Motion detection based on 3D printed compound eyes

A biologically inspired compound eye system is fabricated for the detection of object motion without the need for sophisticated image processing. The array of the artificial optical unit, called ommatidium, structurally and functionally mimics the natural compound eyes for motion detection. Each artificial ommatidium consists of polymer lenses, a light-guiding polymer cone, a 3D printing cladding, and a light intensity sensor to measure the change of light intensity during motion detection. To simplify the signal processing and improve the system reliability, low-cost light sensors, instead of CMOS/CCD arrays, are used for measuring the light intensity changes caused by object movement. The distance and speed of a moving metal ball of a pendulum were measured using the compound eye system. The measured results agree well with the theoretical analyses. The error between the measured and calculated speed is less than 2%.