Biologically inspired signal processing: analyses, algorithms and applications

Many of the problems that are encountered in Engineering have been solved in nature. In their quest for survival species have developed ingenious solutions to these problems over millions of years. As Darwin noted, these solutions that natural evolutionary processes have and are still in the process of perfecting, are in most cases far superior to what we can achieve with our current engineering knowledge and methods. This should come as no surprise when one considers the power of natural selection and the vast time span and enormous scale of possibilities that it operates over. As we improve our knowledge of our natural environment and continually discover the wonders it has evolved, it is important to draw inspiration from it. Understanding how nature implements what it has perfected over such a long time, what solutions it has selected and those it has discarded, will surely lead to significant advances in Signal Processing Research.