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Biomimetics
Special Issues
Bionic Imaging and Optical Devices
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Bionic Imaging and Optical Devices

A special issue of Biomimetics (ISSN 2313-7673). This special issue belongs to the section "Biomimetic Design, Constructions and Devices".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (20 February 2024) | Viewed by 9976

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Yang Cheng

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Guest Editor
School of Optics and Photonics, Beijing Institute of Technology, Beijing, China
Interests: bionic imaging; liquid lens; soft actuators; compound eye
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Prof. Dr. Lei Li

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
College of Electronics and Information Engineering, Sichuan University, Chengdou, China
Interests: liquid lens; optical imaging system; liquid crystal lens; microscopy and super resolution imaging
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Dr. Yangkun Zhang

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
School of Mechanical Engineering and Automation, Harbin Institute of Technology (Shenzhen), Shenzhen 518055, China
Interests: soft actuators and sensors; precision mechanism
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Dr. Chao Liu

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
School of Instrumentation and Optoelectronic Engineering, Beihang University, No. 37 Xueyuan Road, Haidian District, Beijing 100191, China
Interests: liquid lens; bionic imaging; computational imaging
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Biomimetics is the extraction of a good design from nature. Inspired by nature’s vision, many kinds of bionic imaging systems and optical devices have been studied in recent decades. For example, two main types of eyes are found in nature. One is the single-aperture eye that is mainly found in mammals, while the other is the compound eye which is typical for insects. Evolving from the single-aperture eye, the liquid lens has achieved adaptive focusing imaging without any moving components. By mimicking the natural compound eye, some striking imaging systems, with a wide field of view, excellent capability to detect moving objects, and high sensitivity to light intensity, are proposed. The field aims to develop novel bionic imaging systems and optical devices that can overcome some drawbacks in systems and devices designed by traditional imaging methods and produce diverse functions and remarkable merits inspired by nature. This Special Issue calls for contributions from all relevant fields and their interfaces with an understanding of the latest research on bionic imaging and optical devices and new developments in imaging and optics, mimicking the form and function of natural vision.

Dr. Yang Cheng
Prof. Dr. Lei Li
Dr. Yangkun Zhang
Dr. Chao Liu
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Biomimetics is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2200 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • bionic imaging
  • liquid lens
  • compound eye
  • varifocal lens
  • beam steering
  • bioinspiration
  • photodetector
  • soft actuators

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Published Papers (5 papers)

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Research

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19 pages, 6545 KiB  
Article
An Investigation of a Biomimetic Optical System and an Evaluation Model for the Qualitative Analysis of Laser Interference Visual Levels
by Jin Niu, Xiping Xu, Yue Pan and Zhenhao Duan
Biomimetics 2024, 9(4), 220; https://doi.org/10.3390/biomimetics9040220 - 7 Apr 2024
Viewed by 1250
Abstract
To objectively quantify the level of visual interference induced by lasers, we developed a biomimetic optical system designed to emulate human vision. This system is based on an optical model of the eye and synthetic imaging principles, allowing it to generate biomimetic optical [...] Read more.
To objectively quantify the level of visual interference induced by lasers, we developed a biomimetic optical system designed to emulate human vision. This system is based on an optical model of the eye and synthetic imaging principles, allowing it to generate biomimetic optical images that closely mimic human visual perception. Upon exposure to a 532 nm laser, biomimetic optical images were captured under various ambient lighting conditions. By employing a contrast threshold model for human visual target detection and grayscale hierarchy analysis, we devised an evaluation model to quantify the levels of laser-induced visual interference. The bionic images obtained from our experiments, in conjunction with the constructed model, enabled us to assess the degree of laser-induced visual interference. Our results indicate that this system can effectively substitute the human eye when testing laser imaging effects, with the generated bionic images achieving up to 90% concordance with human vision. The proposed evaluation model facilitates the quantitative analysis of laser-induced visual impairment. This apparatus and evaluation model hold significant promise for the precise quantification of laser-induced visual interference levels. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Bionic Imaging and Optical Devices)
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17 pages, 5509 KiB  
Article
Colorful 3D Reconstruction and an Extended Depth of Field for a Monocular Biological Microscope Using an Electrically Tunable Lens
by Yang Cheng, Mengyao Liu, Yangqi Ou, Lin Liu and Qun Hao
Biomimetics 2024, 9(1), 49; https://doi.org/10.3390/biomimetics9010049 - 12 Jan 2024
Viewed by 1650
Abstract
This paper presents a monocular biological microscope with colorful 3D reconstruction and an extended depth of field using an electrically tunable lens. It is based on a 4f optical system with an electrically tunable lens at the confocal plane. Rapid and extensive [...] Read more.
This paper presents a monocular biological microscope with colorful 3D reconstruction and an extended depth of field using an electrically tunable lens. It is based on a 4f optical system with an electrically tunable lens at the confocal plane. Rapid and extensive depth scanning while maintaining consistent magnification without mechanical movement is achieved. We propose an improved Laplacian operator that considers pixels in diagonal directions to provide enhanced fusion effects and obtain more details of the object. Accurate 3D reconstruction is achieved using the shape-from-focus method by tuning the focal power of the electrically tunable lens. We validate the proposed method by performing experiments on biological samples. The 3D reconstructed images obtained from the biological samples match the actual shrimp larvae and bee antenna samples. Two standard gauge blocks are used to evaluate the 3D reconstruction performance of the proposed method. The experimental results show that the extended depth of fields are 120 µm, 240 µm, and 1440 µm for shrimp larvae, bee tentacle samples, and gauge blocks, respectively. The maximum absolute errors are −39.9 μm and −30.6 μm for the first and second gauge blocks, which indicates 3D reconstruction deviations are 0.78% and 1.52%, respectively. Since the procedure does not require any custom hardware, it can be used to transform a biological microscope into one that effectively extends the depth of field and achieves highly accurate 3D reconstruction results, as long as the requirements are met. Such a microscope presents a broad range of applications, such as biological detection and microbiological diagnosis, where colorful 3D reconstruction and an extended depth of field are critical. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Bionic Imaging and Optical Devices)
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Graphical abstract

