Scientists study tree frog songs for Internet of Things society
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The mating calls of Japanese tree frogs could hold the clue to developing communication technology that ensures smooth data exchanges and reduces the risk of system failures.
Researchers at the University of Tsukuba and Osaka University pointed to a phenomenon called “swarm intelligence,” in which a group of creatures behaves with seemingly advanced intelligence.
The researchers placed three male tree frogs in separate breeding cages side by side and analyzed their mating calls.
The frogs in the study croaked in turn, like singing a round in a song, to prevent their sounds from overlapping, according to Ikkyu Aihara, an assistant professor of information and systems with the University of Tsukuba, who was on the research team.
A tree frog croaks about three times a second to attract females, Aihara said. The exhausted frogs stopped their mating calls after an average of about 25 seconds, and they began singing in the same manner again after about five minutes.
This example of swarm intelligence is drawing attention for its potential use in an Internet of Things (IoT) society, where everything will be connected online.
For example, to prevent traffic accidents, speed data and other information must be collected from a large number of vehicles. But if data are sent directly from every single vehicle to a base station, a “packet collision,” involving clashes between data packets sent by different vehicles, could occur, leading to a failure of the system, according to Daichi Kominami, an assistant professor of business and management with the Osaka University graduate school, and a co-worker in the study.
If data can be exchanged between neighboring vehicles in a manner like the frog choruses, however, packet collisions are unlikely to occur, and variations in the number of vehicles involved will likely not cause major confusion, Kominami added.
The team of scientists conducted a computer simulation of 100 communication devices that interact with their neighbors in transmitting information.
Using the frog chorus model to control the entire system led to the finding that devices were able to send information at mutually shifted timings and stop data transmission all at once, thereby avoiding a packet collision.
“Swarm intelligence could provide a clue to realizing an IoT society, although we have yet to learn if the setup of frog choruses is the most efficient,” Aihara said.
The research results were published Jan. 9 in the format of a paper in a British science journal.
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