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Researchers Create Artificial Insect Eye
maxzilla writes "An artificial insect eye that could be used in ultra-thin cameras has been developed by scientists in the US.The dimpled eye, contains over 8,500 hexagonal lenses packed into an area the size of a pinhead. The dome-shaped structure, described in the journal Science, is similar to a bee's eye. The researchers, from the University of California, Berkeley, say the work may also shed light on how insects developed such complex, visual systems. Darpa is also funding this project with applications expected for digital cameras and high speed motion detectors."
Biologically Inspired Artificial Compound Eyes
Ki-Hun Jeong, Jaeyoun Kim, Luke P. Lee*
This work presents the fabrication of biologically inspired artificial compound eyes. The artificial ommatidium, like that of an insect's compound eyes, consists of a refractive polymer microlens, a light-guiding polymer cone, and a self-aligned waveguide to collect light with a small angular acceptance. The ommatidia are omnidirectionally arranged along a hemispherical polymer dome such that they provide a wide field of view similar to that of a natural compound eye. The spherical configuration of the microlenses is accomplished by reconfigurable microtemplating, that is, polymer replication using the deformed elastomer membrane with microlens patterns. The formation of polymer waveguides self-aligned with microlenses is also realized by a self-writing process in a photosensitive polymer resin. The angular acceptance is directly measured by three-dimensional optical sectioning with a confocal microscope, and the detailed optical characteristics are studied in comparison with a natural compound eye.
Biomolecular Nanotechnology Center, Berkeley Sensor and Actuator Center, Department of Bioengineering, 485 Evans Hall No. 1762, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA.
* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: lplee@socrates.berkeley.edu
Compound eyes in nature present intriguing topics in physiological optics because of their unique optical scheme for imaging. For example, a bee's eye has thousands of integrated optical units called ommatidia spherically arranged along a curvilinear surface so that each unit points in a different direction (Fig. 1A). Each ommatidium consists of a light-diffracting facet lens, a crystalline cone, and photoreceptor cells with a wave-guiding rhabdom (1-3) (Fig. 1B). The omnidirectionally arranged ommatidium collects incident light with a narrow range of angular acceptance and independently contributes to the capability of wide field-of-view (FOV) detection (4-6).
Figure 1 Fig. 1. Anatomical comparisons between a natural compound eye and an artificial compound eye described from the cross sections. (A) An optical micrograph of a honeybee's apposition compound eye (courtesy of B. Greiner). As an individual optical unit, (B) a natural ommatidium consists of a facet lens, a crystalline cone, and photoreceptor cells with a wave-guiding rhabdom. (C) A scanning electron micrograph of an artificial compound eye and (D) an artificial ommatidium comprising a microlens, a polymer cone, and an optical waveguide that has a higher index core surrounded by a lower index cladding in a polymer resin. Light impinging onto a microlens is coupled with polymer cones and waveguides and then guided to the end of the waveguide. [View Larger Version of this Image (76K GIF file)]
Artificial implementation of compound eyes has attracted a great deal of research interest, because the wide FOV exhibits a huge potential for medical, industrial, and military applications. So far, imaging with a FOV over 90 has been achieved only with fish eye lenses, which rely on bulky and expensive multiple lenses and require stringent alignment. The use of miniaturized, arrayed optical components fabricated by using semiconductor planar processing technologies has been proposed to simultaneously mimic the structure and function of an individual ommatidium and the large-scale collection of ommatidia. The imaging systems using microlens arrays (7, 8) or graded index rod arrays (9, 10) in combination with matching pinhole arrays are good examples. More biomimetic efforts to implement artificial compound eyes were reviewed in (11) along with an outline of biological imaging systems. Achieving a wide FOV in those structures, however, has been hindered mainly by the inherent flatness of the arrayed optical components. In addition, the need to align multiple layers of arrayed components during assembly of the above-mentioned imaging systems gives them no advantage over fish eye lenses. For
Isn't the article posted this week about Apple's All Seeing Monitor somewhat like this?
Now we won't have to provide blind insects with guide dogs!
Blessed are the 1337, for they shall pwn the earth.
One step closer to sharks with frickin' laser beams!
When will they be getting around to the rest of the artificial insect?
I see even classic Slashdot is now pretty much unusable on dial up anymore.
So we are competing with nature now. Very soon the blind will have a better option at vision and the rest of us will be scrambling in the dark. That would be a funny sight.
There is nothing permanent except 'Change'- HERACLITUS,6TH CENTURY B.C
I'll be impressed when they can transplant this eye into a poor blind insect.
Does God treat us as servants or friends? Check my homepage.
The question, I want to ask is, is it still in research phase or professional services will start becoming available, when and how much it might cost?
There is pool of blind people in developing countries like India, China and so on. The inofrmation might be useful for them too.
