Page 75 - Biomimetics: Technology Imitates Nature

Harun Yahya

Sonar Helps the Visually Impaired

As scientific research advances, we are discovering astonishing abil-
ities in living things that offer solutions to problems in many areas of dai-
ly life, from the workplace to our hospitals. Darcy Winslow, General
Manager of Environmental Business Opportunities for Nike, expresses
this truth:
The extent to which the natural world can provide technological solutions for
the types of product performance characteristics we must provide are virtually
unlimited. Biomimicry still requires exploration, innovation and creativity, but
by thinking like or working with a biologist, we must learn to ask a different set
of questions and look to nature for inspiration and learning opportunities. 58
Many firms are now following a strategy that parallels the one that
Winslow set out. It is now possible to see electronic and mechanical engi-
neers working together with biologists.
Already, engineers influenced by bat's sonar have mounted a small
sonar unit onto a pair of glasses. After a period of familiarization with the
glasses, visually handicapped people are now able to avoid obstacles and
even ride bicycles. Still, the system’s designers stress that it will never re-
place human vision eye or be as functional as that of the bat.
It’s of course impossible for flawless features like this, which even
experts have difficulties in replicating, to have appeared by chance. We
must not forget that what we refer to here as “features” are actually com-
plex, interconnected systems. The absence or breakdown of only one com-
ponent means that the whole system fails to work. For example, if bats
sent out sound waves but couldn’t interpret the echoes reflected back,
they would in fact have no echolocation system at all.
In scientific literature, the flawless and complete design that living
things display is known as “irreducible complexity.” In other words, cer-
tain designs become meaningless and functionless if reduced down to a
simpler form. Irreducible complexity in all organisms and their systems

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