The shade underneath trees during eclipses is pretty incredible because it becomes apparent that all of those little dapples of light are actually images, since every one of them becomes a crescent rather than a circle.

So this idea is for a computer controlled "tree" that would exploit the ability of the pin holes created by the spaces between its leaves to act as lenses, to create organized visual phenomena in its shade.
-- JesusHChrist, Jan 04 2016

Point of correction: each pinhole IS the equivalent of a lens. It appears that what you want is to consolidate all the individual pinhole-lens images, into a single image.

Well, considering that from a given point under the tree, each pinhole among the leaves is pointing in a different direction, so what you would be creating is a very wide-field view, without much detail. If you carpeted the ground under the tree with imaging devices, then you could get multiple pinhole views of particular objects, and so more detail

It also sort-of means you will be using the tree to study things in the sky. I suspect most ordinary telescopes will give you better results, but, hey, this is the HalfBakery, and ineffectual notions are welcome.
-- Vernon, Jan 04 2016


- not entirely unlike an insect's compound eye?
-- hippo, Jan 04 2016



random, halfbakery