Insects inspire miniature camera design

New Scientist : Researchers in Germany have designed a tiny camera, inspired by an arthropod eye, that maximizes image resolution. Andreas Brückner, of the Fraunhofer Institute of Applied Optics and Precision Engineering, and colleagues constructed an electronic cluster eye that can take 221 miniature images, each 39 pixels to a side, that are then stitched together into a single image of 700 by 550 pixels, writes New Scientist‘s Kate McAlpine. The tiny device, which can provide clear, high-resolution images, could be used in cell phones, in medical devices, or on the gripper hands of robots as a secondary eye.