While you have been fretting about how your camera phone does not take good pictures, Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has announced research teams that will work on the development of cameras that process images like the human brain. The program is aimed at improving military applications such as autonomous vehicles, robotics, and search and tracking.

Camera technology has developed tremendously over the years. Not only have we managed to take pictures on far-away planets and beam them back to Earth, but we have also managed to pack more imaging power in cameras that are getting smaller by the day. Yet, the human eye is what we are trying to beat.

The cameras that we use are processing more data, consuming more power yet lack the 'intelligence' to track objects if backgrounds change or become cluttered. Humans can do this well because the brain has optimized the process by processing signals only when something changes. DARPA intends to replicate this process in-silico through its Fast Event-based Neuromorphic Camera and Electronics (FENCE) program. The program wants to develop neuromorphic - brainlike- cameras that capture events by transmitting information only about the pixels that have changed. This will drastically reduce the amount of data that these cameras will process, their latency - or delays in transmitting the data, while also reducing their power consumption in the process.