Humans deceived by predatory stealth strategy camouflaging motion.
Motion camouflage is a stealth strategy that allows a predator to conceal its apparent motion as it approaches a moving prey. Although male hoverflies have been observed to move in a manner consistent with motion camouflage to track females, the successful application of the technique has not previously been demonstrated. This article describes the implementation and results of a psychophysical experiment suggesting that humans are susceptible to motion camouflage. The experiment masqueraded as a computer-game competition. The basis of the competition was a game designed to test the comparative success of different predatory-approach strategies. The experiment showed that predators were able to approach closer to their prey (the player of the game) before being detected when using motion camouflage than when using other approach strategies tested. For an autonomous predator, the calculation of a motion-camouflage approach is a non-trivial problem. It was, therefore, of particular interest that in the game the players were deceived by motion-camouflage predators controlled by artificial neural systems operating using realistic levels of input information. It is suggested that these results are especially of interest to biologists, visual psychophysicists, military engineers and computer-games designers.
Anderson
Andrew James
AJ
Department of Computer Science, Queen Mary, University of London, Mile End Road, London E1 4NS, UK. aja@dcs.qmul.ac.uk
McOwan
Peter William
PW
D000328:Adult; D000818:Animals; D003198:Computer Simulation; D004924:Escape Reaction / Q000502:physiology; D005716:Game Theory; D006801:Humans; D007858:Learning; D008954:Models, Biological; D009068:Movement / Q000502:physiology; D011235:Predatory Behavior / Q000502:physiology*