Liquid Artificial Lens Mimics Eye Function
Dutch researchers
have eveloped a fluid lens that can alter its focusing power at the flick
of an electric switch.
The device
could find use in hand-held computers and camera telephones, the British
journal Nature's online Science Update reported.
The FluidFocus
lens, as it is called, could speed the development of ever-tinier gadgets,
said the researchers, at Philips Research in
Endhoven, the Netherlands.
The lens will
be manufactured in commercial quantities in a year or two, they said, although
its cost is still uncertain. The focal distance of the lens can be changed
by applying an electric field.
At its most
convex, the FluidFocus lens can focus on an object only 5 centimeters away.
As the electric field drops, the lens flips from close-up to distant focusing
in just 10 milliseconds.
The FluidFocus
soon could show up in miniature cameras, and it also might be useful in
medical tools such as endoscopes.
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