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Different photoreceptors (视细胞) in the eyes can affect how we see the world around us. Animals including bees and some birds can see ultraviolet light (紫外线) that human eyes cannot see. By reconstructing the colors that we know animals can see, scientists can learn more about how they communicate and find their position. Getting an accurate view of what animals are seeing has been a challenge, but a camera system developed by scientists at the University of Sussex in the United Kingdom and George Mason University in Virginia could help ecologists and filmmakers create videos that closely copy the colors that different animals see in their natural environments. 

The camera system builds on the current technique called spectrophotometry. By using this technique, images are taken at specific wavelength ranges that are typically beyond what humans can see. However, using the method can be time-consuming, produce false colors, require specific lighting conditions, and can't always capture (拍摄) something that is moving. To overcome some of these limitations, the team developed a camera and software system that captures animal-view videos of moving objects under natural lighting conditions.

One of the cameras records videos in four different color channels at the same time: blue, green, red, and UV. That data is then processed into perceptual units using a popular programming language called Python. This generates a more accurate video of how animals see those colors. The team tested this new system against the traditional spectrophotometry methods and their new system predicted the perceived colors with an accuracy of over 92 percent. "Our project was quite involved, and we had many surprises along the way," says Daniel Hanley, a leading researcher. "The most surprising thing that we discovered was how much clouds can impact an observed color. We didn't tend to notice these shifts, but they were notable."

"We plan to apply the camera system as broadly as possible. Currently, we are exploring a range of applications," says Hanley. "Our hope is that through community engagement our designs can improve and we will gather many novel observations about colors in nature."