[Posting anonymously to avoid karma whoring]
...They didn't create it, dosn't anyone watch X-Files, its a discover lead by the Aliens, who will use the new eye to further the artificial development of insects to carry Alien genetic material to form the super Alien race (we all know humans are the most suppiorer already, just not intelectual). Comming soon, nanite insects that "Repair" damaged organs or tissue...Yeah Repair
New viewing angle tecnique for movies - fly on the wall...
SEEE! This PROVES the eye is so complex that it requires an Intelligent Designer! :P
This space available.
It's comforting to know that our future robot masters will have terrifying, alien faces with which to express their terrifying, alien throught processes.
poo8 dead 3last The above is far
If you thought those fiber-optic based surveillance cams were bad, you'll hate these even more.
Yeah, this will find tons of apps in all sorts of useful places, but at a certain point, they'll be so cheap that you'll have to be afraid that people have hidden them somewhere, and that you are being watched.
This will be like camera phones, but squared and then cubed.
http://www.thebricktestament.com/the_law/when_to_
It's not only insects we're mimicing, crustaceans too. Astronomers have investigated the eyes of lobsters and used the way they focus light to create a Lobster Telescope For X-Rays
According to TFA, "At the moment, the artificial eye is not connected to any kind of imaging device.".
I understand that whoever made this thing is eager to show it around but shouldn't they actually wait until they have something to show ?
It's becoming the norm nowadays to announce stuff that's only half done... I don't know if it's to satisfy investors or what but it sounds quite silly.
"look, we have this great insectile artificial eye !"
"impressive, what does it see ?"
"we don't know"
Well, duh.
May contain traces of nut.
Made from the freshest electrons.
Good one :)
Anagram("United States of America") == "Dine out, taste a Mac, fries"
Future wars will not be faught by giant robots or ultra-enhanced bionic soldiers or UAVs. They will be faught by fleets of artificial insects with collaborative AI.
Artificial insects are capable of a wide range of operations:
1) psyops: killing the important people of the opposing force (leaders, generals, scientists, etc) would be as easy as sending an insectoid armed with deadly poison. Undetectable, it can sting its victim while the victim is sleeping, or goes to the bathroom, or is in a public place surrounded by thousands of people.
2) blocking enemy forces: a swarm of insectoids can easily render whole armies inoperable in a blink of an eye: tanks, rocket launchers, comm centers can be rendered inoperable with few insectoids injecting the proper substances at the proper places.
3) invading a land by only killing humans, living infrastructure intact.
A swarm of insectoids can go undetected by radar, since insectoids can fly in small formations, and only joined at the destination.
Nanomachines can be used to create billions of one-time insectoids at very low cost.
Seems german scientists beat those US scientists to it. The team from the Fraunhofer Institute received a german research award for creating an artificial insect eye over a year ago.
Find more technical infos here (sorry, german only).
Why is it that 99% of those articles try to be done with the boring facts as fast as possible and dive into the exciting world of "this may/can/will be used for [INSERT SOMETHING FROM A MOVIE OR SOMETHING THAT SOUNDS REALLY IMPORTANT]" speculation.
So if a new sort of "no unpopped kernels" popcorns was disovered, we'll have to read how this will lead to us flying to distant galaxies and finding the purpose of existence.
into a matching display. Apple already has the patent
That summary, was very well written.
we don't need any stinkin' barrel of dead monkIEs to realize the direction that the winds of change are blowing at gale force.
for many of US, the only way out is up.
don't forget, for each of the creators' innocents harmed (in any way) there is a debt that must/will be repaid by you/US as the perpetrators/minions of unprecedented evile will not be available after the big flash occurs.
'vote' with (what's left in) yOUR wallet. help bring an end to unprecedented evile's manifestation through yOUR owned felonious corepirate nazi life0cidal glowbull warmongering execrable.
some of US should consider ourselves very fortunate to be among those scheduled to survive after the big flash/implementation of the creators' wwwildly popular planet/population rescue initiative/mandate.
it's right in the manual, 'world without end', etc....
as we all ?know?, change is inevitable, & denying/ignoring gravity, logic, morality, etc..., is only possible, on a temporary basis.
concern about the course of events that will occur should the corepirate nazi life0cidal execrable fail to be intervened upon is in order.
'do not be dismayed' (also from the manual). however, it's ok/recommended, to not attempt to live under/accept, fauxking nazi felon greed/fear/ego based pr ?firm? scriptdead mindphuking hypenosys.
consult with/trust in yOUR creators. providing more than enough of everything for everyone (without any distracting/spiritdead personal gain motives), whilst badtolling unprecedented evile, using an unlimited supply of newclear power, since/until forever. see you there?
"If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land."
