How did mosquitoes inspire advanced vision systems?
How did mosquitoes inspire advanced vision systems?
Learn about how mosquito vision has inspired the development of an artificial compound eye.
© American Chemical Society (A Britannica Publishing Partner)
Transcript
SPEAKER: Anyone who's tried to swat a pesky mosquito knows how quickly the insects can evade a hand or fly swatter. These lightning fast reflexes are due in large part to the pest's compound eyes, which provide an exceptionally wide field of view. Inspired by the mosquito eye, researchers reporting in ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces have developed compound lenses that could someday be used in self-driving vehicles, robots, or medical devices.
Most insects have compound eyes, which are curved arrays of microscopic lenses. Each tiny lens captures an individual image, and the mosquito's brain puts all of the images together to achieve peripheral vision without the insect having to move its eyes or head. Artificial compound eyes are good candidates for miniaturized vision systems, which could someday be used by drones or robots to quickly image their surroundings.
Joelle Frechette and colleagues wanted to develop a liquid manufacturing process to make compound lenses with most of the features of the mosquito eye. To make each microlens, the researchers used a microfluidic device to produce oil droplets that were coated with silicon nanoparticles. Then they organized many of these microlenses into a closely packed array around a larger oil droplet. They locked the structure in place with UV light. The resulting compound lens had a viewing angle of 149 degrees, similar to that of the mosquito eye.
The researchers determined this by using the compact lens to read numbers 1 through 20 printed on a transparent sheet placed above the lens. Also like mosquito eyes, the compound lens had anti-fogging properties. Nanostructures on the microlenses caused water to collect in spaces between the lenses, making images appear less distorted than those from compound lenses without the nanostructures. This property could allow the compound lens to function under conditions of low temperature or high humidity. The researchers could move to form and relocate the fluid lenses, allowing them to create arrays of compound lenses with even greater viewing capabilities.
Most insects have compound eyes, which are curved arrays of microscopic lenses. Each tiny lens captures an individual image, and the mosquito's brain puts all of the images together to achieve peripheral vision without the insect having to move its eyes or head. Artificial compound eyes are good candidates for miniaturized vision systems, which could someday be used by drones or robots to quickly image their surroundings.
Joelle Frechette and colleagues wanted to develop a liquid manufacturing process to make compound lenses with most of the features of the mosquito eye. To make each microlens, the researchers used a microfluidic device to produce oil droplets that were coated with silicon nanoparticles. Then they organized many of these microlenses into a closely packed array around a larger oil droplet. They locked the structure in place with UV light. The resulting compound lens had a viewing angle of 149 degrees, similar to that of the mosquito eye.
The researchers determined this by using the compact lens to read numbers 1 through 20 printed on a transparent sheet placed above the lens. Also like mosquito eyes, the compound lens had anti-fogging properties. Nanostructures on the microlenses caused water to collect in spaces between the lenses, making images appear less distorted than those from compound lenses without the nanostructures. This property could allow the compound lens to function under conditions of low temperature or high humidity. The researchers could move to form and relocate the fluid lenses, allowing them to create arrays of compound lenses with even greater viewing capabilities.