#communication

#communication

Do Mushrooms Communicate with Each Other with Electrical Impulses as "Words"?The short answer is: sort of. The rest of the scientific community still wants more studies to be conducted, though.Experts have noticed that fungi tend to send electric signals to one another. A mathematical analysis of these signals shows a pattern that is somehow similar to human speech. Scientists hypothesized that there is a possibility that fungi use this electrical “language” to share information about food or injury with distant parts of themselves, or with hyphae-connected partners such as trees.Sure, it's like a messaging system. With the similarities noticed in the electrical signals sent by fungi and human speech, an interesting question was raised: do they actually use human words [or the equivalent of it]?University of the West of England’s Andrew Adamatzky aimed to answer this question by analyzing the signals sent by a species of fungi – enoki, split gill, ghost, and caterpillar fungi. “We do not know if there is a direct relationship between spiking patterns in fungi and human speech. Possibly not,” Adamatzky said. “On the other hand, there are many similarities in information processing in living substrates of different classes, families and species. I was just curious to compare.”Image credit: Hans Veth#fungi #mushroom #communication #science #research #electricsignals 

Orangutans Use Slang to Show That They're CoolMuch like how we humans have an ever-changing slang that we use within our respective social groups, orangutans also seem to have something similar. Researchers have discovered that these primates create new "kiss-squeak" calls that vary in pitch and duration, and these calls spread quickly through their communities. How long these variations remain in the vocabulary, meanwhile, depends on the density of the orangutan community. A low-density community may have a fewer frequency of new calls, but they tend to stick for a long time. It's the opposite in a dense one, however. The research findings could shed light on where language originates and how it evolves.One of the authors, Dr. Adriano Lameira, explains that since communication is "a cacophony" in high-density communities, individuals want to show off how cool they are with novel calls. But while variations are more frequent in this type of community, they do not stick around for long.While the research focuses on these "kiss-squeak calls," the researchers believe social influence in orangutan communities may not be limited to alarm calls.(Image Credit: Eleifert/ Wikimedia Commons)#Communication #Language #Primates #Orangutan #AnimalCommunication

SilentSpeller: a High Tech Smart Dental Retainer that Tracks the User's Tongue to Spell out Words Without Voicing ThemThe SilentSpeller is a communication system that allows people to send texts. The unique aspect of this device? It’s a dental retainer. That’s right, you can now send messages via your teeth!The project was developed by a team led by one of the key creators of the smart eyewear Google Glass, Thad Starner. According to a demo video and academic paper, the SilentSpeller works by tracking the movement of the user’s tongue. The developers claim that the gadget has 97% accuracy for identifying letters, and 93% accuracy for words. Should this smart dental retainer be fully introduced for commercial use, the SilentSpeller could be used to help people with movement disorders. In addition, the device could also be useful for hands-free communication. #technology #communication #tool #science #research #silentspeller