New Fluid-Filled Lens Combines the Best Traits from Human and Insect Vision
Engineers at Ohio State University have imitated aspects of human and insect eyes to create what may turn out to be the next big advance in camera lens technology.
Engineers at Ohio State University have imitated aspects of human and insect eyes to create what may turn out to be the next big advance in camera lens technology.
A few weeks ago, a team of researchers from all over the world boasted that they had created the world's first working compound eye cam at the University of Illinois. Sort of like a balloon with 180 node-like "ommatidia" on it, the camera was quite an achievement.
It didn't take long, however, for another team of researchers to break into the same market and offer the Illinois camera some bug-eyed competition. The Swiss research group Curvace has created a 180-degree field of view camera that looks a little like something Star Trek's Geordi La Forge would wear.
Just like the human eye, the arthropod eye is a marvel of natural engineering. But unlike human eyes, insect eyes approach seeing very differently. Instead of a curved lens focusing an image onto a plane of rods and cones, insects have curved eyes covered by "ommatidia," each acting as a tiny pixel.
In a paper published today in the scientific journal Nature, a team of researchers from the U.S., South Korea, Singapore and China announced that they have managed to create a camera that mimics that type of eye -- and all of its advantages and pitfalls along with it.