Who Won the U.S. Presidential Debate?

In their study published in the journal Science Advances, the group copied two features of cat eyes that give them unique abilities to see in the dark and to detect camouflaged objects.

As the researchers note, cameras installed on drones and robots are based on circular apertures that mimic the human eye, an approach that results in imagery with both a foreground subject and the background kept in focus. This approach sometimes makes it difficult for the camera to keep track of the target object.

Animals, such as cats, use a different approach: They have vertically slitted eyes to capture an asymmetric depth of field. Because of that, the researchers chose to use the cat eye architecture as a means for developing a new type of artificial eye.

Using animal eyes as a template for designing new types of artificial eyes is nothing new, of course—last year, another team of researchers in Korea used the cuttlefish eye as inspiration for the design of a robot eye that could see better in murky, underwater conditions.

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