Your anti -shake ability may not be as good as a chicken (manual chicken head)

A few years ago, a car brand used chicken to shoot advertisements to show that its car has the same stability as the chicken head. After that, many short films related to the magical stability of the chicken head kept emerging on major video websites. It can be seen that the effect of the chicken head stabilizer is simply "enterprise".

Whether it is fixed -point, accompanying, or autonomous exercise, it is not lost at the most advanced human technology at all, so that there are even foreign countries that have developed a complete set of camera equipment for chickens. Unfortunately, the existing technology cannot control the steering of the chicken head, which has also made the funny attributes of "Jimaidai" infinitely greater than the technological attributes.

Dynamic map: Just don't move! (Video source: SmartReveryday)

One said that the chicken head is really not ordinary "stable". So the question is, why is the chicken head so stable? Can the heads of other birds be so stable?

1. The talent of birds

The stability of the chicken head is mainly reflected in two aspects. First, when the position of the body is not moved, the head is always towards a certain point fixed in the space. Second, if you put on a portable camera for chickens to walk freely, you will find that the screen of the shooting is relatively stable (of course, we cannot control the sudden turn of the chicken head).

The chicken head can have such abilities. From the perspective of physical structure, first of all, thank you for flexible neck. The cervical bones of birds generally have 13 or 14 knots, far exceeding most of the mammals, including humans (section 7), and some birds even have 25 cervical spine (such as swans). This also allows the head of the bird to move freely in the ball with the last cervical spine and the radius of the neck length (except for the torso). The heads of many birds can even rotate nearly 360 ° (180 ° left).

Typical pigeon bone (picture source: wikipedia (left))

However, the flexible neck only means that the chicken head can be locked in place, and it does not explain why the chicken is locked in place. In fact, the behavior of chickens itself is just to see the surrounding scenery as much as possible, or a kind of instinct to show the scenery.

For details, the chicken, like most birds, has a high proportion of the head volume and its visual system is well -developed. Not only is the vision not bad, but the brain area of ​​the brain is also large. However, it is more regrettable that the eyes of the bird's eyes itself are very limited (detailed discussion after the specific reason).

Human eyes can move flexibly in the orbits. With the head of the head, the best vision of the eyes can also reach the conical surface of the front 120 ° angle. However, the range of birds' eyes in the eyes is very limited, so in most cases, birds want to see the objects that move in front of them in the best vision, and can only reverse the neck instead of rotating the eyeballs.

It should be explained here that the so -called best vision refers to a small area with the highest visual resolution. For example, the overall field of vision in front of the human eye can reach more than 180 °, but the best vision is only a small area (about 40 °) with a concentrated sight. Outside this area, human vision will actually be attenuated rapidly.

Comparison of visual scope of birds, pictures source: Author self -made

The picture above shows the visual range of the angle and fan tail sand cone. It can be seen that the raptor (former) has a three -dimensional visual development of the two -dimensional eye and weak visual. Ordinary birds omnidirectional vision developed, but the three -dimensional vision of the front -to -eyes.

The two eyes of the chicken are on both sides of the head, so the eyes are very visual. However, the eyes on both sides can provide 180 ° vision, so that the chicken has almost 300 ° vision range. But in front of their vision, the range of visual vision may be less than 5 °. Most of the birds except the raptor's most sensitive areas are near the middle of the eyeballs on both sides. At the same time, the visual zone in front of the front is also a area where the birds are relatively good -simply, birds can see the front and two in front of them at the same time, two and two. Objects in the middle position.

Second, eye movement or head movement? This is a real problem

Now assume that a static object is placed in front of humans, and then we are required to stare at this static object while moving the body while moving the body. What will we do? Of course, rotating the eyeball so that the best vision will not deviate from the object because of the movement of the body. And when we repeat the experiments above with chickens, in order to see the objects in front of them, the chickens will try to keep our head fixing, and at the same time use a flexible neck to compensate the body's displacement.

It is obviously easier to see the static objects than to see the movement of the movement, and the movement is relative. Sometimes it is not the object in front of the eyes, but our body itself. Whether it is an object or a physical movement, when the sport is not large, humans do not need to turn their heads or turn around to face the goals they want to see, just turn the eyeball. The eyes of the chicken are not very able to turn, but the neck is flexible, so it is not necessary to adjust the position of the body, just let the neck move.

