Submission + - How a Half-Inch Beetle Finds Fires 80 Miles Away (scientificamerican.com)
bodog writes: How does a Half-Inch Beetle Find Fires 80 Miles Away? Why, its called Stochastic Resonance of course! (also, one hell of a sensor load-out..)
" In this scenario, added thermal noise counterintuitively helps a sensor pick up a signal.
A signal below the threshold for triggering a sensor – but still close to it – will resonate by chance with a portion of thermal noise that is the same frequency. When there is more noise, there is more signal at that resonant frequency. Together, noise plus signal adds up to an impulse sufficient enough to trip the sensor when signal alone or signal with less noise would not. Incredibly, the measurement gets more precise in the presence of noise than without."
" In this scenario, added thermal noise counterintuitively helps a sensor pick up a signal.
A signal below the threshold for triggering a sensor – but still close to it – will resonate by chance with a portion of thermal noise that is the same frequency. When there is more noise, there is more signal at that resonant frequency. Together, noise plus signal adds up to an impulse sufficient enough to trip the sensor when signal alone or signal with less noise would not. Incredibly, the measurement gets more precise in the presence of noise than without."
