Developing cameras for unmanned vehicles simulating mantis shrimp sight

The new camera equipped with unmanned vehicles is designed by scientists by simulating the sight of marine animals living in shallow water, providing a clearer image in bad weather conditions such as rain or fog.

According to Optica magazine, inspired by the peculiarities of the mantis shrimp sight, researchers have developed a new camera equipped for these new types of devices that can record the polarization of radiation. , thus obtaining a clearer picture in bad weather conditions such as when there is fog or rain.

A road trip in the fog, photos obtained from polarized cameras (left) and the shape of a mantis shrimp (right) - (Photo: Wikimedia Commons).

is a species that lives in shallow water. They have a rather unusual visual perception system, especially in their eyes with 12 to 16 different photoreceptors. Most organisms have three types of color receptor cells such as humans or four cell types in birds, while mantis shrimp can sense polarized light.

In the new study, scientists introduced a camera that, during development, tried to reproduce the ability of mantis shrimp to perceive light with a wide range of intensity to obtain a clear image. much clearer.

It is known that modern unmanned cars are equipped with a variety of navigation devices such as camera, GPS sensor and lidar, but the camera on the car is usually not good enough in conditions of sudden changing light and ability Low display in case of fog or rain.

New devices are more compact than previous generation devices and are made from standard components, so scientists hope that they will be able to significantly improve the ability of unmanned vehicles.