A Portable, Bio-inspired Platform for Photo-Responsive Sensing and Display
Abstract
While most animals retain the same visual appearance over their lifetime, some species feature adaptive systems that enable changes,in color, pattern, or texture for defense, signaling, temperature regulation, or reproduction. Many of these features have inspired,the development of materials and devices with tunable optical and mechanical properties. However, current bio-inspired color-changin,g systems are limited to controlling single facets of visual perception independently. New material technologies and integrated hard,ware with practical energy requirements are required to achieve systems that realize multiple optical effects simultaneously. In fac,t, the ability to selectively regulate and alter visible colors (400-700 nm, especially RGB) at a unit device level in multiple envi,ronmental conditions remains largely underdeveloped. The goal of this 6.2 research is to overcome this shortcoming through the appli,cation, production, and deployment of cephalopod specific pigments and their derivatives as the active component of new types of clo,sed loop Adaptive Coloration Systems. To accomplish this, the team will translate their existing technology (currently single 2.5cm2, electrochromic devices, ECDs) into an 8 x 8 array of 1cm2 electrochromic pixels, containing the cephalopod chromophore xanthommatin, (Xa) as the active color-changing material. Individual pixels will be spatially activated through a custom-designed sensing-control, subsystem which will be built as an adjacent flexible circuit programed to translate images taken by remote cameras into digital si,gnals that control the amplitude and polarity of applied voltages for pattern generation across each pixel. Successful completion of, this project will entail demonstrations of the fully-integrated platform for photo-responsive sensing and display, where the ECD di,splay will be remotely controlled to reflect a set of input patterns across individually addressable pixels. Specific aims of this 3,-year proposal are:(1)Scale Fabrication of ECD Pixels to Produce a 64-pixel Array(2)Develop Sensing-Control Subsystem to Digitize EC,D Response (3)Integrate ECD Display and Sensing-Control Subsystems for Demonstration of Adaptive Coloration SystemThe key advantage,s of the proposed work include cost and accessibility of components, temperature-independent performance, reconfigurability under lo,w operational voltages, and advanced analytics and AI readiness, where the division of the sensing and display workload will enable,future capability for edge-based computing with more high-power systems, while maintaining easily deployable adaptive coloration tec,hnologies. The proposed Adaptive Coloration System is a programmable display system that is designed to support the ONR initiative t,o enhance warfighter performance by enabling readiness and sustained operations of naval forces in and across multiple terrains whil,e simultaneously achieving all the following conceptual advantages: low cost, low-energy, design simplicity, and experimental feasib,ility.
Document Details
- Document Type
- DoD Grant Award
- Publication Date
- Feb 08, 2022
- Source ID
- N000142212053
Entities
People
- Leila F Deravi
Organizations
- Northeastern University
- Office of Naval Research
- United States Navy