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Liquid Lenses For Camera Phones
Posted by
CmdrTaco
on Thu Dec 02, 2004 03:09 PM
from the my-camera-is-leaking dept.
from the my-camera-is-leaking dept.
Roland Piquepaille writes "In this article, the Register writes that "camera phones will soon have lenses made from nothing more substantial than a couple of drops of oil and water, but will still be capable of auto focusing, and even zooming in on subjects." The lenses, developed by the French company Varioptic, contain drops of oil and water, acting respectively as conductor and insulator, and sandwiched between two windows. These liquid lenses could replace glass or plastic ones because of several advantages: no moving parts, leading to better reliability; a very small power consumption; very small dimensions (diameter: 8mm; thickness: 2mm); and a very fast response time of 2/100th of a second. You can expect the first camera phones using these liquid lenses as early as Christmas 2005. These lenses might also appear in medical equipment, such as endoscopes, optical networking equipment or surveillance devices. This overview contains other details and references."
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Change of Focus for Liquid Crystals 101 comments
Dylan Knight Rogers writes to tell us PhysicsWeb is reporting that US physicists have discovered a new liquid-crystal lens design that can alter the focus by varying the voltage applied. From the article: "The new lens, which has been built by Shin-Tson Wu and colleagues at the University of Central Florida, allows the focus to be changed in a new way. The device consists of a mixture of liquid-crystal molecules and smaller N-vinylpyrrollidone monomers placed between two glass substrates, each of which is coated with a thin transparent layer of conducting indium tin oxide. They then placed a concave glass lens with a flat base on top of one of the substrates."
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Durability (Score:5, Insightful)
Other than that, it's a great invention, no wonder the guy will pursue an aggressive intellectual property strategy, so anyone who wants to build something like this will need a licence from them.
There's also a mentiond of true zoom capability, using two of the liquid lenses. Wouldn't that defeat the purpose of being very small, since you need more depth to create the zooming effect, no?
Zooming (Score:3, Insightful)
On mobile phone cameras quality is not a huge deal but I am still rather skeptical about use in medical equipment though. Medical stuff needs to be far more precise and hold its precision over a long time. "Hard stuff" like glass will be hard to displace with sqishy lenses.
Re:Zooming (Score:4, Interesting)
Even if they won't freeze or boil within normal operating temperatures - they're still running current through it, right? Even if the liquid is stable and inert from -10C to +40C, an electric problem could cause it to heat up in a hurry.
- David Stein
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Re:Zooming (Score:3, Funny)
Your temperature range is too narrow. It was -24C this morning here in Winnipeg, and it hasn't gotten real cold yet.
We average13 days [ec.gc.ca] below -30C each year, and about the same number above +30C.
Re:Zooming (Score:3, Informative)
Technically, yes. It's a liquid with an incredibly high viscosity, such that its flow is only observable on a geologic time frame.
Realistically, no. It has none of the normal properties of liquids. It retains its shape for hundreds of years. It's hard (try rapping your knuckles on a typical liquid.) It doesn't noticeably expand or contract with temperature and pressure differences. You can't dissolve anything in it in its normal state (maybe when it's molten, but not at 20C
Re:Durability (Score:5, Insightful)
Yes, it would. Bit it would still be a lot smaller than having a tiny threaded barrel, a tiny motor, tiny gears, etc. So it would need some length, but probably a lot less than the alternatives.
The only thing that worries me is how well something like this would handle shock. If you drop you phone, what if a small drop of oil broke off and was then floating around in the water. Maybe shaking it would get it to merge back again, or maybe not.
I believe that I remember reading about this concept in the original Star Wars movie novelization (or maybe it was some other book, but I DID read it a long time ago in a city far, far away). So the concept is not new. Making it work is. I have no doubt that the particular materials and methods used are definately covered by patent, but I wonder if somebody came up with a different method of using oil lenses, if they could use the "prior art" of sci-if?
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Re:Durability (Score:3, Insightful)
I was thinking one of the Dune novels. I've heard of it too, and I've never read a Star Wars novel.
Re:Durability (Score:3, Informative)
When I was a kid I had a book with his detailed biography. Quite an interesting fellow. (See also my post above, regarding his primitive lenses.)
As to telescoping lenses, I'd think a droplet lens pair and its "zoomer" could be very small, so small that surface tension would be the most powerful factor affecting the lenses, thus quite stable for applica
Re:Durability (Shock Proof?) (Score:3, Interesting)
Given the jarring hits I've seen some phones take I wonder what that would do to the oil/water barrier. Or perhaps it's just too small with not enough mass to act in the same way as the jar of oil/water analogy.
sigh (Score:4, Interesting)
When reading the article my main thoughts were "Pretty cool sounding tech..." then I read the final paragraph. I just lost so much enthusiasm for this idea.
