The engineered eyeball, a tunable imaging system using soft-matter micro-optics

Using soft materials, researchers in Germany have fabricated an engineered eyeball that mimics those of mammals. While artificial eyes have been produced before, they generally have poor functionality or are based on the compound eyes of insects. Taking their cue from the structure and tuning mechanism of mammalian eyes, Hans Zappe and co-workers at the University of Freiburg have devised a complete microsystem whose optical characteristics resemble those of the human eye. The eye focuses by using liquid-crystal elastomer actuators to deform an elastic refractive material. Commercial sensor chips act as the detector (the ‘retina’). The scientists produced two different variable apertures (‘irises’), one based on electrowetting and the other on thermal expansion and contraction. The team is confident that the eyeball can be miniaturized and integrated with other microsystem technologies.