Young Min Song, an electrical engineer, developed a cat-like robotic eye featuring an adjustable vertical pupil. This design enhances object detection against cluttered backgrounds and improves visibility in low light, thanks to a reflective layer modeled after the feline's tapetum lucidum. The prototype eye simplifies visual data processing and stabilizes tracking while conserving energy. This advancement is particularly valuable for emerging robotic applications outside factory settings, such as autonomous vehicles needing real-time perception with limited power.
Song showed that the feline-inspired robotic eye provided high-quality visual data that required less intensive processing, such as contrast enhancement, to track objects than did the same system with a conventional circular aperture.
With a vertical pupil, 'tracking becomes way more stable', he says, and energy consumption is reduced. 'It really shows how the visual system doesn't have to work as hard.'
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