

A fish that can steer its tank around the room - AtomicOrbital
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YbNmL6hSNKw
nice expression of embodiment
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jonnathanson
This is undoubtedly some cool technology, but it seems traumatizing for the
fish. I have no idea what degree of consciousness a goldfish has, but my guess
is a) not enough to be aware it's controlling the movements, yet b) aware
enough of the jostling and movement that it's highly panicked. The result is
that it's flailing around frantically; its fight-or-flight mode is always
engaged.

So I'm a little conflicted here. Love the tech; concerned about the ethics.

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cjfont
I think part of the problem is that the steering is not responsive enough, and
that might be preventing it from realizing it can control direction.

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Houshalter
It should also probably move slower to keep it from jostling the fish around.

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ChuckMcM
I think the concept is pretty neat, but the implementation leaves a lot to be
desired. For one thing the inertial effects on the water should be contained
(a lid would help there) and secondly the response time is way too high. But
given the mechanism, its possible to do some really interesting fish
intelligence studies.

For example. set the cart to move very very slowly, so that basically the fish
staying on the edge would move maybe 1 or 2 feet per minute. Second, use
roller wheels so that the orientation of the tank stays the same regardless of
direction, and only its position changes. Finally put different "scenes"
around the room and see if the fish gets the tank to move over to the scene or
not.

Then I would be LED lamps at different parts of the room, when one was the
target color if the fish moved the tank to it, it would drop food in the water
and the light would turn off. Then another of the lamps would turn the target
color. Could you train the fish to move the tank to the correct light color?

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baddox
Any idea how well a fish can see (and process/understand) outside its
aquarium?

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hcarvalhoalves
The eyes vary with the adaptions of each species, but overall fish have a
strong vision sense, similar to us. They can focus, have day and night vision
(rods and cones), most see in color and some can see into the UV spectrum. So,
in the vision department, fish are capable.

I don't know how much a fish navigates the space based on vision alone (and I
don't think it plays a big role, since visibility underwater is limited), but
I know some from the Cichlidae family like the Oscar are able to recognize
it's owner, which is quite a feat.

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billyjobob
Is the fish aware that it has control of the movement, or it just swimming in
random terror?

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hcarvalhoalves
There's no positive feedback, so I doubt the fish will ever develop control
over it.

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stcredzero
Put some caterpillar treads under that bad-boy and the tank can also be a
tank! (Actually, that's where tanks got their name. The British WWI code words
referred to them as "water tanks" to keep them out of the attention of spies.)

I read somewhere that Survival Research Labs did something similar with a
giant legged robot and a hamster, with the added feature of a flame thrower
that went off whenever the hamster would squeak.

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malexw
That's interesting, I didn't know about the "water tanks" code word. A fun bit
of related trivia: those early WW1 tanks were piloted by navy sailors and, at
least officially, were called "landships".

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theklub
Ok, let's crowdsource one big enough for a dolphin, a couple million should be
enough.

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lewgus
Shouldn't the headline be: A fish named wander

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pohl
This takes walking into a room and forgetting what you came for to a whole new
level.

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kkl232
Klaus from American dad needs this so much! Not sure about regular fish though

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dep_b
I would like to see how the fish behaves in a bigger tank where there is a
larger dead point in the middle where the cart doesn't move at all. If it
still likes to explore around maybe it does like the experience.

A few years ago I saw a cockroach on a trackball that controlled a similar
vehicle. You could chase around by visual stimuli so in turn you would control
the cockroach. It was a bit perverse but very interesting at the same time.

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jlrubin
More interesting would be a quad copter fish.

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rockolo
I tried once with a cockroach:
[http://rockolo.com/#aeroflux](http://rockolo.com/#aeroflux)

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aolol
Seems to take some inspiration from a similar device for a parrot:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R5N3-QtMdf8](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R5N3-QtMdf8)

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trumbitta2
I can see this kind of technology being developed towards a method for
controlling "vehicles" while in a liquid capable of absorbing hits.

Something like the LCL of Evangelion.

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coreymaass
Attach the fish to a Roomba! There goes the rest of my weekend...

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edgeorge92
Has science gone too far?

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heydenberk
It's probably not true but it seems like this would be a very happy fish.

