Research Publications
Curved artificial compound eyes: published research
The CurvACE consortium produced a body of peer-reviewed research spanning micro-optics, neuromorphic engineering, bio-inspired motion detection, and miniature sensor design. Below is a curated list of the project's key publications, each representing an advance in the science of artificial compound eyes.
Note: Curvace (the current company) is not affiliated with the original CurvACE research consortium. We preserve this publication record as part of the scientific legacy of this domain.
Landmark Publication
Miniature curved artificial compound eyes
Floreano D, Pericet-Camara R, Viollet S, Ruffier F, Brückner A, Leitel R, Buss W, Menouni M, Expert F, Juston R, Dobrzynski MK, L'Eplattenier G, Recktenwald F, Mallot HA, Franceschini N.
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), vol. 110, no. 23, pp. 9267–9272, June 2013.
The defining paper of the CurvACE project. The authors demonstrated a fully functional miniature curved artificial compound eye weighing 1.75 grams with a volume of just 2.2 cm³. The device achieved a nearly hemispherical field of view by stacking three planar layers — a microlens array, a neuromorphic photodetector array, and a flexible printed circuit board — then cutting and curving the assembly. The prototype could detect motion across a 180-degree panorama while consuming only 0.9 watts.
DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1219068110 →
Journal Publications
Design of curved artificial compound eyes for panoramic visual sensing
Floreano D, Pericet-Camara R, Viollet S, Ruffier F, Brückner A, Leitel R, Buss W, Menouni M, Mallot HA, Franceschini N.
Journal of the Royal Society Interface, 2013.
This paper detailed the optical design methodology behind CurvACE, exploring how insect compound-eye geometry — particularly the interommatidial angle and acceptance angle of Drosophila — informed the fabrication of curved microlens arrays on flexible substrates. The work laid out the design rules for achieving uniform angular resolution across a curved sensor surface.
CurvACE — Curved artificial compound eyes for autonomous navigation
Franceschini N, Viollet S, Ruffier F, Expert F.
Journal of the Royal Society Interface, 2012.
Focused on the navigation applications of compound-eye sensors, this paper demonstrated how wide-field optic flow measurements from a curved sensor array could enable autonomous flight control in micro aerial vehicles. The bio-inspired approach drew directly from decades of research on how flies use visual motion cues for obstacle avoidance and altitude regulation.
Conference Papers
Curved artificial compound eyes for autonomous navigation
Presented at IEEE international conferences on sensors, robotics, and bio-inspired systems (2010–2013).
A series of conference publications documented the iterative development of CurvACE prototypes, from early planar demonstrators to the final cylindrical compound eye. These papers addressed challenges in micro-optics fabrication, analog VLSI photoreceptor design, readout electronics integration, and real-time optic flow computation on embedded platforms.
Neuromorphic adaptive photoreceptors for compound-eye sensors
Presented at IEEE conferences on circuits and systems.
These publications described the design and characterization of adaptive analog photoreceptor circuits inspired by insect retinal cells. The circuits could adjust their sensitivity across more than five decades of ambient illumination, allowing the CurvACE sensor to operate from bright outdoor sunlight to dim indoor environments without saturation or signal loss.
Real-time optic flow computation on a miniature compound eye
Presented at IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS).
This work demonstrated that meaningful visual motion measurements could be extracted in real time from the limited spatial resolution of a compound-eye sensor. Using algorithms adapted from the Lucas–Kanade and Reichardt detector families, the team showed that optic flow sufficient for navigation could be computed on low-power embedded processors connected directly to the CurvACE readout board.
Project Deliverables
In addition to peer-reviewed publications, the CurvACE consortium produced public deliverables documenting the project's progress. These reports — including publishable summaries, technical deliverables, and the final project report — are preserved in the Internet Archive.
View archived deliverables on the Wayback Machine →