Simple 'smart' glass reveals the future of artificial vision

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. Yu and colleagues published details of their proof-of-concept research today in the journal Photonics Research.