Visual Archive
CurvACE prototypes and imagery
The original CurvACE project website (2009–2013) featured a photo gallery documenting the consortium's prototypes, laboratory setups, and fabrication processes. While the original images are no longer hosted on this domain, the following descriptions and archival links provide a record of what the gallery contained.
Note: Original photographs are preserved in the Internet Archive. Curvace (the current company) is not affiliated with the original research consortium.
The Cylindrical Compound Eye
The flagship CurvACE prototype was a cylindrical artificial compound eye measuring 12.8 mm in diameter. The device consisted of three stacked planar layers — a microlens array with 630 individual lenslets, an array of neuromorphic photodetectors fabricated in analog VLSI, and a flexible printed circuit board providing electrical interconnection. After assembly, the flat stack was cut with a precision dicing saw and curved into a cylindrical shape, creating a sensor with a nearly hemispherical (180°+) field of view.
The prototype weighed just 1.75 grams and occupied a volume of 2.2 cm³ — small enough to be mounted on a micro-aerial vehicle. Images of the cylindrical prototype typically showed it alongside scale references (coins, rulers) to illustrate its miniature dimensions, and diagrams overlaid the angular field-of-view envelope around the sensor.
The Planar Prototype
Before curving, each CurvACE sensor began as a planar multi-layer assembly. Gallery photographs of the planar prototype showed the flat sensor before the cutting and curving step, revealing the regular grid pattern of the microlens array and the bond wire connections between the optical and electronic layers. This intermediate stage demonstrated the fabrication process and the precision alignment required between the microlens array and the photodetector array underneath.
Readout Boards
The CurvACE readout board was a custom-designed printed circuit board that connected the compound-eye sensor to a microcontroller for data acquisition, optic flow computation, and communication. Gallery images showed the readout board with the cylindrical sensor mounted on top, connected via flexible ribbon cables. The board included analog signal conditioning circuitry, an ADC, and a microcontroller running the Visual Processing Library (VPL) algorithms for real-time optic flow extraction.
Microlens Arrays
Close-up photographs documented the microlens arrays fabricated by the Fraunhofer Institute. These images, often taken under magnification or electron microscopy, showed the hexagonal or square packing of individual polymer lenslets on flexible substrates. Each lenslet acted as the optical front-end for one “ommatidium” (visual channel) of the artificial compound eye, focusing light onto the corresponding photodetector element below.
Laboratory and Testing
Additional gallery images documented the testing environments used to characterize CurvACE performance: optical benches for measuring angular sensitivity, rotating drum setups for generating controlled optic flow stimuli, and micro-aerial vehicle platforms carrying CurvACE sensors during flight experiments. These images illustrated the progression from bench-top sensor characterization to in-flight validation.
Consortium Brochure
The CurvACE consortium produced a printed brochure summarizing the project for general audiences. The brochure contained illustrations of the compound-eye concept, photographs of the prototypes, and diagrams of the optical and electronic architecture. An archived version is available:
View archived CurvACE brochure (PDF) →
Archived Gallery
The original photo gallery page is preserved in the Internet Archive. Some images may not have been captured by the Wayback Machine, but many of the key photographs remain accessible.
View archived photo gallery on the Wayback Machine →