Thanks to the growing field of stretchable electronics, gadgets that were once flat can do so much more with just a little flexibility. Even phones can stretch now. A new camera that works like an eyeball is now able to zoom, thanks to a new design that uses curved sensors.
These curved sensors in the camera work like an eye ball because the angle of the curve is similar to the retina in the eye. Because the sensors are curved, the so-called "eyeball camera" has a few advantages over a camera with a flat sensor, like a wider view, greater simplicity, and also more compact.
Unlike other eyeball cameras with curved sensors that have come before it, the new one developed at MIT can change the shape of its lens and of its sensor in synchrony, producing a 3.5x zoom.
John Rogers is the professors of materials science and engineering at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign who led the development of the zooming eyeball camera. As he told Technology Review, "The result is a complete camera system, with tunable lens and tunable detector, capable of taking pictures."
So what will we actually be able to do with a zooming eyeball camera? It could be used for phones like this one, surveillance cameras that can do more than see around corners, or even tiny video cameras embedded in football helmets.
What are some cool things you could do with a camera that works like an eyeball? Let us know in the comments section.
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