A biologically-inspired artificial compound eye now available

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Ever wondered what the world might look like through the eyes of an insect such as a dragonfly or a simple housefly? Well, thanks to a team of bioengineers at the University of California, Berkeley, we might be closer to discovering it. They have just created a series of artificial compound eyes (let me call them aces), as reported in an article published in Science (click on the title above for a report).

"They are the first hemispherical, three-dimensional optical systems to integrate microlens arrays - thousands of tiny lenses packed side by side - with self-aligned, self-written waveguides, that is, light-conducting channels that themselves have been created by beams of light, said Lee, the Lloyd Distinguished Professor of Bioengineering at UC Berkeley."

With a bit of luck, aces will find applications in almost any optical instrument, from cameras to sensory detectors , from surveillance systems to endoscopies and image-guided surgeries. The army will certainly want to keep an eye on them. The philosophical question one may ask is : what will happen if one day someone will volunteer to have them implanted in his head (or even elsewhere)? The ultimate fighter pilot? A monster resembling David Cronenberg's The Fly? Enhancement or handicap? One thing seems sure: if it will be possible, someone will try it. In which case, we should definitely ask him whether he still perceives the world in that classic, 3D, Euclidean way we find so hard to find only ours.

Now also on BBC News and New Scientist.

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