Musca domestica inspired machine vision sensor with hyperacuity

A fiber optic sensor inspired by the compound eye of the common housefly, Musca domestica, has been developed. The sensor coupled with analog preprocessing hardware has the potential to extract edge information quickly and in parallel. The design is motivated by the parallel nature of the fly's vision system and its demonstrated hyperacuity or precision of visual localization beyond the conventional resolution limit. The fly's anatomy supporting the design is reviewed, followed by the design of a one-dimensional, cartridge-based sensor. The sensor's ability to locate a line stimulus in a two-dimensional space is demonstrated. Discussion is provided to extend this work in scale, cartridge dimension, information and array processing.