Water makes camera phones zoom and focus better

Singapore scientists are now using water to make camera phones zoom and focus better, according to The Electric New Paper.

"Researchers from the Institute of Materials Research (IMRE) in Singapore may have the solution to enable camera phones to have better zooming and focusing capabilities, by using special water lens.

Using the eye principle, IMRE's lead researcher, Dr Saman Dharmatilleke, said they created the FluidLens technology to mimic the way the human eye focuses.

It consists of a reservoir of water (or even other fluids) housed in a polycarbonate material.

One end of the reservoir has a tiny hole which acts as the camera lens while the other is connected to a small device which controls the water pressure.

When pressure is increased, the water moves away from the tiny hole. This has the same effect is rounding off the lens and decreasing the focal length (for near images).

When the pressure is decreased, the water moves into the hole and the 'lens' stretches, thus increasing the focal length and adjusting for far images.

Because of surface tension, the water does not fall out of the tiny hole, although a thin membrane may be added, just to be safe."

emily | 11:42 AM | News, Buzz |
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