The next generation of battery-operated wearable technology, assistive devices, robotics, and drones may include a novel 3D camera modeled like the eyes of jumping spiders. The technology utilized less energy than a nightlight.

SpiderCam, a prototype developed by Northwestern University engineers mimics how spiders use their sight to measure distances before making an unexpected sideways leap at an unsuspecting victim going about its daily activity, reports Shiri Leigh in New Atlas.

“Jumping spiders jump to catch prey, to avoid predators and to get around, and that requires excellent vision,” says Northwestern’s Asst. Prof. Emma Alexander, the study’s corresponding author and expert in bio-inspired computer vision.

The majority of common 3D cameras take pictures from different angles in order to determine depth, either by measuring and projecting light or by comparing each image. These techniques require a large amount of processing power, costly gear, and energy.

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While jumping spiders have numerous layers of retinas in each eye that may independently concentrate at slightly varying distances—one layer may see an object in focus while another layer sees the identical thing slightly out of focus—human eyes are only able to focus on one retina.

“They see multiple levels of focus at all times,” Alexander says. “So, they are always collecting pairs of images. Then, their brains could compare these differences in sharpness to judge distance.”

“But their brains are very small – the size of a poppy seed – so they have to compute these distances in a highly efficient way. We wanted to understand whether we could borrow some of the same principles to create an extremely energy-efficient depth sensor that could be used in resource-constrained situations where users don’t have unlimited access to power.”

Similar functionality is provided by the SpiderCam, which uses a specially designed camera to simultaneously capture two photos with slightly different focus settings. The researchers developed a unique algorithm straight onto a specially programmed computer chip optimized for energy-efficient processing, rather than executing resource-intensive software on a traditional processor.

According to the team, the SpiderCam is the first 3D camera to run on less than one watt. The chip prototype can process depth maps at 32.5 frames per second while consuming just 624 milliwatts of power. The data is then transformed into real-time depth measurements by the unique algorithm, which analyzes how the two images' edges and textures differ in sharpness.