From the Labs: What’s Next for Consumer Tech

7. Eyeball Camera

Before products hit the shelves, technologies they’re based on spend years in the labs. These discoveries and experiments are coming up in tech.

Cameras are become more bionic, and for the first time, researchers from Northwestern University and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign developed a curvilinear camera, much like the human eye, with the significant feature of a zoom capability, unlike the human eye.

The "eyeball camera" has a 3.5x optical zoom, takes sharp images, is inexpensive to make and is only the size of a nickel, though a higher level of zoom will soon come from the same tech approach, say the researchers.

While the camera won't be appearing at Best Buy any time soon, the tunable camera -- once optimized -- should be useful in many applications, including night-vision surveillance, robotic vision, endoscopic imaging and consumer electronics.

The tiny camera combines the best of both the human eye and an expensive single-lens reflex (SLR) camera with a zoom lens. It has the simple lens of the human eye, allowing the device to be small, and the zoom capability of the SLR camera without the bulk and weight of a complex lens. The key is that both the simple lens and photodetectors are on flexible materials, and a hydraulic system can change the shape of the substrates appropriately – creating the possibility for a variable zoom. Flexibility makes it possible. The camera system also has an integrated lens constructed by putting a thin, elastic membrane on a water chamber, with a clear glass window underneath.