Engineers, chemists craft adjustable arrays of microscopic lenses

Nebraska engineers Ruiguo Yang and Grayson Minnick have helped chemist Stephen Morin’s develop tiny gelatinous lenses, many of them smaller than the width of a human hair, that can be affixed to an elastic material that, inspired by the eye of insects like a fly or honeybee, could have multiple revolutionary applications in biomaterials and biomedical engineering.

By carving the equivalent of aqueducts into the material, then running temperature-altering or water-gathering fluids through those channels, the researchers are able to expand or contract the lenses in mere seconds — modifying their magnification, focal length and other optical properties in the process.

The team is envisioning the future: projecting signals onto sensors embedded in soft robotic skins, for instance, via on-demand control.