SCIENCE/TECHNOLOGY

Eye for an Eye: The people at Irvine Sensors Corp. in Costa Mesa had better eat their Wheaties because they’ve got some serious thinking to do.

The small chip-packaging company won a $635,000 contract from the Navy to develop a sensor that could mimic some of the pattern-recognition capabilities of the human eye and brain.

Irvine Sensors will adapt its sensor technology for use in a so-called neural network, which uses large numbers of processors and sensors to solve complex problems in the same way that neurons, or brain cells, interact in human thought.

The company will contribute its chip-stacking technology, which creates sophisticated, three-dimensional sensors by stacking as many as 128 individual computer chips on top of each other in a device the size of a sugar cube.