There have been successes of this line of research. For example, touchpads and Synaptics came from thinking about how to build analog capacitor networks [0]. Th

There have been successes of this line of research. For example, touchpads and Synaptics came from thinking about how to build analog capacitor networks [0]. There are spiking cameras that can produce significantly higher range and temporal resolution than conventional approaches [1]. Like neural networks, the field sort of quieted down in the 90s but perhaps now is a new time for the field. If you view the purpose of academics to train the next generation rather than simply advancing the field, the quality of reasearchers and engineers that come out of Kwabenas lab is superb. They easily work at companies like Intel, SpaceX, NIH, etc. [1] https://inilabs.com/ https://inilabs.com/ [0] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carver_Mead https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carver_Mead