All you have to do is watch an episode of "Fear Factor". Those people will shove anything in thier mouths.
When our name is on the back of your car, we're behind you all the way!
smallprint: bold is mine.
I am not sure if this article is a free access one, but the abstract should be seen by everyone.
Note how "biologically inspired" turned into "artificial insect" in BBC article. Surely, journalists are more successful in creating artefacts than scientists.
PS. On a side note though: pretty amazing!
I do not believe in karma. "Funny"=-6. Do good and forbid evil. Yours, Oft-Offtopic Flamebaiting Troll.
Why do you need tag "science", if the post is already published under science.slashdot.org?
Tags are silly. I have seen a tag "stupid" on one of the previous posts. That will definitely help in search. I can see someone rubbing his hands against each other, saying: "Ok, now time to rest from moderating digg and find some "stupid" articles in Slashdot...".
I do not believe in karma. "Funny"=-6. Do good and forbid evil. Yours, Oft-Offtopic Flamebaiting Troll.
you can't see it due to it being dark.
I do not believe in karma. "Funny"=-6. Do good and forbid evil. Yours, Oft-Offtopic Flamebaiting Troll.
Sorry for feeding the troll, but :
The biggest difference between having faith in some deity or having faith in selection/randomness/ifinite time/etc... is that in case of the second, you can also try to disect the subtle mechanics of it and try to understand it, and then try to apply the knowledge you acquired. It makes you able to develop better medecine, or to be able to predict what will happen next according to the models you developped studying science (or in case of archeoly : try to guess what happened 'between' before the archeological evidence shows up). Which is hard to do with a deity, because you'll have to catch it first before being able to disect it, because as you're not a deity yourself you're not supposed to be able to understand it, and you aren't supposed to be able to predict what's is someone else head.
Evolution is a way to say "Let's try to understand how it works", ID is a way to say "Fuck, I give up. It's too hard to understand. It must have been done by [insert your favorite deity's name here]".
On the other hand, religious faith has generated some nice and interesting pieces of art and litterature, although it also managed to generate a lot of holy wars.
Second, EVOLUTION IS NOT PURELY RANDOM. Most moderne life form have (thru evlotion) acquired means to 're-use' what has been done before (example: by recombining and reshuffling functionnal parts) and evolve and adapt faster than just waiting until it happens by randomness.
(NOTE: I *do* work in a genetic lab. A *do* know what I'm speaking about)
"Sufficiently advanced satire is indistinguishable from reality." - [Tips: 1DrYakQDKCQ6y52z6QbnkxHXAocMZJE61o ]
The summary has two extra commas. The first is just after a noun phrase; the second is just before one.
I've been taking Spanish for quite a while, and recognize common English errors that native speakers of Spanish make, but I'm curious about the comma overuse in the summary here. I have come across this particular error quite a bit lately, and I'm curious whether it's common to native speakers of a particular language.
I know this is seriously OT, but I don't know of any linguist blogs, so can someone help me out here? Thanks!
High-speed Road Trip (18.000KPH)
"complex visual systems" not "complex, visual systems"
Slashdot: 24 hours behind every other site or your money back!
"Even though insects start with just a single cell, they grow and create this beautiful optical system by themselves," said Professor Luke Lee, one of the authors on the paper.
So, did I, but you don't here me bragging about it!
Oh wait... I just did...
Great. Now they will implant them into insects that lost their eyesight because they kept playing with sharp sticks. What will they come up with next? Free education for microbes?
... how insects developed such complex, visual systems ...
The best workers for the development of new digicams?
The terrifying, alien thought processes of an IEEE 754 compliant Robot Master:
...etc. Surely this is the stuff nightmares are made of.
Mathematician: But I'm telling you, division by zero is impossible!
Robot Master: Does not compute. Division by zero equals infinity.
Mathematician: Then what about multiplying zero by infinity? Is that also infinity? No, it isn't, it's z-e-r-o!
Robot Master: Does not compute. Multiplication by infinity equals infinity.
Mathematician: Exactly! So division by zero is impossible!
Robot Master: Does not compute. Division by zero equals infinity. Multiplication of zero by infinity equals infinity.
Mathematician: How?! How is multiplication of zero by infinity infinity?!
Robot Master: Provide number of times you would need to carry out multiplication of any number by infinity to predict result.
Mathematician: Well... infinite times!
Robot Master: Therefore, zero multiplied by infinity equals infinity...
This is great news for the many insects who have lost one or both eyes due to an tragic accident or illness. It is one step closer to the ultimate goal of producing artificial fish eyes for blind fish.
An artificial insect eye, the size of a pinhead. Imagine how many of these high school principals and senior law firm partners will be able to install in the typical girls/women's restroom... for "security" purposes.
