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Origami Helps Cellphone Cameras To Focus

Posted by simoniker on from the introducing-the-blade-runner-approach dept.

Sea Monkey writes "New Scientist has an article on the development of novel and ultra-cheap micromotor technology. It's a new type of linear motor, 'using a technique closer to origami than engineering' to cut slits out of tiny piezoelectric ceramic parts. One of the envisioned applications is taking a sheet of the material with the motors, wrapping it into a tube and moving a lens up and down it - instant tiny movable focusing element for cellphone camera lenses."

3 of 132 comments (clear)

  1. PZT motors are brittle by Compuser · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Oh man, I work with PZT all the time. It is so
    brittle it hurts. Dropping this camera will be
    a disaster. Heck, even the kinda jolt from
    car traffic and the like (stuff that used to
    make old cd players skip) may break this motor.

  2. Other applications? Dobsonian focusser? by Trull · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Thinking about this invention, I'd love to get my hands on this stuff to line the insides of my homebrew Newtonian Dobsonian 22cm f7.3 telescope. I think that this would make a cheaper and lighter solution to microfocus the eyepiece. After all I'll be running a webcam off it and eventually will fit steppers for alt/az control as well. So an electronic focussing element would be just great.

    Clear Skies

    Torc

    --
    -- NSY - SY OOT - Doric signs on local shop doors.
  3. This isn't new, nor is it innovative. Prior art: by Myself · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Canon has used ultrasonic piezoelectric motors in their lenses for years. These are the "mexican wave" (wtf?) motors that the New Scientist article mentions. I'm not sure why they'd be any more expensive than the origami motors described here.

    Piezoelectric stick-slip actuators are nothing new. Those units built at Cambridge apparently pre-date the units mentioned in the article, but the surface preparation technique is somewhat different.