CHAMPAIGN, Ill., Aug. 6 (UPI) -- U.S. scientists say they've utilized stretchable optoelectronics to create a high-performance, hemispherical imaging device that's based on the human eye.
The University of Illinois and Northwestern University researchers said their "eye camera" uses an array of single-crystalline silicon detectors and electronics, configured in a stretchable, interconnected mesh.
Their achievement, the scientists said, foreshadows artificial retinas for bionic eyes similar in concept to those used in the movie "Terminator" and other popular science fiction.
"Conformally wrapping surfaces with stretchable sheets of optoelectronics provides a practical route for integrating well-developed planar device technologies onto complex curvilinear objects," said Illinois Professor John Rogers, corresponding author of the study. "This approach allows us to put electronics in places where we couldn't before. We can now, for the first time, move device design beyond the flatland constraints of conventional wafer-based systems."
The research is detailed in the journal Nature.