Some countries have passed a law that cellphone cameras have to make a loud shutter noise to warn people they may be being photographed. Will this be required to make a really loud buzzing? Can you even miniaturize a speaker down that small or does there come a point where you just can't move enough air to make any real noise?
Use nanotechnology. Go neuron after neuron; first enter the host cell, then measure its relevant characteristics, then take over, shut down its cellular mechanisms, and replace them with a functionally identical assembly of nanoparticles. Use the existing cellular membranes and structures as a scaffolding to build on. Then follow up on the nearby neurons. Continue until all neurons are replaced. Then repeat the sequence, this time upgrading the now-artificial structures to an enhanced version, taking full advantage of the technological differences as at that moment we don't have to care about biocompatibility anymore and can use faster mechanisms than biomimetic synapses.
Can I get a handful implanted in the back of my head? "You kids, I can see what you're up to!"
Two weeks ago.
And I'm not speaking about sex. (which, when done with specie multiplication in mind, *does* result with genetic re-arrengement, and *is* done in a concious way. Or at least, it should be done with both paries' conscent, otherwise, it's illegal in most juridiction.)
What I mean is that i was sick, two weeks ago.
In case of, sickness, the white blood cells (Lymphocyte, type T & B, in that order) are involved in the creation of anti bodies. How are this anti bodies created ?
:
By reshuffling different portions of genes. When they are created, Lymphocyte B, carry (mostly) the same genetic material as the rest of the body. They have a generic meaningless gene made of different parts : a constant part and a sequence that is currently useless. This sequence is made by parts that can be cut away or assembled with the constant part. The result is an unique combination. Some point-mutation are added at key points. And finaly you get a new form of antibody. Instead of having every known antibody coded into our gene pool (and being vulnerable to the first bacteria that invents a coating that isn't detected by any of them), the lymphocyte B manage to create antibodies by controlled mutation. (They are consequently selected by rejecting those who seem to react to one-self's cell)
Although is only somatic mutation (not transmited to children) and is not triggered directly by the disease (Inflamatory state, as happens with a disease, may only stimulate the production of white cells. Not specifically start it), it is a nice exemple of controlled mutation, that mostly result in improvement (most of the time, Lymphocyte carrying useful combination of antibodies are used to combat the foreign body, and Lymphocyte with wrong mutations - leading to either unusable proteins garbages or self-antibodies - are discarded). If most of the time it produced more noise than usefulness, neither of us would have survived last disease we had.
Now better
Cut and pasting genes around is partly done by enzymes called "recombinase" which can cut genes at given points.
There are some studies (I was at one of their conference, but I lost the references. Some googling may fid it again) done on some sub-types of E. Coli (a small bacteria of which some may live in your guts) showing that the concentration of recombinase depends on the "stress level" of the environnement.
- If the environnement is good and the bacteria can multiply prosper, the mutation rate is lower.
- If the environnement is harsh and the bacteria have difficulties living in it - if I abuse Darwin's terminology I may say it is "un-fit" - mutation rate gets higher. The bacteria guess it's current state won't cope with the new conditions and tries to invent something to be able to resist better the new environnement. Some of the new mutated descent die, some other discovers new proteins helping it to survive better, live up, and their mutation rate lowers again.
This is a finely tuned balance between the disadvantages of mutations (generates also a lot of errors. Which will get discarded by selection, but are still wasteful because : less individual are produced (population is growing slower because of discarded mutants = wasted time), and the discarded still eat food until they die (= wasted ressources) ) and advantage (if everything is going bad, mutation is need to try to come up with new solution. It may costs you something, but it's still better than the whole colony dying).
From the bacteria's point of view it is the most equivalent to "conscious
"Sufficiently advanced satire is indistinguishable from reality." - [Tips: 1DrYakQDKCQ6y52z6QbnkxHXAocMZJE61o ]
That, and nice piece of art and litterature. Don't forget it. For exemple : Some of the very good old greek litterature stems in mythology (like Odysseus).
But can you point me a war that was started "in the name of Relativist Theory ?" "Quantum Mechanics Theory ?" "Superstring Theory ?". You have a bunch of contradictory theories : each one is valid in its own realm and is very useful in making predictions here. But contradict when applied to different scales (hence the super-strings : complies with both former, but doesn't lead to embarassing contradiction when changing scale). But as of today, no physicist group has started a holy war against another because of these.
On the other hand, on each battle fields you see people invoking random deities. At least in the antiquity they were invoking different ones (see the legends about Troy : each party is supported by a different group of gods, which gods having their own rivalty and changing support based on it). Recent past, has seen wars with people invoking the fucking-same deity and are persuaded that it'll support them against the opponent of the same religion.
"Sufficiently advanced satire is indistinguishable from reality." - [Tips: 1DrYakQDKCQ6y52z6QbnkxHXAocMZJE61o ]