A team of international scientists has recently developed the world’s first 3D artificial eye with more enhanced capabilities with the help of Artificial Intelligence (AI), bringing vision to humanoid robots and new hope to visual impairment patients.
For decades, scientists and engineers around the world have made significant efforts to replicate the structure and clarity of the human biological eye. However, the process of such is highly complex because visions provided by existing prosthetic eyes - mainly spectacles attached with external cables, are still in poor resolution with 2D flat image sensors.
The Electrochemical Eye (EC-Eye) improves these issues by successfully replicating the structure of the human eye, and may actually offer sharper and clearer vision than the natural eye in the near future, with additional features like the ability to detect infrared radiation in darkness.
The important feature that contributes to this breakthrough is the 3D artificial retina - made up of a chain of nanowire light sensors that mimic photoreceptors in the human retina. Said nanowire light sensors were connected to a bundle of liquid metal wires that acts as nerves. The nerve behind the human hemisphere retina was created in many experiments and successfully replicated the visual signal transmission to reflect what the eye sees on a computer screen.
Experts stated that in the near future, those nanowire light sensors could actually be connected directly to the nerves of patients with visual impairments. Different from the human eye, the bundle of optic nerve fibers needs to pass through the pores before reaching the brain; The light sensors that disperse the entire human-made retina can transfer signals through liquid metal wires on the back. By doing this, it can eliminate the issue of blind spots when they do not need to go through a point.
Added to that, since nanowires have a higher density than photoreceptors in the human retina, the man-made retina can then receive more light signals and potentially attain a higher image resolution than human retina - if the back contacts to separate nanowires are made in the future. Nowadays, with access to many more materials, we can enhance the sensor’s sensitivity and spectral range, therefore, the man-made eye can also perform higher functions such as night vision.
The working principle of the artificial eye involves an electrochemical process - which is based on a type of solar cell. Theoretically speaking, each image sensor on an artificial retina can act as a nano-sized solar cell. With the additional adjustment, EC-Eye can be a self-powered image sensor, so it does not require any external power or circuitry. This is much more user-friendly when compared to the current technology. EC-Eye helps diversify immensely and establish valuable insights for future studies on software development.
Source: Science Daily
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