Making Eyes

The curved shape of the human eye is no mistake – it’s been evolving for millions of years, possibly even from bacteria, to focus light from different angles, soaking up detail from the outside world. Cameras are a household example of biomimicry - imitating eyes by focussing light onto a bed of sensors. But most cameras and phones have flat sensors lacking the sensitive curve of the human eye’s retina, which is challenging to reproduce with delicate materials. Taking a new approach, researchers lay overlap 'leaves' of silicon-based sensors into different moulds – concave like the human eye, or convex like an insect eye (pictured here). The sections are folded together and cut away to leave a smooth curved sensor. This cunning mix of origami and optoelectronics may reduce the cost of curvy artificial eyes in everything from surveillance equipment to medical cameras peering around our insides.

Written by John Ankers

John Ankers

Writer

A former researcher in systems biology, John is now an online biology tutor and professional coach supporting the wellbeing of scientists and NHS professionals. He's writing, too, of course.

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• Image from work by Kan Zhang, Yei Hwan Jung and Solomon Mikael, and colleagues
• Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Wisconsin–Madison, Madison, WI, USA
• Image originally published under a Creative Commons Licence (BY 4.0)
• Published in Nature Communications, November 2017