Scientists in Japan have built a neuromorphic artificial eye, meaning that it takes inspiration from our own biology. For decades, scientists around the world have made progress rendering the human eye in machine form, but this is largely a two-step process. We’re hemmed in by evolution, while artificial synapses are limited only by our ingenuity. By leveraging additional signal dimensions such as polarity and temporal dynamics, we can design more robust and energy-efficient vision systems,” Ikuno says. That’s at least one edge these artificial synapses have over our biological ones—we’re hemmed in by evolution, while artificial synapses are limited only by our ingenuity.