An insect-inspired imaging device could give guided missile-tracking systems a panoramic 120° field of vision, and be used in other areas, such as civilian security and keyhole surgery. The new technology, from BAE Systems' Advanced Technology Centre in Essex, takes inspiration from the compound eyes of the Xenos peckii, a parasitic insect that lives inside wasps.rnEach lens of the parasite's eye produces an individual inverted image of a scene. These images are then meshed together to form a single large image in its brain. Leslie Lacock, executive scientist at BAE Systems, said his research team was able to recreate this with nine lenses - each about the size of mobile phone camera lens - arranged on a curved surface. Each lens captures an inverted image of a scene, and arnsoftware programme reverts the images and stitches them together to give a clear, wide-angled panorama. The research into the technology was funded by an MoD programme designed to reduce the size and weight of imaging equipment used in a variety of military applications, such as missile tracking systems and night vision equipment. 'When you look at a conventional camera most of its size and weight is due to the glass - the actual optics,' said Lacock. 'So when we were thinking of ways to miniaturise we looked at insects because obviously they have very miniaturised optics in their eyes and they have very capable performance.'
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