World’s first artificial ‘3D’ eye

Scientists and technicians at HKSUT (Hong Kong University of Science and Technology) have created an artificial eye that is as round as the natural eye, i.e. “3D”. They named it “ECI” or “Electrochemical Eye”.

All artificial eye prototypes developed so far have used spot (2D) CCD/digital cameras. In this sense, it is the first artificial eye that has been invented by arranging many complex parts into a sphere; Just like the natural eye.

What is special is that just as in the natural (including human) eye there is a bundle of nerves just behind the retina which reaches the brain through various other nerves and creates the sensation of vision, so in the electrochemical eye. There are also liquid metal “nerves” that transmit the visuals from it to the display device or screen.

Currently, the image obtained from this eye is very blurry, but the experts who developed it say that the image formed by the 3D artificial eye depends on the number of liquid metal nerves attached to it. In the future, as this number increases, the view of this eye will also become clearer, even the view seen by the artificial 3D eye will be better and richer than the human eye.

Details of this first prototype of the artificial 3D eye have been published in a recent issue of the research journal Nature.