Zhao Awarded $225K from NSF
Yi Zhao, Associate Professor of the Department of Biomedical Engineering was recently awarded $225K, from The National Science Foundation (NSF) for his research study "Collaborative Research: A Bioinspired Reconfigurable Optofluidic Device with Tunable Field-of-View and Adaptive Focusing Power." This project is funded by the Communications, Circuits, and Sensing-Systems program at NSF.
This is a three-year collaborative project between Dr. Zhao (leading PI) and Professor Cunjiang Yu, at the University of Houston. The Ohio State University is the leading institute.The project runs from June 1, 2015 to May 31, 2018.
Research Abstract:
Imaging with a wide field-of-view (FOV) is important for many applications including consumer photography, surveillance, astronomy, and medical imaging. The arthropod compound eye is a beautiful design by nature for achieving imaging with a wide FOV, where an array of small lenses are situated on a hemispherical dome to view a scene at discrete perspectives. This allows arthropods to search for food and avoid predators. However, the large FOV of a compound eye is often accompanied by low image resolution. The human eye is another optical design by nature that can focus on an object in a scene and thus acquire images with high resolution and sharpness. However, the FOV of the human eye is limited. Due to the different working principles of the two vision systems in nature, optical devices are often built based on one design and cannot capture the optical performance offered by the other. This project aims at developing a new design for achieving both a wide FOV and good focusing power. This work presents a unique combination of optical characteristics of the two natural vision systems. This bio-inspired optical design could potentially surpass the current state-of-the-art and enable many applications that require a small device for achieving high quality imaging with a wide FOV. Example applications include remote surveillance and laparoscopic surgery. The project will lead to the training and education of graduate, undergraduate and K-12 students through courses and existing outreach programs. It may also lead to commercially viable products through partnerships with clinical users and industry.
Congratulations Drs. Zhao and Yu!
