A new innovative camera inspired by the vision of insects has been created, allowing for ultra-high-speed imaging with remarkable sensitivity.
Insects possess compound eyes that can simultaneously detect quick-moving objects and enhance their sensitivity in dim light by merging signals over time to ascertain movement. Drawing from these natural features, researchers at KAIST have successfully developed an affordable, high-speed camera that addresses the typical challenges of frame rate and sensitivity associated with standard high-speed cameras.
On January 16th, KAIST, under the leadership of President Kwang Hyung Lee, announced that a team of researchers, led by Professors Ki-Hun Jeong from the Department of Bio and Brain Engineering and Min H. Kim from the School of Computing, has crafted a groundbreaking bio-inspired camera that achieves ultra-high-speed imaging with increased sensitivity by emulating the visual design of insect eyes.
Obtaining high-quality images in rapid and low-light situations poses significant challenges in numerous fields. Traditional high-speed cameras excel at capturing swift movements; however, their sensitivity tends to decline as frame rates rise, due to shorter light collection periods.
To tackle this challenge, the research team took a page from the playbook of insect vision, implementing several optical channels and temporal summation techniques. Unlike standard single-lens cameras, this bio-inspired design features a compound-eye-like layout that facilitates the simultaneous capture of frames over different time intervals.
This method allows for light accumulation over overlapping time segments for each frame, resulting in an improved signal-to-noise ratio. The team demonstrated that their bio-inspired camera can detect objects that are up to 40 times dimmer than what conventional high-speed cameras can capture.
Furthermore, the researchers introduced an innovative “channel-splitting” method that significantly boosts the camera’s speed, achieving frame rates that are thousands of times greater than those supported by the existing image sensors in packaging. They also implemented a “compressed image restoration” algorithm that mitigates blur from frame integration and reconstructs clear images.
The outcome is a bio-inspired camera that is less than one millimeter thick and highly compact, capable of recording at 9,120 frames per second while delivering clear images even in low-light environments.
The research team intends to build on this technology to create advanced image processing algorithms for 3D imaging and super-resolution applications, targeting fields such as biomedical imaging, mobile devices, and various camera technologies.
Hyun-Kyung Kim, a PhD student in Bio and Brain Engineering at KAIST and the lead author of the study, remarked, “We have experimentally confirmed that our insect-eye-inspired camera remarkably excels in high-speed and low-light imaging, despite its diminutive size. This innovation presents new opportunities for a wide array of applications in portable cameras, security monitoring, and medical imaging.”
This research was published in the prestigious journal Science Advances in January 2025.
This project received support from the Korea Research Institute for Defense Technology Planning and Advancement (KRIT) under the Defense Acquisition Program Administration (DAPA), and from the Ministry of Science and ICT, along with the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy (MOTIE).
