Nanostructured flat lens uses machine learning to ‘see’ more clearly, while using less power

Researchers at Vanderbilt University have created a metasurface-based imager (meta-imager) that can potentially replace traditional imaging optics in machine-vision applications, producing images at higher speed and using less power. A metasurface is a thin material composed of arrays of subwavelength nanostructures. The nanostructuring of the material into the meta-imager filter reduces the typically thick optical lens and enables front-end processing that encodes information more efficiently.