Imagine seeing the world through an insect’s eyes. A team of researchers have created a digital camera that replicates the curved compound structure of an arthropod’s eye. In a paper published on Nature, the scientists from the U.S., South Korea, Singapore and China describe the challenges and limitations of building the composite eye.
Bugs can attribute their wide field of view and motion sensitivity to light-sensing structures called ommatidia. With hundreds or thousands of them, each facing in a slightly different direction on an eye, insects can see objects clearly regardless of whether they’re nearby or far away, in the center of the visual field or in the periphery.