Bug's view inspires new camera lens

John A. Rogers, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Researchers have created a new digital camera that is based off of the ocular systems found in dragonflies, bees, praying mantises and other insects. Their bug-inspired lenses allow the photographer to have wide-angle fields of view, acuity to motion, and because of the shape, a nearly infinite depth of field.

The findings from the study were published in an article, "Digital Cameras with Designs Inspired by the Arthropod Eye," published in the May 2, 2013 issue of Nature.

The new camera boasts a 180 degree view with no aberrations, due to the many smaller lenses.

Each microlense -- that makes up the larger lense -- produces a small image of an object, and when they are put together the researchers had a much more detailed picture of the entire subject.

The lenses use miniaturized detectors in hemispherical layouts, just like the eyes found in arthropods.

The cameras use a combination of soft, rubbery optics with high performance silicon electronics.

The new digital cameras exploit a large amount of tiny, independently-focusing lenses.

The cameras mimic the compound-designed eyes of the arthropods. These insects use a large amount of smaller eyes to provide an overall image.

Each of the bugs' small eyes, known as an ommatidiums, consist of a corneal lens, a crystalline cone and a light sensitive organ at the base.