Many people may ask, do you want to put the chicken head for positioning, is it still to put a fixed target in front of them to stare at them? This may not be. It may not be a specific object. The vision of the chicken head itself is the picture that the chicken wants to see clearly at this time. In order to make this picture fixed and see more clearly, the chicken naturally used a flexible neck. As a result, he didn't move his head or move, and his neck was moving.

Third, the chicken stretching his neck is actually a visual enhancement method. Let's take a look at whether the chicken head can be so stable when the chicken walks. The screen of the chicken head wearing camera shows that the chicken head is quite stable even when the screen taken during walking is far more than the level of the camera device in the case of human non -gimbal. Humans have two legs and chickens with two legs. Everyone is two beasts, but the results are very different. In fact, if you pay attention to the walking posture of chickens or pigeons, you will find that they do not keep their upper body and necks and then take turns forward, but their necks are constantly retracting.

This unique walking attitude is the reason why the chicken head wearing camera can also ensure the stability of the screen in the state of movement. It is still closely related to the visual formation mechanism of the chicken. Zoologists began to study the scientific problems behind chickens or pigeons by about fifty years ago. They used several very clever experiments to prove the close relationship between vision and gait. For example, scientists let the pigeons walk on the pedestrian. At this time, the scenery in the pigeon's field of vision has not changed, just under the foot.

At this time, the interesting phenomenon happened, and the pigeon would keep the body and neck move when walking. In other experiments, if the dark chamber where the eyes are not sensitive, the chickens walking in the infrared camera will also keep the neck.

After that, with the development of human image science, cameras and video processing related software and hardware quickly became popular, and more and more people conducted similar research. People found that when chickens and pigeons walked, the neck was the first to explore, and the neck extended to the front of the body. After the head was relatively fixed, the two feet were revealed separately. Essence After that, the head was explored, and then repeated.

When the head is exploring, the eyes are in a state of movement, which is not an ideal visual condition. Therefore, the head of the head is fast, and the proportion of the entire exercise is not large. After the front of the head is finished, it is equivalent to waiting for the body in front, and while the body keeps up, it can maintain relatively static under the adjustment of the neck. This process is visually stable, and it takes longer time during the entire exercise.

Dynamic map: Pigeon steps slowly lens moving picture (picture source: author shooting)

The above experiments show that the reason why chickens or pigeons take the walking posture of constant necks to move back and forth is to better see the surrounding scenery, or to make the time to see the scenes around short. From the perspective of animal behavior, the deep cause of this behavior is to ensure the best vision that has a long time as much as possible under the premise of consuming the lowest energy. Once the vision is already good (such as a pedestrian) or nothing can be seen (such as the dark room), there is no need to take such a gait specifically.

Fourth, other birds can also transform into gimbal like chickens?

So the question is coming again, will there be the same behavior of pigeons and birds outside the chicken? Yes, not. The action of using the neck as a gimbal to compensate the body when the head is static is the common behavior of birds. But the gait of pigeons and chickens will not be adopted. The reason behind it is a very deep scientific issue, and we only make some qualitative explanations.

A variety of birds (picture source: Wikipedia)

First of all, the problem of neck gimbal is actually not just chickens, all birds will show such behavior more or less. For example, the kingfisher standing on the branches in the wind, although the branches are constantly shaking, but the emerald's head is motionless.

From the perspective of evolution, how should we understand this habit of birds? As mentioned earlier, the flexible neck is the talent of the birds, and the not flexible eyes are the defects of birds. Why is the eyes of birds not as flexible as evolution? Birds are inherently adapted to flying groups, and flying requires as lighter weight as possible and as streamlined bodies as possible. Therefore, a huge skull like hippo is obviously inconsistent with the dynamic requirements of flying.

At the same time, flying requires not bad vision, so the vision of birds is relatively developed, and the eyes of the eyes occupy the head. Many other species with excellent vision have accurate and flexible eyeballs, such as the color -changing dragon that can rotate independently by two eyes. However, this high -profile and large eye must require a large number of eyeball muscles and sufficient space layout to support it, so the eyeball of the changing dragon is actually protruding from the head surface. But for birds, and not to mention that the small head has nowhere to place such a luxurious configuration, the prominent eyes and eyeballs will also form resistance during the flight.

