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Electronic Eyeball Uses Curved Image Sensor

Posted by timothy on from the intelligent-design dept.

AnonymousCoward writes "US researchers have made a digital imaging system designed like the human eyeball — its image sensor is on the inside of a hemisphere like your retina. Resolution is so far low, but finding a way to use silicon sensors this way offers a way around the unavoidable distortion that results from projecting a wide angle view onto a flat sensor."

14 of 35 comments (clear)

  1. I'll keep an eye out for you by wooferhound · · Score: 4, Funny

    I will keep an eye out for more information about this article . . .

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    1. Re:I'll keep an eye out for you by inKubus · · Score: 2, Funny

      I guess we'll see how this looks soon.

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      Cool! Amazing Toys.
    2. Re:I'll keep an eye out for you by spun · · Score: 2, Funny

      "I'll keep an eye out for you."

      Isn't that what the hooker with the glass eye said to her loyal customer?

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      - None can love freedom heartily, but good men; the rest love not freedom, but license. -- John Milton
    3. Re:I'll keep an eye out for you by 4D6963 · · Score: 2, Insightful

      I will keep an eye out for more information about this article . . .

      I guess we'll see how this looks soon.

      Uh oh, chain of bad ocular puns in sight..

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      You just got troll'd!
    4. Re:I'll keep an eye out for you by Missing_dc · · Score: 3, Funny

      "I'll keep an eye out for you."

      Isn't that what the hooker with the glass eye said to her loyal customer?

      I think the leper responded with:
      "Keep the tip"

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      How amazed would you be to suddenly find that you just forgot what I wrote and you needed to reread my post.... again.
  2. Domed lenses by Buzz_Litebeer · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I could have sworn years ago that there were people making headway in having cameras that were domed cameras that, with software, would allow people to pan and view within half of a sphere of view.

    Whatever happened to these things?

    Why are we not able to produce these now? Why not simply have a spinning CCD?

    I could never understand why we would not have something like this at a grocer then later simply use software to pan and zoom and see everything.

    Could call it a panopticon camera.

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    1. Re:Domed lenses by Yoweigh116 · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Panopticam?

    2. Re:Domed lenses by Buzz_Litebeer · · Score: 2, Interesting

      haha yes.

      It just does not seem to me that with high megapixel high refresh rate cameras out there, that we cannot do something as simple as spin the camera around and take pictures every 1/XX of a second and then with software manipulate it.

      or hell, wrap some CCD's into the system and get all angles at once and use the software that way etc...

      I have also seen stuff by universities where they have the ability to take pictures at multiple depth and I know we probably have high speed digital cameras to couple these too.

      So couple them, multi depth spinny camera that takes pictures at certain secotors once every 1/30th of a second and save them, and then use software to sort out the image afterward.

      Call it the Panopticam as you say.

      Could mount the things on your car, say on the inside. and if a crash occurs you could have complete 360 degree view of the accident, no need to have the camera pointing in a certain direction.

      would be great for forensics, traffic lights etc...

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    3. Re:Domed lenses by StrategicIrony · · Score: 3, Informative

      Domed CMOS sensors are hard. CMOS is made by photolithography and the layers are set down by lasers etching patterns into silicon wafers.

      Since silicon has a flat crystal structure, it can't easily be made into a curve, so you have to rethink the entire concept of CCD/CMOS digital optical sensors. The phrase "I could never understand why..." generally underscores a..... general lack of understanding. :-)

  3. Curved monitor? by seanonymous · · Score: 2

    Ok, so you take a photo that doesn't have any distortion around the edges, then edit it by projecting it onto the inside of a sphere, then print it onto the inside of a bowl?

    1. Re:Curved monitor? by Rayeth · · Score: 2, Informative

      The problem there is that flat monitors are so much easier to make and take up much less room. Convincing people sitting at a desk to install spheres or bowls to use their computers is unlikely at best. Of course that is besides the point, when you consider that manufacturing such devices is probably equally hard. Much easier to develop 1 new sensor that intergrates into the rest of the system, than a system to fit 1 sensor.

    2. Re:Curved monitor? by tilandal · · Score: 2, Informative

      All monitors were very curved for many many years. Its a great deal more difficult to make flat monitors.

  4. Re:Enlighten me... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    Yes. Perspective correction for flat sensors (or flat film) causes all sorts of problems, from corner softness to chromatic abeeration, and that is why camera "lenses" actually have dozens of elements (i.e., actual lenses) inside them (which in turn cause other problems, like flare). With this kind of design, you can basically get away with using a single lens (for fixed focals, anyway).

  5. Re:Enlighten me... by StrategicIrony · · Score: 3, Informative

    i'm sorry.... let's insert some definitions...

    is a curved digital optical sensor "much different" than an array of 6-20 ground glass lenses?

    Why.... yes... it is. :-)