Attempt to stream video to a smartphone taken with an ultra-small camera that fits on the back of an insect
A research team led by Associate Professor Shyam Gollakota of the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at the University of Washington said it has developed a camera module that is small and light enough to fit on the back of an insect. The research team actually put the camera module on the back of the insect and succeeded in streaming the image to the smartphone.
Wireless steerable vision for live insects and insect-scale robots | Science Robotics
A Bug-Sized Camera for Bug-Sized Robots and Bug-Sized Bugs-IEEE Spectrum
https://spectrum.ieee.org/automaton/robotics/robotics-hardware/uw-micro-camera
You can see what the micro camera module actually is like by watching the following movie.
Wireless Steerable Vision for Live Insects and Insect-scale Robots-YouTube
It looks like this when an ultra-small wireless camera module with a total weight of 84 mg is placed on the back of a beetle with a total length of 2-3 cm. The image sensor of the camera is 2.3 mm wide and 6.7 mg in weight, and the module is also equipped with a Bluetooth 5.0 chip with a width of 3 mm and a weight of 6.8 mg, a lens of 20 mg in weight, an antenna of only 5 mm in length, and an accelerometer. ..
This wireless camera module can deliver 160×120 pixels/maximum 5 frames/sec monochrome image in real time to smartphones up to 120 meters away.
A beetle flutters among various objects placed on a desk. The images captured by the camera module placed on the back are sent to the smartphone one by one.
Since it is 5 frames per second, it cannot be said as a “smooth image” in flattery, but still, when you view the image delivered to the smartphone in real time, you can clearly see the movement of the foot of a person passing by. Also, by operating the
Also, you can shoot with low light. For example, below is a flashlight of a beetle with a camera module. The brightness at this time is 45.8 lumens ...
Even if the flashlight is turned off and the darkness is only 2.0
However, insects do not move as humans think. Therefore, a micro robot that can mount this camera module was also developed. You can see its size by looking at the image below, which is lined up with a 1-cent copper coin with a diameter of 19.05 mm.
The robot can move up to 3.5 cm per second, moves as if a human operated it, and sends the image captured by the built-in camera module to the smartphone.
According to the research team, even if the camera module was removed from the insect after the experiment, no noticeable adverse effect on the behavior of the insect was observed. The researchers say that you can mount the camera module on anything that you can carry, such as a spider or moth.
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