Bionic eye in the works

The revolutionary bionic eye
The revolutionary bionic eye

Scientists in America have gone back to the drawing board to create a camera, and they have looked at the human eye for inspiration.

Yonggang Huang of Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois and his team are trying to develop an eye-shaped camera, but using standard camera sensors.

Speaking to Reuters about the new technology, the team said that the device may lead to prosthetic devices such as bionic eyes.

Eye for a bionic eye

One of the biggest hurdles the scientists have had to overcome is applying microelectronic components to curved surfaces. The scientists have got round this by creating a mesh-like material that can be moulded to a curved surface.

"This is the first time we've demonstrated a camera on a curved surface to really make it look like a human eye, said Huang to Reuters.

"Currently when you take photos, the middle part of the picture is very clear but when you go to the edge, it is not so clear. The curved technology will make the entire picture clear."

At the moment, the camera works but it is a long way off actual production. "Right now we've already got a camera working," says Huang. "It works very well with computers. It's just how to connect the camera to the brain. That is the issue to be solved."

Just ask the government for $6 million dollars and they should be able to help. Well, it worked in the TV show.

Marc Chacksfield

Marc Chacksfield is the Editor In Chief, Shortlist.com at DC Thomson. He started out life as a movie writer for numerous (now defunct) magazines and soon found himself online - editing a gaggle of gadget sites, including TechRadar, Digital Camera World and Tom's Guide UK. At Shortlist you'll find him mostly writing about movies and tech, so no change there then.