Simple 'smart' glass reveals the future of artificial vision

From left to right, Zongfu Yu, Ang Chen and Efram Khoram developed the concept for a "smart" piece of glass that recognizes images without any external power or circuits. The sophisticated technology that powers face recognition in many modern smartphones someday could receive a high-tech upgrade that sounds -- and looks -- surprisingly low-tech. This window to the future is none other than a piece of glass. University of Wisconsin–Madison engineers have devised a method to create pieces of "smart" glass that can recognize images without requiring any sensors or circuits or power sources. "We're using optics to condense the normal setup of cameras, sensors and deep neural networks into a single piece of thin glass," says UW-Madison electrical and computer engineering professor Zongfu Yu.