Minimal camera made with 3D printer realizing ultra-small, low power consumption, high speed processing, capable of shooting the central field of view at high resolution "Compound microlens system"

Human eyes are made so that the focusing part is clearly visible and the peripheral parts are made to look blurred but the German researchers succeeded in making a combination of the very small lenses outputted from the same system with a 3D printer It is.

3D-printed eagle eye: Compound microlens system for foveated imaging | Science Advances
http://advances.sciencemag.org/content/3/2/e1602655

The system of "Compound microlens system" system which human-like image processing by combining extremely small lenses made with 3D printers, such as Simon Thiele et al. 'S research team at Stuttgart University, can be seen in the following movie I understand.

Eagle-eyed lenses - YouTube


This is the visual system "Compound microlens system" which performs the same function as the human eye.


A very small lens is attached directly to the sensor.


This small lens is designed to capture higher resolution images at the center part relative to the surrounding part.


Human eyes also have a similar structure, the eyes are related to the high resolution central vision "Fovea centralisThere is a receptor of light called. The idea of ​​the Compound microlens system is to give the same function as the human eye to photograph the central visual field at a higher resolution than the peripheral visual field.


When the range of the field of view is wide, recognize low resolution images ......


The center part records higher resolution images.


It is possible to generate one image at the same time by combining multiple lenses with different range of cutout and resolution.


Cut range · When comparing how to shoot the same image with lenses with different resolutions, it is like this.


Four lenses are incorporated in the micro lens in order to change the focal length. Lenses are manufactured using 3D printers to assemble tiny size lenses in three dimensions.


With a 3D printer it's low resolution, but it is possible to freely create different types of lenses, such as wide-angle lenses and narrow viewing angles but high resolution lenses. Multiple images are synthesized by digital processing.


Shooting with ordinary lens. On the contrary, if you shoot with the Compound microlens system, images with different resolutions will be created concentrically.


Compound microlens system cameras are expected to be used as cameras for automatic driving cars, which are required to quickly recognize visual information.


Lenses with an area of ​​300 micro square meters can be combined at intervals of just tens of micrometers. It is a trick that can not be done with a 3D printer.


Although it is a Compound microlens system camera that has problems to be solved, such as manufacturing time, it is expected to be an optimal system for engineers who quickly need high-definition lenses.


In the lens system using the Compound microlens system, because of the nature that intensive processing is required only at the center of the image, we can realize low power and high speed processing compared with conventional image processing. For this reason, it is expected to be applied to the vision system of an automatic driving car which is required to respond to the changing circumstances every moment. It is also being studied to apply it to the extremely small visual system such as for minimal drone of insect size.