Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Change of Focus for Liquid Crystals

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the scientists-all-charged-up-about-new-discovery dept.

Dylan Knight Rogers writes to tell us PhysicsWeb is reporting that US physicists have discovered a new liquid-crystal lens design that can alter the focus by varying the voltage applied. From the article: "The new lens, which has been built by Shin-Tson Wu and colleagues at the University of Central Florida, allows the focus to be changed in a new way. The device consists of a mixture of liquid-crystal molecules and smaller N-vinylpyrrollidone monomers placed between two glass substrates, each of which is coated with a thin transparent layer of conducting indium tin oxide. They then placed a concave glass lens with a flat base on top of one of the substrates."

8 of 101 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Not for monitors just yet by x2A · · Score: 4, Informative

    What would LCD monitors use it for? It's you that focuses your eyes on them, not them that need to focus on you.

    --
    The revolution will not be televised... but it will have a page on Wikipedia
  2. Nice! by smalgin · · Score: 2, Informative

    Wow, a device from the 'Dune'. they had neat binoculars based on the same principle if I remember correctly...

  3. Re:Battery life... by mikerozh · · Score: 2, Informative

    Most of the power is spent on the LCD diplay of the camera.

  4. Re:Battery life... by Volanin · · Score: 4, Informative
    Our lens stretches and contracts to adapt its focal length, and it not clear to me why it's been so difficult to adapt this principle to manmade optical equipment. Anyone got an answer?

    We might be not too far from that.
    Check out these Fluidlenses.
    --
    If I clone myself, can I call it a thread?
    If a girl winks to us, can I call it a race condition?
  5. Re:Battery life... by sco08y · · Score: 5, Informative

    A camera that could Auto-focus without any moving, mechanical parts

    I'm not sure if that would work.

    From TFA:

    The only snag with the new device is its long focusing time of about three minutes. This is because the lens is relatively large (9 mm), which means that molecular diffusion across it is slow. However, this should not be problem in micro-sized lenses in which the estimated response time is around 1 second at room temperature.

    I assume they're talking about lens diameter. It might work for smaller cellphone type cameras, though.

  6. Dupe by brian0918 · · Score: 2, Informative

    This looks like a dupe from a story from last December, I think.

  7. Re:Battery life... by gwiner · · Score: 3, Informative
    I was a little disappointed after reading the article to see that this seems to be applied more for photonic switching, than camera optics. (Not that those things aren't cool too, but I had visions of self-focusing eywear, and tiny cameras) From the article:

    The only snag with the new device is its long focusing time of about three minutes. This is because the lens is relatively large (9 mm), which means that molecular diffusion across it is slow. However, this should not be problem in micro-sized lenses in which the estimated response time is around 1 second at room temperature. The technique could also be used to make other adaptive microdevices such as prism arrays and phase gratings, say the researchers.
  8. Re:Battery life... by Rah'Dick · · Score: 2, Informative

    A camera that could Auto-focus without any moving, mechanical parts

    I'm not sure if that would work.

    Maybe not with this kind of technology, but it's already been done: Light Field Photography with a Hand-Held Plenoptic Camera. Check out the videos at the bottom of the page - digital refocusing of still images is just awesome.