Re:sigh (Score:5, Insightful)
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count your blessings: it could be copyrighted (Score:2)
Since Mickey Mouse is copyrighted rather than patented, this patent will expire in about 20 years, so we'll be able to buy these in kiddy toys for our grandkids. If Mickey were patented, then it would be patents which run forever, and we would never be able to b
Re:sigh (Score:3, Informative)
What does seem to be novel here (well, *I've* never heard of it before), and worth noting, is using voltage gadgetry to control the shape and position of the
Re:sigh (Score:2)
Although you can patent inventions, there are certain restrictions. You can't patent anything that's "obvious" and there are limits on what you can patent, when there are no other ways of solving the same problem. (Which is what these guys are claiming.)
The reason for the latter restriction is that
Re:sigh (Score:2)
Yeah, same here. It'd really cramp their style if they suddenly started making money.
Re:sigh (Score:3, Insightful)
A dream come true. (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:A dream come true. (Score:2)
Yeah! I just don't understand why they don't put 5 megapixel CCDs and 4 gig cards in these little phones.
2/100ths of a second? (Score:3, Funny)
Liquid Electronics (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Liquid Electronics (Score:2)
speed (Score:5, Funny)
Re:speed (Score:2)
Actually as far as the measurement of time is concerned, it is usually measured in divisions of 10, so 2/100ths of a second actually sounds more comprehendable than 1/50th of a second.
Just being pendantic...sorry.
Liquid Lenses Rock! (Score:5, Funny)
Roland? (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Roland? (Score:2)
Another URL for my hosts file.
Space lens (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Space lens (Score:4, Funny)
Also, could this type of contraption survive launch? Itallian dressing is oil and water. But if you shake the bottle really hard...
Hey. Wait a second.... They patented Itallian Dressing!!!!!
Parent
Re:Space lens (Score:2)
So don't forget your camera phone in your car on a cold day.
Or leave it in the outer pockets of your ski jacket.
Also, don't click on the last link in the story - it's more site whoring by Roland "the pipsqueak" Pippique.
Dune, anyone? (Score:4, Interesting)
SciFi to Reality (Score:5, Informative)
It's pretty cool that this is coming to pass, even if they're not sandwiched between force fields.
Re:SciFi to Reality (Score:3, Interesting)
If you have a properly designed glass lens and you have a drop of oil between the lens and the subject you can resolve far greater detail than with a normal lens (say 1000x as compared to 300x). The problem was that no one had developed a way to encase the oil so that it would stay stable and clean, while still exibiting the same optic properties.
Until now. I actually remember reading about this compa
Low power lens? (Score:2)
Biomedical, but patented (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Biomedical, but patented (Score:3, Insightful)
What are you talking about. If someone could make it work as an artificial lens for an eye
What about prosthetic uses? (Score:3, Insightful)
Thought is was going to be for jamming (Score:2)
Prior art? (Score:3, Insightful)
Refractive? (Score:2, Interesting)
Flash! Thousands of cell phones die.... (Score:2, Informative)
Another recent article on liquid lenses (Score:3, Informative)
If you ever get stuck on a desert island... (Score:2, Funny)
Similar to atmospheric correction? (Score:3, Interesting)
Dune had these (Score:2)
um. (Score:4, Insightful)
Therefore, I'm not yet impressed by the claim that this lens can be focused without moving parts. First I'd need to be convinced that it needs to be focused at all, for the intended application.
Bell Labs talked about this almost two years ago (Score:4, Informative)
No idea if they had patents on it. If this French company got there first, these would seem to be very lucrative patents.
As for SciFi being there first, that's hardly an argument we (Geeks) want to see used. If companies can't make money off a technique or concept because a SciFi writer wrote about it abstractly, they will not invest the money needed to create such a technology. We'd have to sit around and wait for some gigantic government initiative like the Space Shuttle to get technology we've long dreamed for. And even then.. it's rarely in a form we can benefit from.
Remeber, its 1% inspiration/ 99% perspiration.
It's gret these SciFi writers inspired our engineers, but the effort that goes in to producing viable products should not remain un-rewarded.
This can be used to help people... (Score:3, Informative)
Adaptive Eyecare's [adaptive-eyecare.com] adaptive lenses are fluid- filled and the power is changed by varying the amount of fluid in the lens.
The lenses are built into a universal fitting pair of glasses frames, which allow the wearer to adjust the amount of fluid in each lens using a syringe-like device. This results in an individually tuned custom set of corrective vision lenses without an eye-doctor or expensive equipment for vision testing or lens grinding.
From their website: "The starting point for the development of Adaptive Eyecare's technology was the astonishing statistic that according to the World Health Organization [who.int] there are currently around one billion people - including 10% of school children - in the world who would benefit from vision correction, but are as yet uncorrected. Most of these people live in the developing world, and the problem arises principally because the numbers of personnel trained to deliver vision correction in the conventional way are simply inadequate to meet the needs of the people. These statistics have profound implications - they mean that hundreds of millions of adults do not have the vision correction they need to be socially and economically active, and many children are educationally and socially disadvantaged."
This is a very cool technology that could really change the lives of many disadvantaged people worldwide. I hope that whatever patents are out there do not stifle this sort of use...
Re:Variable lense glasses (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Humidity, physical contact, etc. (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Humidity, physical contact, etc. (Score:4, Informative)
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