ACM TechNews

New Technology Could Lead to Camera Based on Human Eye

Northwestern University News Center (08/07/08)

Digital cameras revolutionized how people take and use pictures, and a new technology developed at Northwestern University could advance photographic images even more by producing improved images with a wider field of view. Northwestern University professor Yonggang Huang and University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign professor John Rogers have created an array of silicon detectors and electronics that can be conformed to a curved surface, mimicking the human eye. Rogers and Huang established experimental methods and theoretical foundations to transfer the electronics from a flat surface to a curved one. Rogers created a hemispherical transfer element made from a thin electrometric membrane that can be stretched out into the shape of a flat drumhead. While the membrane is flat, electronics can be transferred onto the elastomer, which then pops back into its hemispheric shape, which would normally cause the electronics to suffer catastrophic mechanical failure. Rogers and Huang solved this problem by creating an array of photodetectors and circuit elements that are so small, approximately 100 micrometers square, that they are not as affected when the elastomer returns to its hemispheric shape, similar to how straight buildings can exist on the curved surface of the earth. Tests showed that more than 99 percent of the devices still worked after returning to a hemispherical shape, and the silicon in the devices was compressed to only .002 percent.

http://www.northwestern.edu/newscenter/stories/2008/08/humaneyecamera.html

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