Smartphones may literally save lives in the future, thanks to recent research findings at the University of Queensland in Australia.
With the aid of a built-in camera that can detect polarized light it will be easier to visually distinguish cancerous from non-cancerous tissues in the body. The inspiration for this camera technology comes from an unexpected place; the bottom of the ocean. The mantis shrimp has such an adept visual system that researchers are attempting to mimic the shrimp’s ocular prowess in a camera.
The new camera would be advantageous to current technology due to its significantly smaller size. That means it would be more portable, less expensive, and better equipped to detect a wide range of tumor sizes.
We’ve been looking to nature for the answers for a long time. Much of the technology that we use today was streamlined after peering into the wild. The color display from your e-reader, for example, models the iridescence of butterfly wings. Or you can trace the technology of many cooling devices to the water collecting ridges on the back of the Namib desert beetle.
It makes sense to borrow from nature. Species fine tune their abilities over years for survival. Capturing and reproducing these skills in technology can not only make our lives more convenient, it can also preserve them.