People often say the phrase “memory like a fish”, thereby alluding to the forgetfulness of people. However, goldfish turned out to be not so incapable creatures.
Employees of the Ben-Gurion University conducted an experiment. They created a car on wheels that could be driven by a goldfish.
The point of the study was to prove the theory that all living beings orient themselves in space according to similar principles. To do this, scientists have built a vehicle driven by aquarium fish.
An aquarium with a webcam, lidar, and microcomputer was installed on a platform with wheels. The device analyzed the movement of the fish and transmitted a signal to the running modules. The fish had to reach certain points (targets), if this happened, they received a treat.
At first, the fish found targets in 30 minutes, and after 20 times they were able to reach the target in 1 minute. Even changing the color of the targets could not confuse the fish. Scientists came to the conclusion that the fish are able to distinguish objects and trajectories and can navigate in an alien environment.