Biologically inspired solutions for modern-day sensory systems promise to deliver both higher capacity and faster, more efficient processing of information than current computational approaches. Many animals are able to perform remarkable sensing tasks despite only being able to process what would be considered modest data rates and bandwidths. The key biological innovations revolve around dedicated filter designs. By sacrificing some flexibility, specifically matched and hard-wired sensory systems, designed primarily for single roles, provide a blueprint for data and task-specific efficiency. In this paper, we examine several animal visual systems designed to use the polarization of light in spatial imaging. We investigate some implications for artificial optical processing based on models of polarization image processing in fiddler crabs, cuttlefish, octopus, and mantis shrimp.

In this paper, we present recent work on bioinspired polarization imaging sensors and their applications in biomedicine. In particular, we focus on three different aspects of these sensors. First, we describe the electro-optical challenges in realizing a bioinspired polarization imager, and in particular, we provide a detailed description of a recent low-power complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) polarization imager. Second, we focus on signal processing algorithms tailored for this new class of bioinspired polarization imaging sensors, such as calibration and interpolation. Third, the emergence of these sensors has enabled rapid progress in characterizing polarization signals and environmental parameters in nature, as well as several biomedical areas, such as label-free optical neural recording, dynamic tissue strength analysis, and early diagnosis of flat cancerous lesions in a murine colorectal tumor model. We highlight results obtained from these three areas and discuss future applications for these sensors.

This paper describes a recent study in which an autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) with a high resolution stereo-imaging system was used to document nocturnal camouflage behaviour in cuttlefish at a well known spawning site in Whyalla, South Australia. The AUV's ability to fly at low altitude during day and night while closely following a desired survey pattern provided improved data collection compared to divers and previous work with a small ROV. Over the course of the week long expedition, the AUV Sirius was deployed on 38 dives at three sites in the survey area and collected tens of thousands of stereo images. Of these, nearly a thousand were seen to contain cuttlefish during post cruise analysis, with a large proportion showing evidence of camouflage. The distribution of images containing cuttlefish suggest that the animal concentrations were substantially higher closer in to shore in shallow waters, where the flat rocky substrate occurs; females lay their eggs on the underside of these rocks. Results demonstrate the strengths of using an AUV for surveying near-shore benthic habitats of ecological interest, with a particular emphasis on the ability to operate during both day and night time operations.