Liquid lenses for camera phones

French start-up Varioptic says that camera phones might soon have lenses made from a couple of drops of oil and water, while still be capable of auto focusing, and even zooming in on subjects.

The technology relies on the principles of electro-wetting. This is the tendency of liquid to spread on a substrate, explains Etienne Paillard, CEO of the company. "It means we can tune the shape of the drop to create a lens. Think about a tunable lens, like in the human eye."

One of the advantages of liquid lenses is that there are no moving parts, so less to break and it should be more rugged. Power consumption is around a tenth of that of a motorised auto focus lens.

It can be made very small. So far, the limit is a couple of millimetres, but the company is thrying to shrink the lens further.

The company has a non-exclusive licensing deal with a subsidiary of Samsung to develop the lenses for use in camera phones. Products could be on the shelves by Q1 2006 at the latest, and maybe even in time for Christmas next year.

The first product will be the auto focussing lens, but in another year's time Varioptics will have a true zoom capability, using two of the liquid lenses, Paillard says. "We've just proven in simulation that a 3x zoom is possible. We're building the prototype now."
(via The Register)

Regine | 10:44 AM | |
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