The above image is an artist's illustration of a liquid-metal pupil that opens and closes to adjust light entering, by Kun Liang for University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. This is only one of the two different kinds of artificial eyeballs reported below.
Creating realistic 3D scenes from everyday online photos
Dec 2025, phys.org
NVA - Novel View Synthesis - creates realistic angles of a scene from just a single existing photo.WildCAT3D shows how computers can be trained using large collections of freely available images - tourist snapshots; photos taken in different weather, lighting and seasons; or partially obscured scenes.
via Cornell Bowers College of Computing and Information Science: WildCAT3D: Appearance-Aware Multi-View Diffusion in the Wild.
Also: Morris Alper et al, WildCAT3D: Appearance-Aware Multi-View Diffusion in the Wild, arXiv (2025). DOI: 10.48550/arxiv.2506.13030
Quantum mechanical effects help overcome a fundamental limitation of optical microscopy
Jan 2026, phys.org
Optical microscopes are unable to resolve structures much smaller than the wavelength of light. ... They achieve this incredible resolution by bringing a sharp metal tip extraordinarily close to the surface of a material under study - separated by a gap smaller than the size of a single atom. A continuous - wave laser illuminates the system, "squeezing" infrared light into the tiny gap and concentrating it at the tip's apex. Confining light in this manner circumvents the diffraction limit and enables a spatial resolution on the order of the radius of curvature of the tip apex - typically about 10 nanometers.
via University of Regensburg Center for Ultrafast Nanoscopy and U of Birmingham: Felix Schiegl et al, Atomic-Scale Optical Microscopy with Continuous-Wave Mid-Infrared Radiation, Nano Letters (2026). DOI: 10.1021/acs.nanolett.5c05319
Liquid-metal pupil helps an artificial eye adapt to sudden light changes
Mar 2026, phys.org
Traditional machine vision systems struggle with extreme light changes, but adaptive pupils adjust instantly. They tried to replicate this process, called closed-loop pupillary light reflex or adaptive pupil reflex."Our core objectives were to integrate a hemispherical artificial retina with liquid-metal (LM) shapeshifters for artificial neurons and adaptive pupils, mimic biological PLR via LM deformation, solve high-light overexposure issues in machine vision, and achieve programmable replication of multiple animal pupil shapes to boost environmental adaptability and image recognition accuracy."Finally, the team developed an adaptive pupil made of liquid metal that changes its shape and size depending on the intensity of light. [see the thumbnail image above]The artificial pupil developed by the researchers relies on eight liquid-metal actuators that can be controlled independently. These actuators adjust the aperture of the pupil, controlling how much light passes through it. In addition, these actuators can produce different pupil shapes, mimicking the shape of human pupils or those of cats, sheep, squids, frogs and various other animals.
via University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Westlake University: Kun Liang et al, Bioinspired adaptive pupil reflex based on liquid-metal shape-shifters for machine vision, Science Robotics (2026). DOI: 10.1126/scirobotics.adx0715.
This artificial retina doesn't just aim to restore sight—it opens a hidden channel of vision
Apr 2026, phys.org
"Electrical stimulation of retinal neurons can recreate the action potentials associated with seeing that are generated by these cells. We report a thin artificial retina that can be adhered to the epiretinal surface and can convert near-infrared light into electrical stimuli that selectively stimulate ganglion cells."The phototransistor array is a grid of tiny, light-sensitive devices that can detect near-infrared light (i.e., light that is just beyond visible wavelengths) and convert it into electrical signals, and the liquid metal electrodes enhance proximity to retinal ganglion cells, which are less affected by retinal degeneration than photoreceptor cells, thus still able to transmit information to the brain.
via Institute for Basic Science in Korea: Won Gi Chung et al, An implantable epiretinal device for near-infrared light perception, Nature Electronics (2026). DOI: 10.1038/s41928-026-01601-8
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