I have never interfaced a camera other than plug and play, but this sounds pretty interesting....considering drones and auto-cars....let alone smartphones.

https://phys.org/news/2017-05-breakthrough-sensor-image-quality-captured.html

 

Just like an artificial retina. The curvature should take care of some lens distortion.

 

Maybe we could mold a sphere with the sensor looking in. Drill a pin hole with lens.......and place in aim-able cradle.........a synthetic eyeball.

When I was young I had to choose between a few semesters of optics or astronomy. I chose astronomy.....but I have optics on my bucket list.

It's amazing how simple fundamental solutions have so much gain, as in low cost improvement.

This would help a lot too........a color adjustable single pixel.

https://phys.org/news/2017-05-drastically-higher-resolution-tv-smartphone.html