Compact single-shot metalens depth sensors inspired by eyes of jumping spiders
Abstract
Nature provides diverse solutions to passive visual depth sensing. Evolution has produced vision systems that are highly specialized and efficient, delivering depth-perception capabilities that often surpass those of existing artificial depth sensors. Here, we learn from the eyes of jumping spiders and demonstrate a metalens depth sensor that shares the compactness and high computational efficiency of its biological counterpart. Our device combines multifunctional metalenses, ultrathin nanophotonic components that control light at a subwavelength scale, and efficient computations to measure depth from image defocus. Compared with previous passive artificial depth sensors, our bioinspired design is lightweight, single-shot, and requires a small amount of computation. The integration of nanophotonics and efficient computation establishes a paradigm for design in computational sensing.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Pub Defense Publication
- Publication Date
- Oct 28, 2019
- Source ID
- 10.1073/pnas.1912154116
Entities
People
- Cheng-wei Qiu
- Emma Alexander
- Federico Capasso
- Qi Guo
- Todd Zickler
- Yao-Wei Huang
- Zhujun Shi
Organizations
- Air Force Office of Scientific Research
- Harvard University
- National Research Foundation
- National Science Foundation