Neural nanophotonic object detector with ultra-wide field-of-view

Abstract

Intelligent object detection, which extracts crucial information like targets categories and locations, plays a vital role in emerging technologies including autonomous driving, the Internet of Things, and next-generation mobile communication systems. With the advancement of intelligent object detectors towards higher integration and miniaturization, their portability and adaptability to a broader range of scenarios have been significantly enhanced. However, this progress comes at the cost of reduced detection quality and narrower field-of-view, which severely impacts overall performances. Here we present a neural nanophotonic object detector based on a metalens array, capable of delivering high-quality imaging with an ultra-wide field-of-view of 135{\deg}. The combined neural network not only further improves the imaging quality, but also enables the detector to achieve high-precision target recognition and localization. Moreover, we integrated the neural nanophotonic object detector into a miniature unmanned aerial vehicle to enable wide-angle imaging and intelligent recognition of various real-world dynamic objects, demonstrating the high mobility and flexibility of our neural nanophotonic object detector. Our study presents a systematic framework for advancing revolutionary intelligent detection systems, offering significant potential for a wide range of future applications.