Abstract: The capacity to sense light polarization generally accompanies a reduction in resolution. Inspired by the rapid signal processing of insects with small brains, and the fact that some insects may sense polarization without polarization-selective sensors, the Vuong MMO Lab studies how nanostructures spatially transform polarization through scattering. Compressed sensing of both incident direction and polarization in one-dimension was achieved with a compression ratio of 10 with a shallow neural network. This approach not only offers a new framework for interpreting the effective visual system of insects, but also proposes a new approach with nature-inspired encoders for optical sensing, imaging, and communication.