Camera that requires no focusing created by Indian-led team could make smartphones slimmer

A team led by an Indian-origin scientist has developed a camera that does not require focusing, by utilizing a single lens about one-thousandth of an inch thick. The advance could permit thinner smartphone cameras, improved and smaller cameras for biomedical imaging such as for example endoscopy, and more compact cameras for automobiles, the researchers said.

The technology, described in the journal Optica, offers considerable benefits over traditional cameras like the ones generally in most smartphones, which require multiple lenses to form high-quality, in-focus images.

 

"Our flat lenses can drastically reduce the weight, complexity and cost of cameras and other imaging systems, while increasing their functionality," said research team leader Rajesh Menon from the University of Utah in america.

Menon and colleagues noted that the flat lens can maintain focus for objects that are about six metres aside from each other.

Flat lenses use nanostructures patterned on a set surface instead of bulky glass or plastic to attain the important optical properties that control the way light travels.

"This new lens could have many interesting applications outside photography such as for example creating highly efficient illumination for LIDAR that's crucial for many autonomous systems, including self-driving cars," said Menon.

Conventional cameras, whether found in smartphones or for microscopy, require focusing to make certain that the facts of an object are sharp, the researchers said. If there are multiple objects at different distances from the camera, each object must be focused separately, they said.

"The brand new lens eliminates the necessity for focusing and allows any camera to keep all of the objects in focus simultaneously," said Menon.

After choosing the best lens design for depth of focus, the researchers used nanofabrication ways to make a prototype lens. Studies confirmed that the brand new lens performed needlessly to say and achieved a depth of focus several orders of magnitude bigger than that of an equivalent conventional lens.

They plan to extend the lens to larger numerical apertures and also to make make use of it with the full obvious light spectrum. Work to make certain that the lenses could possibly be mass manufactured is also needed before they could be commercialised, the researchers said.