Biologically inspired compound eye

The paper describes the design of a biologically inspired compound eye. It contains numerous optical channels like facets in a natural compound eye. Each facet has an optical system, several photodetectors with pre-amplifiers and a microcontroller with a multi-channel analog-to-digital converter. The signals coming from the photodetectors in each channel are amplified, converted into a digital form and processed by a microcontroller. All microcontrollers are attached to a microcontroller network. These microcontrollers can be reprogrammed to perform various image processing operations including spatial filtration, temporal filtration, correlation calculation, neural network simulation and others. It makes possible investigation and performance evaluation of the compound eye when all its facets perform parallel image processing and image analysis. The working prototype of this compound eye has demonstrated ability to measure distribution of speed and direction of optical flow thought its field of view. The possible improvements and possible applications of this design are also discussed.