New Smartphone Cameras Were Inspired By Insect Eyes
Who does not own a smartphone these days? The future seems like it has finally arrived as modern engineering has revolutionized the way humans live. In order to create devices like smartphone cameras, you certainly must possess the proper amount of education. If you are an engineering major, you may want to add entomology related classes to your schedule as modern engineers are seemingly always referring to insects in order to revolutionize technological designs. The most recent example shows us how engineers were inspired by insects when building the latest iPhone camera.
Believe it or not there is such a thing as insects that parasitize other insects. One such insect is known as Xenos peckii. The females of this species are blind. Since all the females activity is limited to waiting for mates, the females do not need to have acute eyesight, so nature went ahead and made the females blind. The males, on the other hand, require tremendously acute eyesight in order to locate and reach the females for mating purposes. For a short time, the males of this species release themselves from their hosts in order to reproduce. Unfortunately, this insect has only a few hours to locate a mate that will bear baby insects. If this insect fails to locate a mate within that short time span, it will die, and consequently lose its chance to reproduce. Imagine knowing someone for only three hours before choosing them as a suitable mate for reproduction.
In order to make this happen in time, the males are endowed with super-eyesight (for insects), which allows them to complete the task of reproduction with greater efficiency. Researches figured that the eyes of the peckii ought to be the eyes of our iPhones since they are so sharp and focused. Their cameras were built after the insect’s eyes with success, and the engineers are already considering this insect to be the definitive model for robot eyes.
What other technological marvels have been inspired by arthropods?