The "lightning fast" reactions of fruit flies and other insects could "revolutionise" artificial intelligence (AI) systems such as self-driving cars, according to experts.
Academics at the University of Sheffield who studied flies' brains and eyes have discovered a "turbo boost" feature, known as high-frequency jumping, which allows insects to react with remarkable speed and precision.
The mechanism could make robots and self-driving cars smarter and more energy efficient by using movement to gather information instead of relying on computers.
Prof Mikko Juusola of the School of Biosciences said: "Our findings reveal a fundamentally new way of thinking about how brains compute information."
The University of Sheffield research shows that house flies and fruit flies do not process visual information passively, as previously believed.
