April 30, 2005
Bug-eyed lens may mean slimmer camera phones
The multitude of lenses that make up an insect's eye is providing inspiration for a new generation of super-slim camera phone, reports New Scientist.
"Conventional camera lenses cannot be shrunk below a few millimetres in thickness before reducing the field of view. But a compound lens, made from hundreds of tiny "micro lenses", can be made around one-tenth of the width, while retaining the same field of view and quality of image.
A prototype compound eye, consisting of scores of polymer micro-lenses has now been developed by researchers at the Fraunhofer Institute for Applied Optics and Precision Engineering in Germany, Swiss company SUSS MicroOptics and the University of Neuchâtel in Switzerland.
[...] Nick Jones, a mobile phone expert at analyst firm Gartner, UK, says size of a cell phone camera depends primarily on the mechanism used to focus and zoom. But he says a smaller lens could perhaps be integrated with an optical sensor to make a cheaper overall camera system."
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