Today, optical systems mimicking eye functions are of great importance in a wide variety of areas of application: advanced robotics, consumer electronics, medical equipment, and machine vision systems.
"The article describes the latest advances in the development of optical systems that mimic human and mammalian eye functions," Natalya Ivanova, Head of the photonics and microfluidics laboratory at the X-BIO Institute of UTMN, said.
The authors have in detail examined tunable optical liquid- and elastomeric-based elements with a focus on the actuator, as well as analyzed the optical characteristics and the possibility of integration into artificial eye systems.
According to scientists, this optics has advantages compared with traditional technologies: excellent adaptation to changing conditions, as well as a wide range of functional characteristics at miniature sizes.
The same team of UTMN researchers has already created unique varifocal liquid lenses based on thermoconcentration-capillary effects, capable of changing the focal length, adapting to changing external conditions.
Liquid lenses can focus an unlimited amount, very quickly and without wear (due to fluidity properties).
According to the authors, introducing liquid lenses will result in smaller-sized optical systems, which is much-needed in such fields as medicine, microbiology, laser diagnostics, navigation, and information transfer.
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Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London (A )