I think what he was suggesting was more along the lines of a white
sheet covering a black felt, for example.  Each ant would dribble a
trail of isopropyl alcohol (insert incontinent ant joke here) along
behind.  A simplish set of photosensors and proper lighting should be
able to discern whether the next ant is 'seeing' the white sheet, or
the black felt which is now showing through because of the fact that
the white sheet is translucent due to being wet.

Maybe I should have asked at the beginning, but how far away are you
hoping to be able to detect the 'pheromone'?

--Joe Jansen


On Thu, 23 Sep 2004 12:35:55 -0700, Padu <padu@merlotti.com> wrote:
> That's a good idea, but ants detect the pheromone from certain distance, and
> if I understood right, in this case the ants only detect if they are on a
> saline drop, right?
> 
> 
> 
> >
> >
> > >Do you guys have any other suggestion regarding sensors, other
> techniques,
> > anything?
> >
> > Quick cheap guess.... how about using saline drops and a carbon fibre or
> thin
> > copper brush
> > array which detects conductivity change.  Keep things warm and the drops
> should
> > dry
> > out completely and go non conductive again.
> >
> > Cheers,
> >            Robin.
> >
> 
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