Tiny 3D-printed camera lens could give drones vision like ours

One lens is good, four lenses are better. A tiny camera combines four 3D-printed lenses to mimic natural vision – with super-sharp focus in a central area and wider peripheral vision. The miniaturised camera could be used in insect-sized surveillance drones, to hone in on details without losing track of what's happening elsewhere. A spot at the back of our eyes called the fovea is crammed with a higher concentration of light-sensitive cells than the surrounding regions, giving us sharp vision in the centre of our field of view while objects closer to the edges of our vision are less well-defined. The lenses with longer focal lengths capture high detail over a narrow field of view, while the lenses with short focal lengths capture low detail over a wider field of view.