By Evan Ackerman
This is an oldie (from late 2002), but a goodie. These fish tanks are robotic, and their movement is controlled entirely by the Siamese Fighting Fish that live inside. The fighting fish were chosen due to their eyesight, which is supposed to be good enough to let them see for some distance outside of the water, as well as the fact that they’re violently social. Infrared sensors on four sides of the tank trigger the robot to move in the direction that the fish approaches, and video cameras under the bowls record a fish-eye view (heh) of the scene for the benefit of human spectators. The robots are programmed to let the fishbots get within 1/4 inch of each other, which is close enough to exchange insults but not actually cause damage. According to the designer, the fish tend to move towards humans (presumably due to an association with food) and he has wisely chosen not to equip the tanks with fish activated weaponry. One more pic, after the jump.
