Better than alive
A bionic eye has been created that can see in the dark
Georgy Golovanov, Hi-tech+
Moreover, the artificial eye has a shorter reaction time – from 30 to 40 milliseconds, not 40 to 150, as in a biological eye, and potentially a multiple of the best picture clarity. The prototype created by Hong Kong scientists may in the future be used in prosthetics or to create humanoid robots.
The human eye is a complex instrument with ten million visual receptors per square centimeter, which provide a wide field of view and high resolution, which technologies are only approaching. For many years, scientists have been trying to recreate these characteristics in an artificial eye, but they have encountered difficulties imitating the shape and structure of the human retina, writes Science Alert.
Article by Gu et al. A biomimetic eye with a hemispherical perovskite nanowire array retina is published in the journal Nature – VM.
Researchers from The University of Hong Kong has developed a hemispherical artificial retina with a diameter of only two centimeters, studded with nanowires made of perovskite, a promising material that is widely used in the production of solar cells. There are 460 million of them per sq . m . cm, that is 46 times more than a person. In theory, this may allow in the future to obtain a clearer image than the human eye is able to read.
Nanowires perform the same function as photoreceptors of the human eye – they transmit visual information to neurons to create a visual image. In terms of photosensitivity, they exceed the wavelength of the human eye and are able to see in the spectrum up to 800 nm (the threshold of infrared radiation). In other words, the device sees perfectly in the dark.
In addition, the bionic eye reacts to changes in light faster than the human eye. It takes him 30 – 40 ms to adapt to changing conditions, not 40 – 150 ms, as in a human. But it has drawbacks: its 100-degree field of view is not as wide as the 150-degree viewing angle of the human eye, but it is better than the 70-degree viewing angle of conventional image sensors.
In the center of the artificial eye – where the human vitreous body is located – there is a conductive liquid.
During the experiment, the eye connected to the computer was able to see and reconstruct the letters E, I and Y. Scientists promise that this is just the beginning, and in the future, the artificial retina will be able to recognize any small objects at a great distance and will find application in prosthetics and robotics.
Bionic eye developed by Spanish neuroengineers, successfully connected at the beginning of the year to the brain of a blind woman. The resolution was low, but it was enough to distinguish between letters and people.
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