, Lund University, Sweden.
I study complex social behavior in primates. I will discuss how my colleagues and I used 3D computer animations to study empathy in chimpanzees. Animation offers amazing control over the stimuli, but the benefits do not end there. In comparing the responses to animations and videos across multiple studies, we found an unexpected benefit and use for animations. Computer animation allows for some questions to be asked that cannot be asked using conventional video playback, and I will highlight this application.
Some details on our animation experiment can be found here:
http://www.emory.edu/LIVING_LINKS/research/animations.shtml
Dr. Matthew Campbell, California State University, USA.
Spencer Ingley, Brigham Young University, USA.
Spencer Ingley is a PhD candidate at Brigham Young University and belongs to the development team of anyFish, a novel software tool for creating computer animated stimuli of small fish.
"Animated stimuli provide an excellent opportunity to experimentally control signals presented to receivers. I have found animations to be particularly useful in my research because I am interested in the traits that males and females use to select mates and recognize members of their own species, and animations provide a powerful tool to manipulate certain traits while maintaining others constant. I primarily create animations using anyFish, a user-friendly software platform I helped develop to create animated fish stimuli."
Website: http://sjingley.wix.com/ingley
Klaus Müller is a PhD candidate at the Institute for Realtime Learning Systems in Siegen, Germany, headed by Prof. K.-D. Kuhnert. He is the head developer of the Virtual Fish Project. The Virtual Fish Project aims to create a virtual fish mate, which is able to interact with real fish. Based on the institutes experience in the field of robotics, the interactive fish simulator is equipped with cameras and a real time fish tracking system for giving the virtual fish „eyes“ to see, track and interact with its real mate in the future.
“Our virtual reality system is derived from a real robot system. As well as a robot the virtual fish needs sensors for observing the environment and making decisions. Instead of driving a real robot with motors and joins, we create a remote controlled virtual fish simulation. All software used is free available. Virtual reality systems in behaviour studies open up the possibility to overcome the reality and give the researchers new options by creating a perfect experimental (virtual) reality!“
Klaus Müller, University of Siegen, Germany.
Dr. Tomohiro Nakayasu, National Institute for Basic Biology, Japan.
Tomohiro Nakayasu is a postdoctoral research fellow at the National Institute for Basic Biology in Japan. "In order to survive in the natural environment, animals have to detect their surroundings, extract the information, and behave appropriately. Although several sensory modalities are involved in generating an adaptive behavior, many animals highly depend on the visual system to adapt to the environment. Computer animations are useful tool to study the visual system of animals. In this symposium, I will talk especially about the importance of the combination of computer animations and other technologies, such as mathematical modeling, automated tracking and display engineering, to create realistic visual stimuli (virtual water flea, medaka fish and external environment)."
Dr. John Stowers, TU Wien & Institute of Molecular Pathology, Austria.
I study visual behaviour in Drosophila (fruit fly) using virtual reality and genetics. Originally trained as an engineer, I used to build biologically inspired robots whereas now I apply engineering and control theory techniques to understand behaviour and neuronal function in Drosophila.
I work in the laboratory of Dr. Andrew Straw at the Institute of Molecular Pathology in Vienna, Austria. During my time with Andrew I have built a multiple virtual reality apparatus for freely flying insects, swimming fish, and walking spiders.
I believe virtual reality is necessary to create high throughput repeatable experiments that can be used to answer more complicated behavioural questions without becoming corrupted by individual variability. Using examples from my work I will explain the benefits and difficulties in applying Virtual Reality to freely moving subjects.
Those interested in our work are invited to see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e_BxdbNidyQ
Dr. Mirjam Amcoff, University of Texas at Austin, USA.
I am a postdoctoral research fellow in the Section of Integrative Biology at University of Texas at Austin. During my PhD (at the Department of Animal Ecology at Uppsala University, Sweden), I studied the evolution of sexual signalling in a tropical freshwater fish, the swordtail characin (Corynopoma riisei). Males of this species carry an ornament proposed to act as a food mimic.
I investigated female response to the male ornament by manipulating female foraging experience and motivation. Because males adjust their courtship display following manipulation of their ornament it was often not possible to manipulate the males' own ornaments. As a consequence, in order to test female response to the male ornament, I had to come up with a variety of imaginative alternative methods including artificial ornaments, confining the male to an experimental box, and simple video animations.