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A tiny bug-eyed camera that is helping troops to see out of the corner of their eye with revolutionary new night sight.

BAE Systems is helping British troops to see better in the dark using night sight technology inspired by the amazing Xenos peckii fly, a tiny parasite that has 50 separate lens in each of its raspberry-like eyes.

The lens all produce a different image, which when meshed together forms a single panoramic view in the fly’s brain. BAE Systems scientists have recreated this effect with bug-eye - a camera with nine lenses - and about the size of a mobile phone camera lens.

This digital device has 60 degrees of peripheral vision and is small and light enough to fit onto a helmet, which could help soldiers spot an enemy out of the corner of their eye and doubles their level of vision from previous equipment.

The insect inspired technology can also be used on missile guidance systems, increasing the field of vision from about 20 to 120 degrees, while minimising size and weight, and reducing maintenance costs.

Away from the military world, the technology could also help to improve security by developing CCTV cameras, which are able to survey a wide panorama of crowded spaces and, in the future, be developed as a medical tool to help with keyhole surgery.

Dr Alex Parfitt,
Capability Technology Leader said: “Bug eye is an amazing piece of biology inspired technology, which has been applied to an engineering application and revolutionized how soldiers now see in the dark, with smaller and lighter night-vision goggles that have a much wider sight of view.” 

Raider – a highly mobile unmanned military vehicle, inspired by the gadget-laden Batmobile, which can act as secret scout or skirmisher.

The concept is part of BAE Systems Future Protected Vehicle Programme (FVP) and was created after a group of BAE Systems graduates watched the new Batman film and were inspired to create an armored vehicle mimicking the Dark Knight’s ride.

Hisham Awad, Technical Project Manager, Emerging Programmes and Technologies said: “Our graduates actually worked on the concept for a few months and turned their moment of inspiration into something which could actually find a military application in the future”.

The Raider would weigh around two tonnes and could be operated from a safe distance, performing structured tasks, such as sentry duty or perimeter patrol, without human intervention.

Overall, 567 technologies and 244 vehicle concepts were explored as part of the FPV Programme in collaboration with over 35 industrial organisations, universities and schools. From these, 47 were identified as having the potential for immediate exploittation to boost the effectiveness of lightweight armored vehicles.