The Dragonfly Vision: Super Prediction

One of the key questions as we talk about super prediction in the fashion world which keeps coming frequently is,

What will be the trend one year/ x months from now? 

Every fashion brand or retailer the world over is looking at improving their accuracy on prediction and trying to improve their probability of success. We looked at Intelligence agencies like IARPA (Intelligence Advanced Research Project Activity), USA, one of the most proficient intelligence agencies in the world, who try to predict long-range geopolitical landscape and explore various ways to get their Super prediction as accurate as possible. In fact, they were inspired by the Dragonflies.

Did you ever try to catch a Dragonfly? If ever you thought you were smart to come from behind, you were mistaken.

Dragonflies possess a capability that Humans do not. A short inspiring video (2 min) from BBC on this.

What makes the dragonflies unique in super prediction?

1. Human eyes see the world through three colors RED, GREEN and BLUE (RGB, trichromatic vision) because we have three opsins (opsins are light-sensitive proteins found in the retina), Dragonflies have 30 opsins, they see the world in colors we do not see (Super Ultra HD)

2. Dragonflies have a bulbous head, made up of 30000 facets which contain the opsins. Each facet is pointing in a different direction giving them the ability to see 360 degrees. The human span of vision theoretically is 120 degrees, but the effective span where we see clearly with a resolution for eg. our reading span is just 7 degrees.
Scientists at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute in Virginia claimed that dragonflies are nature’s most successful predator when it comes to catching prey.

The winged insect catches more than 95% of the prey it targets – making it twice as successful as a great white shark, and four times as effective as a lion

The reason the dragonfly is such as effective hunter is that when targeting its prey, the insect keeps it in sight while adjusting its flight, and can predict how it will move before catching it.

Its huge eyes provide an almost spherical view of the world while the insect perches on a leaf waiting for prey to fly overhead. With this spherical vision, Dragonflies have a different view of time. They are able to see the past, present, and future with this view.

When the time is right, it shoots off in pursuit, scooping up victims with its hairy legs in a fraction of a second.

Its visual sharpness and lightning-quick reflexes – thanks to specialized neurons that detect the motion of a target and instruct its wings to react – make it a formidable hunter.

High-speed measurements show how the dragonfly tracks the position of a fly and steers itself quickly towards it, relying on both Super prediction and reaction.

To avoid detection, a dragonfly approaches from below and aligns its body to the prey’s direction of motion.
Its body and head move independently, with the latter locking on to the target while its body manoeuvres to the best position for capture.

Hope you are inspired by Dragonfly and its unique capabilities like we did.
Mother nature, the Dragonfly is teaching us clearly, in order to predict we need a spherical vision and perception in depth sharper and deeper. Also, the signals perceived must be real. This is what keeps us awake at Stylumia.
Inspired by the Dragonfly, we have one of its kind constantly evolving demand sensing engine (unlike the supply sensing engines in the market), using cutting technologies of Machine learning, Computer Vision, and we are constantly scanning large span of fashion signals at an internet-scale near real-time. As we are evolving very rapidly, keep a close watch.

Would you like to sense the trends before others even notice them?

Would you like to have a sense of time different from others?

Would you like to catch the trend on time for consumption?

Would you like to have a vision wherein you see can the world differently and sharper than others?

Would you like to have a success rate far better than the industry norms?

Would you like the power of Dragonfly for your fashion brand?