Eyeball Camera: Zooming Into The Future!

Materials Scientists and Mechanical Engineers Develop Camera with Better Zoom Capabilities, No Bulky Lens

September 1, 2011

Materials scientists and mechanical engineers developed a camera that can zoom without the typical oversized lens. The camera design was inspired by the human eye, and uses a curved light sensor to mimic the eye’s retina. A flexible lens changes shape to allow for close-up pictures. Researchers anticipate that the lens might find applications in night vision, cell phones and medical imaging.

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ABOUT THE RETINA: We can see because light reflects off objects in our surroundings and enters the eye through the pupil. The light is then focused and inverted by the cornea and the lens, and projected onto the back of the eye. There we find the retina, which is lined with a series of photoreceptors that convert the light signal into a neural signal. Ganglion cells then transmit those signals to the brain via the optic nerve.

The Materials Research Society and the Optical Society of America contributed to the information contained in the TV portion of this report.

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Yonggang Huang
Joseph Cummings Professor of Engineering
Northwestern University

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