Hydrodynamic object recognition: when multipoles count.

The lateral-line system is a unique mechanosensory facility of aquatic animals that enables them not only to localize prey, predator, obstacles, and conspecifics, but also to recognize hydrodynamic objects. Here we present an explicit model explaining how aquatic animals such as fish can distinguish differently shaped submerged moving objects. Our model is based on the hydrodynamic multipole expansion and uses the unambiguous set of multipole components to identify the corresponding object. Furthermore, we show that within the natural range of one fish length the velocity field contains far more information than that due to a dipole. Finally, the model we present is easy to implement both neuronally and technically, and agrees well with available neuronal, physiological, and behavioral data on the lateral-line system.