The Osaka City University Graduate School of Science research group of Professor Akihisa Terakita, Associate Professor Mitsumasa Koyanagi, and postdoctoral researcher Takashi Nagata is the first one to explain the optical mechanism that a jumping spider uses to measure the correct distance it has to jump when it attacks a prey.

As their findings are useful for accurate and fast distance measurement to a specific goal, it may be possible to apply the mechanism in the field of computer vision.

Their research results have been published in the American scientific journal Science on 27 January 2012.

Publication

Name of journal: Science
Name of article: Depth perception from image defocus in a jumping spider
Authors: Takashi Nagata, Mitsumasa Koyanagi, Hisao Tsukamoto, Shinjiro Saeki, Kunio Isono, Yoshinori Shichida, Fumio Tokunaga, Michiyo Kinoshita, Kentaro Arikawa, Akihisa Terakita

For detailed information, please see the website of Science.
http://www.sciencemag.org/