Blurry camera phone photos may end, thanks to a new lens made of a drop of fluid whose shape can be controlled by an electric field. Cheaper, tougher and sharper than current lenses, the first generation should be in Samsung phones by the end of the year.
Camera phone makers are salivating over liquid lenses.
They work because of a property called wettability: On hydrophilic surfaces, water sticks and spreads out; on hydrophobic surfaces, water is repelled, so it beads up to minimize contact area. But varying electrical voltage across the water droplet changes its response to the surface; in essence, you can dial wettability up or down, changing the shape of the droplet-lens on the fly. You end up with an optical power 5 to 10 times greater than the human eye, and response that’s up to 20 times faster.
Now, thanks to cell phone makers’ desire for more attractive features in their handsets, the race is on to build usable liquid lenses. To make an electro wetting lens powerful enough for real applications, Bruno Berge and his team at Varioptic in Lyon, France, combined salt water and an oil with the same density but different optical properties. The oil forms the lens; the water changes shape to control it. Meanwhile, Philips Research in the NetherÂlands is aiming its FluidFocus lenses at higher-end applications, like optical zooms for digital cameras. In a typical camera, a zoom is a kind of telescope: lenses at each end with a variable distance between them. Philips instead assembles three lenses, two plastic and one liquid with a glass core. The core doesn’t change, but the liquid can alter the overall lens shape dramatically. Result: a miniature, high-powered zoom.
Eventually, liquid lenses could fundaÂmentally change the mechanics of cameras. Researchers at Lucent Technologies’ Bell Laboratories have a lens that adds a whole new dimension - it changes not only shape but position. They patterned the plastic lens surface with an array of electrodes; when voltage is applied in a given direction, the droplet follows like a tiny, remote-controlled wave. “That allows complete control over the position of the lens focal spot in all three dimensions,” says Bell Labs’ Tom Krupenkin. “This translates into the ability to perform simultaneous autofocus, pan, tilt, and zoom.”
Equipped with one of these setups, a camera could follow you around the room without any apparent mechanical movement.
When - or if - these gadgets make it to Best Buy may depend on Varioptic. The company has licensed its tech to Samsung, which planned to show off a prototype of a liquid lens-powered zoom this month at the CeBIT consumer electronics show in Hanover, Germany. Varioptic says that camera phones with the new lenses should be on the market by Christmas. But Varioptic has also made noise about possible patent infringements in Philips’ FluidFocus, though it hasn’t done anything about it in court (Philips denies any crossover, of course). Either way, industry analysts say the global market for camera phones will be upwards of 60 million next year. With that many customers, cell phone makers should soon see their way clear to building a better snapshot.
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