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I am interested in automated driving for vehicles because I have narcolepsy problems sometimes that makes safe driving not guaranteed. The work trying to get self-driving vehicles appears to be the most difficult programming task humans have worked on and still haven't achieved that goal without internet and supercomputer assistance. Infrared light doesn't travel well through carbon dioxide and Mars has a 95% carbon dioxide atmosphere... I think this is why Tesla vehicles have eliminated infrared detectors the other self-driving systems use. It is now clear that the only way for these systems to work is for the computer in the vehicle needs to actually name every object in the area and use that to predict the future movements of objects that might have a brain or wheels (not remain stationary) and ignore fog, rain, and blowing leaves. I recently found out that jellyfish have vision and have a ring of neurons that functions as a brain. All animals are divided into two groups on which ones form an anus first compared to those who form a mouth first. Both jellyfish and starfish have one opening so the mouth and anus are the same opening but other things about these two groups of animals put jellyfish and starfish in opposite groups. Because of this, I looked up starfish vision and yes, they have vision too. Like clams (who also have eyes), starfish have no central brain but a bunch of interconnected bundles of neurons in various locations in the body. Time lapse photography of starfish hunting clams show that both animals can sense the other from a distance and now I suspect vision is involved. The more science studies neurons, the more it is clear that every neuron is a full computer by itself (inputs, outputs, processing, memory, reprogramming). If such simplistic animals can use vision to understand the world in a level rivaling modern AI, how much more can smart animals understand their world. Recently I saw a wildlife video showing a large bird of prey drop out of a tree onto a rabbit who starts doing a rabbit danger scream. In runs a deer at high speed and the deer attacks and kills the bird and makes sure the bird is dead (the rabbit escapes as soon as the deer arrived). This shows that the deer fully understands life and death and cares for a completely different animal. We think we have good vision but no, most animals have vision abilities that exceed human vision in one or more ways. That vision also is often connected with three-dimensional processing in the brain due to the complex environment the animal is moving through. My favorite pet is the rodent called a degu. Degus in the wild allow several other animal species to live in their tunnel systems. As pets, they get along with many animal species and can imitate the sounds of those other animals to interact with the appropriate sound for the species the degu is communicating with. Vertical irises in eyes like in cats and foxes are to allow light through eyes with more than one focal point (the edge of the lens focuses on different parts of the retina than the focus of the middle of the lens). Some rodents like house mice have a duel focus lens but the edge is only for vision in the dark and the middle of the lens is for bright situations. For house mice, they have close color vision in the dark and far vision in sharper black-and-white when in bright light. This farsighted vision of scared mice in the light causes them to run into things. Animals with long necks rotate their eyes so the horizon stays on the same parts of the retina. Many other animals including humans retain the eyeball rotation abilities but we rarely notice. This list of facts are background for an experiment I did with my degus. Degus have duel focus vision and pentachromatic color cones and vertical irises. Most humans have 3 color cones with colorblind people having weak sensation in one of those three. Some people have four color cones (tetrachromatic) but nobody noticed this difference because we each think our vision is normal. Degus see two cones in the ultraviolet range of light frequencies and three cones in frequencies humans see in. In bright light, I can see the iris of the degus. Rotating their heads, it is clear they keep their irises vertical by rotating their eyes. It is believed degus see ultraviolet light to identify pee of individuals with a unique blend of hormones in the pee for every individual. This indication is likely visible for several weeks on the dry dirt. After having a complex tunnel system made out of cardboard tubes (for new rug) in degu cages, the degus remember where the tubes used to go and follow that path even if they have to walk sideways on the cage walls. This shows their ability to memorize a complex tunnel system and that memory takes preference even though they have excellent vision. Their biggest threat in the wild is birds so they have good long distance vision but when they dive into a tunnel after looking at a bird of prey flying in from the direction of the sun, they need to see close stuff in the dark tunnel. Pet gerbils also have vertical irises and are farsighted but I don't have them as pets lately to test the eye rotation. In conclusion, learning about AI for self-driving vehicles and security cameras to identify objects and place them in a 3D model of the world and learning how amazing animal vision is, even in simplistic animals, I have a greater appreciation of the power of animal brains.
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