The eyes of the color change dragon are independent, and can be freely shifted to different perspective pictures.

In addition, birds also have a very developed scleral ring, which is a set of hard structures around the eye, which protects the eyeball like an armor. Birds are affected by wind pressure during the flight, and the eyeballs will have a certain pressure deformation. The presence of the sclera ring can maintain the original shape of the bird's eyeball, so as to better ensure the vision during flight. However, the existence of this pair of armor has further reduced the flexibility of the eyeballs of birds.

The skull and sclera ring display of several raptors (picture source: author shooting)

Therefore, although the eyes of birds are developed, the integration and specialization are too high, resulting in reduction in some aspects. As a result, the neck of birds became more and more flexible to offset the loss of bad movement itself.

The instantaneous membrane of white -necked wheat chicken (another adaptive evolution of bird's eyes for flying) Picture Source: Wikipedia 5. The gait of birds is complex and changeable, but the reason behind it is very simple

As for the gait of birds, we can also find answers from evolution. Birds in reality are diverse. In addition to the front and back of the pigeons and chickens, small birds often use both feet to jump, while the ducks use both feet to take turns to shook the ground to the left and right ... After seeing the gait analysis of pigeons and chickens, many people may ask, do other birds do not need to make the visual clear time as long as possible? The answer is of course needed, but you must pay attention to the shape and habits of the birds, and it cannot be generalized.

For example, small birds with a lightweight body, although the jumping method can make the eyes from seeing the surrounding objects clearly during the empty process. However, they are light, and the way to jump is fast and labor -saving. It is necessary to stop and observe during observation. After determining the goals, they can quickly step forward. In the end, it is very efficient. Chicken and pigeons often look for food on the ground, and they are limited to "flashing" like birds, so it is better to look at the food at any time. As for the wild duck, it is a water bird in itself. Walking on the road is not just needed, so the walking posture is more scribbled, and the two feet can pour back and forth.

Wild duck (picture source: Wikipedia)

Although the poultry -related poultry, although it is also living in a place where there is water, in order to maximize the surrounding situation, they walk the posture when foraging are consistent with chickens and pigeons. When the red mouth gull walks in normal state, it only uses both feet, and there will be no additional neck movement. But when you need to find food, you will also explore your neck. In addition, some birds that need to sneak into the water will even use the head to explore the swimming posture in front of the water. The intention is to see the surrounding environment as long as possible for a long time.

Summer (left) and winter (right) adult red mouth gull pictures source source: Wikipedia "Red Mouth Gull" entry

Of course, what posture to walk in the use of birds is not only related to habits, foraging methods, and physical types, but also factors such as maintaining a sense of balance, not a question that can be simply summarized.

Birds chose the evolutionary path that suits them, and eventually successfully occupied the sky of the earth. The stability of the chicken head and the gait of the birds have the shadow of evolution. When we encounter birds in the future, we might as well observe their pace, and combine their habits and body shape to analyze the reasons for adopting this pace. Think about it. It contains infinite fun!

Produced: Popular Science China

Author: Guo Fei Yantai University

Producer: China Science Popularization Expo

references:

1. Skeletal system (Skeletal System) · vertebrate

https://zhuanlan.zhihu.com/p/166289725

2. Animal eye, vision 物

http://www2.tbb.t-coom.ne.jp/mark/siya.html

3. Dog Bird と と と じ え え し し てる の か な? ~ 「の 1" Vision "~

https://ist-d.iseto.co.jp/?p=1385

4. Horizontal な 睨みきかす き ニワ ニワ の な な 覚

https://style.nikkei.com/article/dgxnasdg06030_W3A101C1000000

5. The function of the world

https://logmi.jp/business/articleS/157552

6.

https://epinesis.net/archives/69560457.html

The China Science Popularization Expo is the Science Popular Science Platform of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. It is sponsored by the Computer Network Information Center of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. Relying on the high -end scientific resources of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, it is committed to spreading cutting -edge scientific knowledge and providing fun science and education services.

- END -