Here’s an interesting article about a study conducted on bees that attempted to determine to what extent bees can recognize patterns and to some degree faces. This isn’t really news to anyone that has been keeping bees for any length of time, but it is good to see this kind of research getting some press.
Anyone who has ever popped the top off a pissy hive during a dearth can tell you that those bees know exactly where your face is.
Bees can learn to recognize human faces, or at least face-like patterns, a new study suggests.
Rather than specifically recognizing people, these nectar-feeding creatures view us as “strange flowers,” the researchers say. And while they might not be able to identify individual humans, they can learn to distinguish features that are arranged to look like faces.The results suggest that, even with their tiny brains, insects can handle image analysis. The researchers say that if humans want to design automatic facial recognition systems, we could learn a lot by using the bees’ approach to face recognition.