Long range detectors that work!!

[rube the noob]

Although not particularly user friendly....


http://www.elasmo-research.org/education/white_shark/electroreception.htm

[rube the noob]

Aww man...

No sooner do I post the above message than I find this, which seems to debunk the theory that even sharks have long range electroreception. I was decieved by the "flashlight battery at 3000 yards" or whatever it was.

Because the bioelectric field created by the animal's heartbeat carries only over short distances, the shark's electroreception is effective only for finding objects that are very close to the shark's head.

http://www.jasonproject.org/jason7/curriculum/sharks.html

[Max]

Aww man...

No sooner do I post the above message than I find this, which seems to debunk the theory that even sharks have long range electroreception. I was decieved by the "flashlight battery at 3000 yards" or whatever it was.

Because the bioelectric field created by the animal's heartbeat carries only over short distances, the shark's electroreception is effective only for finding objects that are very close to the shark's head.

http://www.jasonproject.org/jason7/curriculum/sharks.html

Hi rube,
sharks can't find metals or discriminate between. To detect an electric field it must be present...to detect a current flow it must be present.
When an iron/metal boat is in water...electric field could take place by water/boat interaction--> electrization could be present...but all the rest e.g. a buried gold item how could produce such an electric field ? Sorrounded by the ground matrix ??? Not insulated I mean. You know that insulation occours in nerves...so animals are different from perfect conductors like metals...
Don't understand how a shark could find e.g. a gold coin...so this is another fake issue.
So all this stuff...e.g. connecting a battery pole to something...then expencting some detection IS NOT a simulation of what really happens few cm underground for a metal. So, means nothing that someone could detect a battery to metal connected say a mile away...at least for our purposes.

Best regards,
Max

[rube the noob]

Hi Max,

My previous post was 99% toungue-in-cheek, with 1% "hey, if a shark can do it maybe a machine can"

You could induce the current with a traditional metal detector. Strap the shark to your unit and teach him to smile at you when he detects treasure. Just kidding....

The serious question is, how sensitive is the electroreceptive machinery of a shark compared to the capability of our best metal detectors? If it is orders-of-magnitude better, that might imply there is a lot of improvement we can look forward to in our metal detector designs. If it's about the same, maybe we are approaching the physical limits of what can be done.

[Max]

Hi Max,

My previous post was 99% toungue-in-cheek, with 1% "hey, if a shark can do it maybe a machine can"

You could induce the current with a traditional metal detector. Strap the shark to your unit and teach him to smile at you when he detects treasure. Just kidding....

The serious question is, how sensitive is the electroreceptive machinery of a shark compared to the capability of our best metal detectors? If it is orders-of-magnitude better, that might imply there is a lot of improvement we can look forward to in our metal detector designs. If it's about the same, maybe we are approaching the physical limits of what can be done.

Hi rube,
well...
"The serious question is, how sensitive is the electroreceptive machinery of a shark compared to the capability of our best metal detectors?"

don't know. But I think is really good in sharks...very sensitive. But the problem is...sharks don't emit anything...just receive! I mean that detecting metals is different from detecting a heart-beat or an electric field - unfortunately. Eddy currents detection , for instance, are really little compared to signal in tx stages...so S/N ratio decrease ! If one has only to receive something things could be better than in tx-rx cycles.

Electroreceptive means something useful in TH -ONLY- if someone think there are electric fields to detect...ionic...etc...but seems it's not the case !

What I can say?...our metal detectors (I mean true metal detectors) simply don't detect any electric fields...so a real comparision is impossible. Yes, also eddy currents are similar to nervous pulses...someway...maybe...but one again can't compare MDs with biological: too differences !
Think e.g. at signals "elaboration" there in sharks...could be thousand times more complex (how knows?) of any DSP out there...too many neurons involved...also with a small brain !

Best regards,
Max