What you see there is a cross-section of an "optoelectronic"
fiber. It's a light-sensing strand MIT is developing that it
says could capture an image. Led by Associate Professor Yoel
Fink of MIT's Department of Materials Science and Engineering,
the research is still far from yielding any real-world
applications, but the project just hit a milestone, namely using
the fabric to take a rough snap of a smiley face. In the future,
the group can see the fibers used in multiple ways, including
being weaved into a soldier's garment. Since the fibers can
capture an image, he could observe his surroundings through a
heads-up camera feed instead of having to swivel around. The
fibers also one-up cameras as they have the potential to be far
more durable. "We are saying, 'instead of a tiny, sensitive
object [for capturing images], let's construct a large,
distributed system,'" Fink told MIT News, "While the current
version of these fabrics can only image nearby objects, it can
still see much farther than most shirts can.