Artificial vision device promises color micro-scale cameras

The biomimetic artificial vision device incorporates a novel vertical stacking architecture and allows for greater depth of color recognition and scalability on a micro-level, say the researchers.

“This work is the first step toward our final destination – to develop a micro-scale camera for microrobots,” says assistant professor of Physics Sidong Lei, who led the research. “We illustrate the fundamental principle and feasibility to construct this new type of image sensor with emphasis on miniaturization.”

The researchers say they were able to lay the groundwork for the biomimetic artificial vision device – which uses synthetic methods to mimic biochemical processes – using nanotechnology.

“It is well-known that more than 80 percent of the information is captured by vision in research, industry, medication, and our daily life,” says Lei. “The ultimate purpose of our research is to develop a micro-scale camera for microrobots that can enter narrow spaces that are intangible by current means, and open up new horizons in medical diagnosis, environmental study, manufacturing, archaeology, and more.”

Their biomimetic “electric eye,” say the researchers, advances color recognition, the most critical vision function, which is missed in the current research due to the difficulty of downscaling the prevailing color sensing devices. Conventional color sensors typically adopt a lateral color sensing channel layout and consume a large amount of physical space and offer less accurate color detection.

The researchers instead developed a unique stacking technique, which offers a novel approach to the hardware design. Made possible by recent advancements in technology, the van der Waals semiconductor-empowered vertical color sensing structure, say the researchers, offers precise color recognition capability that can simplify the design of the optical lens system for the downscaling of the artificial vision systems.