Transparent Fiber Spheres That Could Replace Lense

Detecting
light has always been the realm of lenses. Much like the retina in our
eyes, lenses are limited by direction and field of view. But with the
development of a new transparent light-detecting fiber by Professor
Yoel Fink of the Department of Materials Science and Engineering and
the Research Lab of Electronics in MIT, a new door is opened.

Each
fiber is about 1mm in diameter. And when meshed together to form the
shape of a sphere, the fiber-web is able to sense light from the entire volume of space around it. Thus, it overcomes the directional limitations of traditional lens-based optics.

“When
you’re looking at something with your eyes, there’s a particular
direction you’re looking in,” says Ayman Abouraddy a research scientist
in Fink’s lab. “The field of view is defined around that direction.
Depending on the lens, you may be able to capture a certain field of
view around that direction, but that’s it. Until now, most every
optical system was limited by an optical axis or direction.”

Imagine capturing images from this transparent sphere!

Not only can the fiber sphere detect light from all around, it is able to determine the direction of the light.

By
creating a two-dimensional fiber web instead of a sphere, it opens up
to new applications for the technology such as military clothing that
detects surrounding light and photo-detecting clothing that helps the
visually impaired.

“We
could use light to enhance interaction with computers and even gaming
systems,” said Fink. “It’s intriguing–the idea of touching with light.”

Seems
like a technology worth waiting for, and with seemingly endless
applications. Got some creative ideas yourself? Share them here.