New - Liquid Lenses

[SoCal Steve]

Exerpted from the April 2005 Issue of WIRED Magazine:

"....the ideal optical setup would be small, soft, and adaptable, like the human eye. So cell phone makers are salivating over liquid lenses, tiny gadgets that suspend a drop of liquid in an electrostatic field. Change the field and the shape of the droplet changes, too, altering how the light bends when it passes through -just like a lens.

It works because of a property called wettability: On hydrophilic surfaces, water sticks and spreads out; on hydrophobic surfaces, water is repelled, so it beads up to minimize contact area. But varying electrical voltage across the water droplet changes its response to the surface; in essence, you can dial wettability up or down, changing the shape of the droplet-lens on the fly. You end up with an optical power 5 to 10 times greater than the human eye, and response that's up to 20 times faster."

Varioptic in Lyon, France, combined salt water and an oil with the same density but different optical properties. The oil forms the lens; the water changes shape to control it. Meanwhile, Philips Research in the Netherlands is aiming its FluidFocus lenses at higher-end applications, like optical zooms for digital cameras. In a typical camera, a zoom is a kind of telescope: lenses at each end with a variable distance between them. Philips instead assembles three lenses, two plastic and one liquid with a glass core. The core doesn't change, but the liquid can alter the overall lens shape dramatically. Result: a miniature, high-powered zoom."

Full article on page 34 of Wired Magazine, April 2005

[beej]

"You end up with an optical power 5 to 10 times greater than the human eye, and response that's up to 20 times faster"

Wow, big call.

- beej

[DiZZ]

There was prototypes at last years CeBIT: http://www.dpreview.com/news/0403/04030 ... idlens.asp

Either way, its very impressive stuff.

[Killakoala]

Liquid Lenses.

I have two of these already, but they are alcohol activated, usually only useful in low light such as a dingy bar, but they do make ugly women look stunning.

Highly recommended for portraits but beware that they only work at night and by morning things can turn nasty.

[Matt. K]

Steve
What F/stop?

[Killakoala]

Steve
What F/stop?

Apeture varies dependant on the alcohol content of the beverage. It starts off with an automatic and very fast adjustment but slows down considerably if the alcohold content is increased. Eventually they all but fail and it has been known to see people holding up glasses in from of the lens to see if the convex/concave structure of the middie/schooner can help with focussing and light gathering.