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Finding focus: These three pictures were taken, from left to right, after 0.007, 0.020, and 0.033 seconds. The focal point of the lens changes as the sound waves alter the shape of the droplet. The researchers suggest that a camera using this liquid lens could take tens of pictures at the press of a button and let software sort out the one that’s most in focus.
Amir Hirsa
In tests, Hirsa's liquid-lens camera was able to take 250 images per second, at varying focal lengths. He envisions a camera that could instantly capture tens of images with different focal lengths, and then use simple image-analysis software to determine the most in-focus image. "Say you capture 60 frames per second," he says. "Just take the one that's the sharpest."
Stein Kuiper, the Philips researcher who developed the electrowetting technique, notes that the researchers' ideas seem original, but he sees drawbacks to the approach. Since the lens is continuously moving, this means that "a significant amount of light is lost, as most of the time the object is out of focus."
Additionally, these early results are not high resolution, notes Yuhwa Lo, a professor of electrical engineering at the University of California, San Diego. "Even the low-end cameras have a pretty strict resolution requirement," he says. However, he says that at this stage, the lens could be good for other optical applications, such as simply focusing beams of light instead of taking high-quality pictures.
Hirsa says that his team is looking to improve the resolution, possibly with different types of fluid, such as those that change shape in response to magnetic fields. He's also exploring the possibility of working with electronics manufacturers and says that Samsung has expressed interest in the lens.
Fluid droplets could replace plastic lenses in cell-phone cameras, banishing blurry photos.
This technique seems to provide some depth information as the focus varies. Perhaps it could generate 3D images?
I think the idea behind Liquid lens is very genius. The fact that only two drops of h2o could potentially improve resolution, use less power than previous methods and have more physical appeal to their appearance is great. However I think before making the switch from glass and plastic to liquid they must meet the same picture quality. Although flexibility is essential, the quality of the object being captured matters the most. On that note, if liquid lens's are able to function without such a strict resolution it shall be a great technological advancement.
A great advancement and amazingly innovative. But the question is are people willing to sacrifice quality of resolution for the sake of saving energy. I'm sure that eventually they will find the solution for advancing the resolution, but until then i doubt that many will invest in liquid lens.
I think liquid lens are a pretty cool idea that will, in the future make glass lens obsolete. However, since the picture quality isn’t as good as the quality that comes from a picture made with glass lens, we still should use glass lens. When the technology is there to use liquid lens that are as good if not better than glass lens, then we should switch. The fact that these will be able to save energy will make them very useful in the long run when the picture quality has picked up
I think that this technology certainly has a place in the future. the efficiency that the liquid lens provides is certainly a great acheivement. however, without high picture quality, this technology won't take off as it would if the picture quality was good. i would love to see an improvement on this aspect of the technology.
liquid lenses seem like a good idea with the thought of energy in mind, but it seems like these liquid lenses can only be used for small devices like cell phones, rather than large screen tv's due to the loss in resolution. I think that it would be wise for cell phone companies to invest in liquid lens research because the cameras on cell phones now are pretty weak. My only concern is, will cell phones have the processing power to quickly pick the best shot out of the multiple ones taken?
liquid lens is a great idea. even though the resolution isnt as great, i believe that in the near future, humans are going to have to make necessary changes in their lifestyle that include saving energy. this has a definite place in the future.
Manufacturing in the United States is in trouble. That's bad news not just for the country's economy but for the future of innovation.
This document is part of the “How-To Guide for Most Common Measurements” centralized resource portal. This tutorial provides a detailed guide for measurement and device considerations to take temperature measurements using thermocouples. Get an introduction to thermocouples, which are inexpensive sensing devices widely used with PC-based data acquisition systems. Also review some specific thermocouple examples and learn how thermocouples work and ways to integrate them into a data acquisition measurement system.
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haruhi
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i guess another way of improving resolution is to have a software that could identify pixels that are in focus and stitch them together to create a clear picture of what is being taken...just thinking ^_^
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