NOTE: IRZ = In Robot Zoo and IRL = In Real Life   

IRZ: Using real-time color image processing, visitors at three computer stations can “paint” colored patterns which appear almost instantaneously on the robot chameleon to demonstrate the lizard’s color-changing ability.

IRL: The chameleon can fire its long, sticky-tipped tongue to sharp-shoot insects in one sixteenth of a second.

IRZ: Pivoting visual sensors replicate the real reptile’s eyes which can move independently about 180 degrees in almost every direction.

IRL: To reel in a meal, a chameleon’s tongue muscles squeeze tightly around a long, thin bone in the floor of the mouth, shooting out the tongue to almost twice the lizard’s length.

IRZ: When the robot snags its prey, a spring-loaded mechanism triggers the coil (tongue) to shoot forward, like an orange seed squeezed between your fingers.

Real Animal Facts

• Length: About 1–24 in. (2–60 cm)
• Weight: Up to 1 lb. (.45 kg)
• Location: Most in Africa and Madagascar; a few in India, the Middle East and southern Europe
   

Learn more about the Chameleon
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