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CU study: Bug-eyed lenses capture wide view with no distortion
May 1st
To create the innovative camera, which also allows for a practically infinite depth of field, the scientists used stretchable electronics and a pliable sheet of microlenses made from a material similar to that used for contact lenses. The researchers described the camera in an article published today in the journal Nature.
Conventional wide-angle lenses, such as fisheyes, distort the images they capture at the periphery, a consequence of the mismatch of light passing through a hemispherically curved surface of the lens only to be captured by the flat surface of the electronic detector.
For the digital camera described in the new study, the researchers were able to create an electronic detector that can be curved into the same hemispherical shape as the lens, eliminating the distortion.
“The most important and most revolutionizing part of this camera is to bend electronics onto a curved surface,” said Jianliang Xiao, assistant professor of mechanical engineering at CU-Boulder and co-lead author of the study. “Electronics are all made of silicon, mostly, and silicon is very brittle, so you can’t deform the silicon. Here, by using stretchable electronics we can deform the system; we can put it onto a curved surface.”
Creating a camera inspired by the compound eyes of arthropods — animals with exoskeletons and jointed legs, including all insects as well as scorpions, spiders, lobsters and centipedes, among other creatures — has been a sought-after goal. Compound eyes typically have a lower resolution than the eyes of mammals, but they give arthropods a much larger field of view than mammalian eyes as well as high sensitivity to motion and an infinite depth of field.
Compound eyes consist of a collection of smaller eyes called ommatidia, and each small eye is made up of an independent corneal lens as well as a crystalline cone, which captures the light traveling through the lens. The number of ommatidia determines the resolution and varies widely among arthropods. Dragonflies, for example, have about 28,000 tiny eyes while worker ants have only in the neighborhood of 100.
Imitating the corneal lens-crystalline cone pairings, the camera created by Xiao and his colleagues has 180 miniature lenses, each of which is backed with its own small electronic detector. The number of lenses used in the camera is similar to the number of ommatidia in the compound eyes of fire ants and bark beetles.
The electronics and the lenses are both flat when fabricated, said Xiao, who began working on the project as a postdoctoral researcher in John Roger’s lab at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. This allows the product to be manufactured using conventional systems.
“This is the key to our technology,” Xiao said. “We can fabricate an electronic system that is compatible with current technology. Then we can scale it up.”
The lens sheet and the electronics sheet are integrated together while flat and then molded into a hemispherical shape afterward. Each individual electronic detector and each individual lens do not deform, but the spaces between the detectors and lenses can stretch and allow for the creation of a new 3-D shape. The electronic detectors are all attached with serpentine filament bridges, which are not compromised as the material stretches and bends.
In the pictures taken by the new camera, each lens-detector pairing contributes a single pixel to the image. Moving the electronic detectors directly behind the lenses — instead of having just one detector sitting farther behind a single lens, as in conventional cameras — creates a very short focal length, which allows for the near-infinite depth of field.
The new paper demonstrates that stretchable electronics can be used as the foundation for a distortion-free hemispherical camera, but commercial production of such a camera may still be years away, Xiao said.
The three other co-lead authors of the paper are Young Min Song, Yizhu Xie and Viktor Malyarchuk, all of the University of Illinois. Other co-authors are Ki-Joong Choi, Rak-Hwan Kim and John Rogers, also of Illinois; Inhwa Jung, of Kyung Hee University in Korea; Zhuangjian Liu, of the Institute of High Performance Computing A*star in Singapore; Chaofeng Lu, of Zhejiang University in China and Northwestern University; Rui Li, of Dalian University of Technology in China; Kenneth Crozier, of Harvard University; and Yonggang Huang, of Northwestern University.
The research was funded by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency and the National Science Foundation.
CU news release
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Boulder police: Credit card rampage by recent wallet thieves
Apr 4th
Boulder police are looking for three suspects (one male and two females) in connection with the theft of a wallet and credit cards from the Whole Foods store, located at 2905 Pearl St., on January 20, 2013.
The victim was grocery shopping around 3:30 p.m. and said she became distracted when a male bumped into her with his cart. She had placed her open purse in the seat of the cart while she was shopping and believes the male stole her wallet after he ran into her with his cart. She didn’t immediately notice that her wallet had been taken.
Her stolen credit cards were used a short time later at several stores, including Apple, Target, Gymboree, Sunglass Hut and Nordstrom Rack. Photos taken from surveillance video show two women using the cards to purchase a variety of merchandise and gift cards.
One female suspect is described as:
· White or Hispanic
· Between 26 and 30 years old
· Average or slim build
· Brown or auburn hair which is pulled back from her face
· Wearing dark-framed eyeglasses
· Gray sweater with a white shirt underneath, jeans and a dark-colored purse worn across her body
The other female suspect is described as:
· Between 30 and 35 years old
· Slightly overweight
· Wearing a dark-colored jacket and white scarf
· Straight, dark hair which is pulled back from her face
· Carrying a handbag with short straps
Clerks believe the women were speaking Spanish, and described them as wearing “high end” clothing and carrying Gucci and Louis Vuitton handbags. Photos of the women are attached.
The male suspect from Whole Foods is described as:
· Hispanic male
· Early-to-mid twenties
· 6’02” tall
· Tall and stocky build (not heavyset)
· Short black hair
· Wearing a white stocking cap with blue stripes, and a black jacket
The case number is 13-826.
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Boulder police: suspect wanted in three burglaries
Mar 13th
Surveillance footage from the store shows a male suspect entering the business at 6:24 p.m. He left the store area and entered the back office several times. Owners report that cash was missing from the office after the suspect left the business.
A still photo from Bottles’ surveillance video is attached. Also attached are separate surveillance photos from two business burglaries on the Pearl Street Mall which police are also investigating. Detectives believe the same male suspect is involved in all three crimes. The Pearl Street Mall businesses (the Lazy Dog and Pizza Colore) were burglarized on February 4, 2013.
The suspect is described as:
- White male
- 20 – to – 40 years old
- 5’10” – 6’0” tall
- Thin build
- Short, dark hair
In the Bottles’ burglary, the suspect wore a long-sleeve white shirt covered by a long-sleeve plaid shirt, jeans, white tennis shoes and a light-colored baseball cap. Black gloves can be seen in his back pocket.
In the Pearl Street Mall burglaries, the suspect wore a red-plaid, short-sleeve shirt, jeans and a tan-colored baseball cap.
The case number for the Bottles’ burglary is 13-2628. The case number for the Lazy Dog burglary is 13-1525 and the case number for Pizza Colore is 13-1523.
Anyone with information is asked to contact Detective Steve Faber at 303-441-3384. Those who have information but wish to remain anonymous may contact the Northern Colorado Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-TIPS (8477) or 1-800-444-3776. Tips can also be submitted through the Crime Stoppers website atwww.crimeshurt.com. Those submitting tips through Crime Stoppers that lead to the arrest and filing of charges on a suspect(s) may be eligible for a cash reward of up to $1,000 from Crime Stoppers.
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