A team of Chinese scientists has used semiconductor “quantum dots” to develop a vision sensor that adapts to extreme light changes faster than the human eye.
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The bionic visual sensor can adapt to extreme changes between dark and light in about 40 seconds, compared to two to 30 minutes for human eyes.
Its ability to adjust sensitivity for better object recognition and imaging means the sensor could be used to make next-generation technology, such as more brain-like computing systems.
“The sensor with visual adaptive function proposed in this work has great potential for future applications in artificial intelligence sensing fields such as autonomous driving and bionic robotics,” the team said in a paper published in the American Institute of Physics’ peer-reviewed journal Applied Physics Letters on July 1.
The novel vision system is also able to overcome issues with current systems to provide faster computation with less energy use, the research team from Fuzhou University said.
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The human visual system – the retina, optic nerve, and the brain’s visual cortex – can adapt to extreme changes in light and memorise these settings to adapt faster the next time it encounters similar conditions.