A team of researchers from the NanoSystems Scientific Institute at the University of California, Los Angeles has developed a device that reduces glare in images. Using two-dimensional semiconductor technology, the development can use ambient light as an advanced “smart filter”. The developers claim that their filters help significantly improve the quality of photos on inexpensive cameras.

Created to measure 0.4×0.4 inches (1×1 centimeters), the device is equipped with an ultra-thin transparent chip just a few atoms thick, containing a 100X100 pixel array.

“An inexpensive device a few centimeters in size could enable a low-power camera to work like an ultra-high-resolution camera. This would significantly reduce the cost of accessing high-resolution imaging and scanning technologies.”, — Comments Aydoğan Özcan, professor of electrical engineering and computer engineering at the University of California, Los Angeles and co-author of the study. Details of the research were published in the journal Nature Communications.

The research team sought to find a material that had minimal light absorption but could produce a sufficient signal for the processing of light. The research object is a transparent plane with a size of one square centimeter. It uses a two-dimensional semiconductor, which is a thin film a few atoms thick. Because of its thinness, the material is transparent but still has properties that allow the photons passing through it to effectively control its electrical conductivity. For the 2D semiconductor to work, it was connected to a liquid crystal layer with the help of electrodes. The final product was a 10,000-pixel smart light filter that could quickly and selectively dim non-linearly in response to broadband ambient light.

According to the team, each pixel in the filter can switch from full transparency to partial transparency to full opacity. It is noteworthy that a minimum number of photons is required for a sharp state change. The researchers demonstrated their invention working with a smartphone camera; this camera effectively reduced glare in images.

The technology has broad application potential in consumer and industrial applications, as well as reducing glare from cameras. For example, it can be used in advanced autonomous vehicle recognition systems, cameras that can identify some objects and hide others, image encryption, and rapid and accurate detection of defects in robotic assembly lines.

As the researchers note, such a filter has many advantages. For example, it allows you to process incoming images without needing to convert them to a digital signal, thus speeding up results and minimizing data sent to the cloud for digital processing and storage.

Developers expect their technology to be used in inexpensive cameras in the future. It can also contribute to the development of optical computers. One of the main problems of the latter was the difficulty of achieving nonlinear feedback, which is crucial for generating signals that are not exactly proportional to the input signal. Nonlinearity is critical in creating universal computing systems, including artificial intelligence.

Nonlinear materials and devices under development require significant light flux to operate effectively. To meet this need we have to rely on powerful lasers that are limited to a narrow band of the electromagnetic spectrum. Alternatively, materials with low light absorption can be used, but this results in reduced processing speed. It also requires the use of energy-efficient materials that can absorb significant amounts of light, but is not suitable for tasks where light efficiency or transparency are at the forefront.

A study by experts at the University of California showed that a small array of transparent pixels can create a rapid, large-scale, nonlinear response to low-power ambient light. “Current solutions in nonlinear optics fall far short of what we need for visual computing applications. And we need low-power, broadband, low-loss, and fast nonlinear capabilities for optical systems. Our development helps solve this problem.”Özcan added.