Bioinspired Optical Sensor for Remote Measurement of Small Displacements at a Distance.

Identifying appropriate sites for landing a spacecraft or building permanent structures is critical for extraterrestrial exploration. By tracking the movement of land masses and structures on a planetary surface, scientists can better predict issues that could affect the integrity of the site or structures. A lightweight, low-cost, low-power bioinspired optical sensor is being developed at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Ames Research Center to remotely measure small displacements of land masses on either side of a fault.

Effect of sensor-target-background distance on target tracking using a fly eye sensor.

A multi-aperture optical sensor, known as a fly eye sensor, has been developed at the Wyoming Image and Signal Processing Research (WISPR) Laboratory based on the visual system of the common housefly Musca domestical. This biomimetic sensor shows promising edge detection capability, in varying contrast scenarios, with minimal processing overhead. Use of this sensor for fast motion detection, and object tracking is appealing, but optimizing the use of such a sensor requires detailed study.

Localization of a moving target using a fly eye sensor.

An optical sensor based on the visual system of the common housefly (Musca domestica) has been developed by the researchers at the Wyoming Image and Signal Processing Research (WISPR) Laboratory. This optical sensor shows promising peformance for detection of an edge in real-time, with minimal processing overhead. An application of this sensor might be the deflection measurement of a moving target, such as the wing of an aircraft under test.