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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."

6 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 . . .

    --
    We are Dead Stars looking back Up at the Sky
    1. 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"

      --
      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.

    --
    If you don't vote, you don't matter, so don't waste your time telling me your opinion
    1. 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. 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).

  4. 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. :-)