Detecting light has always been the realm of lenses. Much like the retina in our eyes, lenses are limited by direction and field of view. But with the development of a new transparent light-detecting fiber by Professor Yoel Fink of the Department of Materials Science and Engineering and the Research Lab of Electronics in MIT, a new door is opened.

Each fiber is about 1mm in diameter. And when meshed together to form the shape of a sphere, the fiber-web is able to sense light from the entire volume of space around it. Thus, it overcomes the directional limitations of traditional lens-based optics.

“When you’re looking at something with your eyes, there’s a particular direction you’re looking in,” says Ayman Abouraddy a research scientist in Fink’s lab. “The field of view is defined around that direction. Depending on the lens, you may be able to capture a certain field of view around that direction, but that’s it. Until now, most every optical system was limited by an optical axis or direction.”

Imagine capturing images from this transparent sphere!

Not only can the fiber sphere detect light from all around, it is able to determine the direction of the light.

By creating a two-dimensional fiber web instead of a sphere, it opens up to new applications for the technology such as military clothing that detects surrounding light and photo-detecting clothing that helps the visually impaired.

“We could use light to enhance interaction with computers and even gaming systems,” said Fink. “It’s intriguing–the idea of touching with light.”

Seems like a technology worth waiting for, and with seemingly endless applications. Got some creative ideas yourself? Share them here.