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Origami Helps Cellphone Cameras To Focus
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."
I'm a guy, I have NO idea how to give the fine ladies an oragami.
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.
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.
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-- NSY - SY OOT - Doric signs on local shop doors.
ok, now i'm gonna rant, because i'm so tired of hearing this kind of comment every time a new tech is introduced.
this is just silly-
you are saying that cameras have no use to the
general population!! what kind of idiot are you?
why do you think digital cameras have become so popular? because people need them and like them.
haveing one with me all the time, even a crappy one, is super cool AND useful. hell, my mom uses it to show her quilting buddies fabric before she buys it. just because you aren't imaginitive enought o conceive of a use for something, doesn't mean that the rest of the world will be as dull.
people have been using cameras for a long time. even ORDINARY people. you knoe, the kind who don't need a 10megapixel SLR to take pics of their kids or something interesting.
The cameras in mobile phones use simple fixed-focus single-element lenses that are sufficiently wide that everything from about 50cm to infinity is in focus. What's the point of adding an unnecessary focussing mechanism - it'll just put the price of the phone up and add another mode of potential failure, without adding any worthwhile functionality.
I can see lots of useful appliations for a tiny linear motor, but I'm not convinced that this is one of them.
Actually, a cell phone and a digital camera are two decives that are really GREAT to combine.
The whole reason for small cameras is making snapshots ect. Therefore you need the have them around when something happens that you want to make a photo of.
Now on the otherhand, most people own a cell phone, and they naturally have it with them.
Now both devices need a signal processor, an accu-pack, memory, ect.
So it is quite sensible to make them one device.
HI O WISE PRINCE. WHT TOOK U SO DAM LONG?
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.
that is true only where there is network lock in, and there is no problems with network here either (how bad are the networks in usa? the gsm network has been 'perfect' for the last ~5-7 years here ffs, and i pay the same rate in most of europe as i pay in my home country), not that it makes the camera any more usefull or less useful.
the uses are limited but on the better phones with cameras(nokia3650 for one, the lens is better than on 7650) the camera is good enough to beat a disposable camera(especially when you get to see the picture, whereas on a disposable cameras you don't).
not a replacement to a good digicam but it's something you have with you _always_, no matter how compact camera you have you're going to end up leaving it but you don't leave your mobile, so you end up getting loads of party pics(and travel pics as such: here ). besides than that it's just 'nice extra' in 3650 anyways, the other features are much more useful and valuable for a power user(symbian, mmc memory expansion, gprs, powerful enough cpu).
the even smaller resolution cameras in cheaper/smaller phones are pretty useless though except for sending mms messages.
world was created 5 seconds before this post as it is.
Now you can not only call 911, you can send them a _picture_ of the guy that's mugging you and taking your expensive cellphone!
"Freedom means freedom for everybody" -- Dick Cheney