18 pages, 7734 KiB  
Article
Advanced Biomimetic Multispectral Curved Compound Eye Camera for Aerial Multispectral Imaging in a Large Field of View
by Yuanjie Zhang, Huangrong Xu, Yiming Liu, Xiaojun Zhou, Dengshan Wu and Weixing Yu
Biomimetics 2023, 8(7), 556; https://doi.org/10.3390/biomimetics8070556 - 20 Nov 2023
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1818
Abstract
In this work, we demonstrated a new type of biomimetic multispectral curved compound eye camera (BM3C) inspired by insect compound eyes for aerial multispectral imaging in a large field of view. The proposed system exhibits a maximum field of view (FOV) of 120 [...] Read more.
In this work, we demonstrated a new type of biomimetic multispectral curved compound eye camera (BM3C) inspired by insect compound eyes for aerial multispectral imaging in a large field of view. The proposed system exhibits a maximum field of view (FOV) of 120 degrees and seven-waveband multispectral images ranging from visible to near-infrared wavelengths. Pinhole imaging theory and the image registration method from feature detection are used to reconstruct the multispectral 3D data cube. An airborne imaging experiment is performed by assembling the BM3C on an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV). As a result, radiation intensity curves of several objects are successfully obtained, and a land type classification is performed using the K-means method based on the aerial image as well. The developed BM3C is proven to have the capability for large FOV aerial multispectral imaging and shows great potential applications for distant detecting based on aerial imaging. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Bionic Imaging and Optical Devices)
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12 pages, 4014 KiB  
Article
A Compact Two-Dimensional Varifocal Scanning Imaging Device Actuated by Artificial Muscle Material
by Yang Cheng, Chuanxun Chen, Lin Liu, Jie Cao, Yingying Xu and Qun Hao
Biomimetics 2023, 8(1), 120; https://doi.org/10.3390/biomimetics8010120 - 13 Mar 2023
Cited by 3 | Viewed by 1967
Abstract
This paper presents a compact two-dimensional varifocal-scanning imaging device, with the capability of continuously variable focal length and a large scanning range, actuated by artificial muscle material. The varifocal function is realized by the principle of laterally shifting cubic phase masks and the [...] Read more.
This paper presents a compact two-dimensional varifocal-scanning imaging device, with the capability of continuously variable focal length and a large scanning range, actuated by artificial muscle material. The varifocal function is realized by the principle of laterally shifting cubic phase masks and the scanning function is achieved by the principle of the decentered lens. One remarkable feature of these two principles is that both are based on the lateral displacements perpendicular to the optical axis. Artificial muscle material is emerging as a good choice of soft actuators capable of high strain, high efficiency, fast response speed, and light weight. Inspired by the artificial muscle, the dielectric elastomer is used as an actuator and produces the lateral displacements of the Alvarez lenses and the decentered lenses. A two-dimensional varifocal scanning imaging device prototype was established and validated through experiments to verify the feasibility of the proposed varifocal-scanning device. The results showed that the focal length variation of the proposed varifocal scanning device is up to 4.65 times higher (31.6 mm/6.8 mm), and the maximum scanning angle was 26.4°. The rise and fall times were 110 ms and 185 ms, respectively. Such a varifocal scanning device studied here has the potential to be used in consumer electronics, endoscopy, and microscopy in the future. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Bionic Imaging and Optical Devices)
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Review

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17 pages, 4373 KiB  
Review
Advances in Ghost Imaging of Moving Targets: A Review
by Moudan Shi, Jie Cao, Huan Cui, Chang Zhou and Tianhua Zhao
Biomimetics 2023, 8(5), 435; https://doi.org/10.3390/biomimetics8050435 - 19 Sep 2023
Cited by 7 | Viewed by 2659
Abstract
Ghost imaging is a novel imaging technique that utilizes the intensity correlation property of an optical field to retrieve information of the scene being measured. Due to the advantages of simple structure, high detection efficiency, etc., ghost imaging exhibits broad application prospects in [...] Read more.
Ghost imaging is a novel imaging technique that utilizes the intensity correlation property of an optical field to retrieve information of the scene being measured. Due to the advantages of simple structure, high detection efficiency, etc., ghost imaging exhibits broad application prospects in the fields of space remote sensing, optical encryption transmission, medical imaging, and so on. At present, ghost imaging is gradually developing toward practicality, in which ghost imaging of moving targets is becoming a much-needed breakthrough link. At this stage, we can improve the imaging speed and improve the imaging quality to seek a more optimized ghost imaging scheme for moving targets. Based on the principle of moving target ghost imaging, this review summarizes and compares the existing methods for ghost imaging of moving targets. It also discusses the research direction and the technical challenges at the current stage to provide references for further promotion of the instantiation of ghost imaging applications. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Bionic Imaging and Optical Devices)
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