Please don’t feed the chips… Fuji Photo Film Co has a laboratory prototype of an artificial eye – which can detect only image changes, not fixed images – and uses a light-sensitive protein extracted from a bacterium: the device, much more compact than a semiconductor retina, was fabricated by laying down ultra-thin films of the protein, bacteriorhodopsin, used by the bacterium for photosynthesis, on layers of Tin Oxide; each layer was immersed in a salt water electrolyte with two electrodes to create a 64-pixel retina, and when images of alphabet letters were flashed onto it, it converted the light change in the pattern of the letters into electrical signals, and the signals were amplified and transmitted to an array of 64 light-emitting diodes, which faithfully reproduced the letters seen; the device is 2.5mm square and could be developed to create an eye for use in vision robots.
