A team of US engineers, drawing inspiration from human eyes, have come up with a new imaging device for cameras that will enable images to be recorded on to a curved surface, like the human eye.
The device, which involves a flexible mesh of wires, has been incorporated into a working camera the size and shape of a human eye. Images produced are sharper than those taken on conventional two-dimensional surfaces.
Researchers, from the University of Illinois and Northwestern University, say the idea behind the curved design could eventually be applied to other projects integrating electronics with the human body. How cool is that.
"It foreshadows artificial retinas for bionic eyes similar to those in the movie Terminator and other popular science fiction," said a statement issued by the University of Illinois.
Monash University vision scientist Dr Adrian Dyer described the results, published overnight in the journal Nature, as very exciting. "To capture the light or the image in this type of form is one really key part of how to create quite a good bionic eye system."
But he said one of the major challenge for bionic eye development remained: working out how to make the brain process images captured by such artificial "retinas".
SourceLabels: biology, bionic, bionic eye, cameras, design, future, robotics, science, technology, vision
