May 11, 2006
Today's digital micro-cameras and other optical devices use lenses based on human-type single aperture eyes. These lenses, which are manufactured with macroscopic technology, do not get thinner than about 5 mm.
However, insects such as fruit flies and moths have a completely different type of eye called compound eyes to accommodate the animals' small size and low brain processing capabilities. Compound eyes consist of up to tens of thousands of tiny sensors called "ommatidia" that detect light and sometimes color. Flies and moths see images made of a combination of inputs from the ommatidia that point in different directions, forming a large field of view while the total volume consumption remains small.
"While human eyes use a spherical volume, compound eyes use only a spherical shell, so that much of the space and weight is saved for the brain," Jacques Duparre, coauthor with F. C. Wippermann of a recent paper in Bioinspiration and Biomimetics, told PhysOrg.com. "The arrangement allows for a large field of view, but does not require large signal processing."
Although single aperture eyes have advantages in resolution and sensitivity in large lenses, compound eyes have the potential to make more compact, robust and cheap vision systems. At the micro level, compound eyes' individual viewing channels on curved lenses have minimal aberrations, or focusing errors that cause blurring. Cameras with compound eye lenses could have applications in many tight spaces, such as those encountered in automotive engineering, security and surveillance, and medical technology.
However, insects such as fruit flies and moths have a completely different type of eye called compound eyes to accommodate the animals' small size and low brain processing capabilities. Compound eyes consist of up to tens of thousands of tiny sensors called "ommatidia" that detect light and sometimes color. Flies and moths see images made of a combination of inputs from the ommatidia that point in different directions, forming a large field of view while the total volume consumption remains small.
"While human eyes use a spherical volume, compound eyes use only a spherical shell, so that much of the space and weight is saved for the brain," Jacques Duparre, coauthor with F. C. Wippermann of a recent paper in Bioinspiration and Biomimetics, told PhysOrg.com. "The arrangement allows for a large field of view, but does not require large signal processing."
Although single aperture eyes have advantages in resolution and sensitivity in large lenses, compound eyes have the potential to make more compact, robust and cheap vision systems. At the micro level, compound eyes' individual viewing channels on curved lenses have minimal aberrations, or focusing errors that cause blurring. Cameras with compound eye lenses could have applications in many tight spaces, such as those encountered in automotive engineering, security and surveillance, and medical technology.
