Researchers from the Naval Air Warfare Center in China Lake, California, and the University of Wyoming have developed a fiber optic sensor inspired by the compound eye of the common housefly, Musca domestica. One of the biggest advantages of the design is that it can quickly locate edges and boundaries of images. Machines such as unmanned vehicles, guided missiles, and high-speed industrial inspection robots might take advantage of this ability to locate tiny, moving objects with high precision.

In a recent issue of Bioinspiration & Biomimetics, researchers D. Riley, et al., describe how flies’ vision systems are uniquely geared toward locating small objects with high precision. In fact, flies possess a visual precision beyond the resolution limit – a property called hyperacuity. This feature is actually common to many animals, including humans.

“The fly has significant advantages with respect to tracking,” the researchers told PhysOrg.com. “As a system, the fly has very quick reaction times. … They can react and track much better than untrained humans; however I would question that the quality of the rest of their vision is even comparable.” They added that, overall, insect vision (and sensor technology inspired by it) is still far inferior to human vision, and probably always will be.  Read More...