Electric Eye Designed for Microrobots Could Someday Give Artificial Vision to Colorblind and Blind People, Scientists Claim

Researchers at Georgia State University have created an electric eye using a new vertical stacking system to operate at a micro-scale. This makes artificial vision closer to reality, which will help blind people see and allow colorblind individuals to perceive colors.

MailOnline reported that the team, led by assistant physics Professor Sidong Lei, aims to create a micro-scale camera that could operate as eyes for microrobots and access areas humans and other giant robots can not reach.

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Electric Eye Designed for Microrobots Could Someday Give Artificial Vision to Blind People, Scientists Claim

Artificial Vision Could Help the Blind See and Colorblind Perceive Colors

Research on biomimetic artificial vision, or the human-made processes that imitate the natural way eyes function, is currently rising. More and more scientists are interested in the art and science of designing and building biomimetic devices that will help provide vision to blind people. The device could also be referred to as biomimicry as it mimics the biological system of the eyes.

Biomimetic artificial vision is also receiving lots of attention these days because of the development of neuromorphic electronic devices, artificial intelligence (AI), and micro-robotics.

But current research did not include colorblindness due to the challenging way of downscaling the existing color sensing devices that adopt a lateral color sensing channel layout and use a large amount of physical space. More so, compact designs have problems with the accuracy of detecting colors.

In their new study, titled "van der Waals Semiconductor Empowered Vertical Color Sensor" published in ACS Nano, researchers created a van der Waals semiconductor-empowered vertical color sensing structure that is micro-scale and has precise recognition capability.

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Ultimate Goal: Build Micro-Scale Camera for Robots

Lei said that the ultimate destination of their work is to build a micro-scale camera for microrobots. They demonstrated this in their study by constructing a new type of image sensor that is at a micro-scale.

By using biomimetic artificial vision, researchers believe it is possible to develop a micro-scale camera that can enter narrow spaces that humans or larger robots can not reach, Science Daily reported.

More so, this biomimetic electric eye was created using the unique stacking technique of the van der Waals semiconductor-empowered vertical color sensing structure that offers a new approach to hardware design, with emphasis o downscaling the artificial vision systems.

Study author Ningxin Li, who is also a graduate student in Dr. Lei's Functional Materials Studio, explained that the new functionality in the image sensor all depends on the rapid progress of van der Waals semiconductors in recent years. She added that they could precisely control van der Waals's structure, thickness, and other critical parameters to sense red, green, and blue colors.

Additionally, it represents a newly-emerged class of materials, wherein van der Waals forces bonded the individual atomic layers. They play a crucial part in discovering new physics and designing next-generation devices.

Li added that the ultra-thinness, mechanical flexibility, and chemical stability of these van der Waals semiconductor materials allowed the team to stack them in arbitrary orders that introduced a 3D integration strategy, which accelerated the downscaling of cameras.