Solar-powered AI eye achieves near-human colour and motion detection
Researchers in Japan created this artificial eye that uses the power of solar cells to distinguish colours with high accuracy - down to 10 nanometres of wavelength difference. This AI eye is designed to perform logic operations and recognise motion and colour with up to 82 accuracy. How? It has the unique ability to produce both positive and negative electrical responses based on light input.
Think that's it? Think again, for this AI eye requires no external power and is able to filter information much like a biological retina. In the future, as this tech becomes mature, humans could have efficient machine visions for use in autonomous vehicles, wearable health monitors, and even remote sensors.
In the paper published in Scientific Reports, scientists call this eye an "optoelectronic artificial synapse" - a synthetic brain cell that responds to light. Akin to your human eyes that send electrical signals to your brain when you see red versus blue, this AI eye perceives the wavelength of light in its way and then generates positive or negative electrical responses.
The human eye is extremely energy efficient and filters information before sending it ahead to the brain. Today's machine systems, however, demand a lot of energy. To bridge this gap, scientists hoped to mimic the way our eye functions.
The research team from the Tokyo University of Science found a solution by combining two dye-sensitised solar cells that act like small solar panels; all trained to respond differently to various colours of light.
In essence, one cell would respond strongly to blue light, while the others would do the same to red. What happens, then? When the eye encounters light, it triggers a positive voltage for blue wavelengths or a negative voltage for red ones. This response is its power, unlike traditional photodetectors that can only produce positive signals. Its ability to separate colours actually make it a robust rival to human vision.
The scientists found that the device was able to perform basic logic operations and was able to handle functions with ease owing to its ability to switch between positive and negative responses, depending on intensity and light colour.
To take it a step further, they tested the device for "physical reservoir computing" - an approach to machine learning that's inspired by the human brain, wherein physical properties of the material do the most work instead of computer processors.
The team tested the device with sequences of coloured light, each encoding a unique signal. The system successfully distinguished patterns up to six digits in length, enabling recognition of 64 distinct combinations - which is truly remarkable for such a simple set up.
They also wanted to see if the device could spot different kinds of human movement, no matter the colour. They filmed six actions - bending, waving with one hand, waving with two hands, jumping, running, and moving sideways - and turned these into patterns of red, green, and blue light. The artificial eye managed to get it right 82% of the time, working out both the movement and the colour. That's nearly as good as you'd get from much fancier systems.
This solar-powered device generates its own energy from light, enabling autonomous sensors to run indefinitely without external power. Crazy, right? In addition, its bio-inspired design filters out unnecessary data at the hardware level, making it far more efficient than traditional machine vision. It can be used for compact surveillance, medical monitoring, and remote sensors, though more advanced signal processing is needed for complex scenes. Either way, this innovation brings us closer to artificial vision systems that meld biological efficiency with electronic precision.
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