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the shape of the lens rather than by varying the relative positions of
multiple lenses. It uses electrostatic force to alter the shape of a
drop of slightly salty water inside a cylinder 3 millimeters and 2.2
mm long. So it can be made to be very small and the images taken
by using these lenses will be having very high quality.
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Camera
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Image Formation by A Lens
The distance from the lens to this principal focus point is called the
focal length of the lens and will be designated by the symbol f. A
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converging lens may be used to project an image of a lighted
object. For example, the converging lens in a slide projector is
used to project an image of a photographic slide on a screen, and
the converging lens in the eye of the viewer in turn projects an
image of the screen on the retina in the back of the eye.
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investigation of image formation by the eye with the use of a large
eye model. The calculation of focal length of a lens is described
below.
1. Position the lens and white screen on the optical bench and
place them so that the distance from the lighted "object" to the lens
can be measured on the bench scale. Adjust the screen to get a
clear image.
(1)
(2)
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2. What is the average of your focal length measurements,
expressed in meters?
A fixed focus lens is a lens in which the focus is preset and is not
adjustable.
But the focal length of a variable focus lens can be changed for
the need of zooming.
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images that come out of these equipments leave plenty to be
desired. Part of the problem is their CMOS imaging chips, which
typically have a sensor array of only about 300 kilopixels—a
quarter or less of the number in a low-end digital camera. Also
these have poor light-gathering and resolving power. These fixed-
focus lenses use a small aperture and short focal length to keep
most things in focus, but at the sacrifice of light-gathering power
and therefore of picture quality.
Fluid focus lens is a solution for this. This functions like our eye. It
varies its focus by changing shape rather than by changing the
relative positions of multiple lenses, as high-quality camera lenses
do. Fluid Focus lens can be made nearly as small as a fixed-focus
lens.
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Eye Anatomy
When you look at an object, light rays are reflected from the object
to the cornea, which is where the miracle begins. The light rays
are bent, refracted and focused by the cornea, lens, and vitreous.
The lens' job is to make sure the rays come to a sharp focus on the
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retina. The resulting image on the retina is upside-down. Here at
the retina, the light rays are converted to electrical impulses which
are then transmitted through the optic nerve, to the brain, where
the image is translated and perceived in an upright position!
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Theory Behind Fluid Focus Lens
A fluid focus lens varies its focus by changing its shape. The
human eye focuses on objects at different distances by contracting
and expanding muscles attached to the lens. The muscles change
the shape of the lens and alter its focal length.
Fluid focus lens, on the other hand, uses electrostatic forces to alter
the shape of a drop of slightly salty water inside a glass cylinder 3
millimeters in diameter and 2.2 mm long. One end of the cylinder
points toward the image plane; the other is directed at the subject
being imaged.
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drop sitting on a metal surface. The drop wets, or contacts, the
surface better when it is attracted by an electric field.
Electrowetting
With electrowetting a voltage is used to modify the wetting
properties of a solid material. An example of such increased
wettability is illustrated in the photographs of figure . The left
hand side shows a water droplet on a hydrophobic surface. The
water droplet does not like to be in contact with the surface and
therefore minimizes the contact area.
In the photograph on the right hand side, a voltage difference is
applied between the electrode in the water and a sub-surface
electrode present underneath the hydrophobic insulator material.
As a result of the voltage, the droplet spreads, i.e. the wettability of
the surface increases strongly.
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When the voltage is removed, the droplet returns to the original
state indicated on the left hand side.
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A voltage on the electrode attracts water molecules toward the
cylinder's surface, making it act less repellent, and the water
surface becomes concave. Here, parallel light rays passing through
the meniscus converge at a focal point.
The cylinder containing the water drop is filled with oil. Around
the inside walls of the cylinder is a water-repellent Teflon-like
coating, and behind this coating is an electrode. Basically, the
water and the oil make up the lens, and the shape of the interface
between the two—the meniscus—determines its focal length.
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Changing the voltage on the electrode changes the shape of the
interface and alters the focal length of the lens.
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cylinder wall. If the glass is greasy, the water surface curves
downward near the wall, because grease repels water.
The optical power of the lens that forms at the surface between the
oil and the water depends on two things: the curvature of the
meniscus and the difference between the refractive indices of the
oil and water. The refractive index—the ratio of the speed of light
in a vacuum to its speed in the medium—characterizes the amount
by which light bends when it passes from one medium to another.
The curvature of the meniscus depends on the diameter of the
cylinder and on how strongly the cylinder wall repels or attracts
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the water. That attraction or repulsion changes with the voltage on
the electrode.
In our lens, the coating on the inside walls of the cylinder repels
water so strongly that the water does not even touch it: there is a
very thin oil layer between the coating and the water. So the water
touches the cylinder only at the flat surface on one end, which has
no water-repellent coating. With no voltage on the electrode, the
meniscus is hemispherical, with the center bulging outward
beyond the ring where the water comes closest to the cylinder.
However, a voltage on the electrode attracts the water and
produces a concave meniscus, forcing the edges beyond the center.
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This property makes small electrowetting lenses very fast. Fluid
focus lens can refocus in 10 milliseconds, much faster than the
human eye, which can refocus in about 200 ms. Scaled to the size
of a human eye lens, the refocusing time would increase to 50 ms,
which would still be four times faster than that of the eye.
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meters. The closer objects are to a lens, the more the lens must
bend the light to bring them into focus. So when an object is far
away, a lens needs less optical power to bring it into focus than it
does when the object is near. Our liquid lens changes its focus by
changing its optical power through the change of the water drop's
radius of curvature with voltage on the electrode.
In front of this plastic lens is the liquid lens in its cylindrical glass
housing, with the cylinder's outer diameter measuring 4 mm and its
inner diameter 3 mm. The oil side of the liquid lens is close to the
imager. A glass plate seals the liquid lens on the side near the
imager, and a truncated glass sphere mounted on a flexible
membrane seals it on the opposite side.
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In the schematic drawing of the liquid lens [top], a plastic lens at the
aperture provides the main optical power, while the glass lens below it
makes the camera's focal length independent of wavelength. The camera
captures images with a CMOS sensor.
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By changing the voltage on the electrode of the liquid lens, we
were able to focus on objects at distances anywhere from 2
centimeters up to infinity. To do so, we varied the focal length
from 2.85 mm to 3.55 mm .
Two photos made with the liquid-lens camera show how the focal length
can change to bring each of two objects into focus. The genie is 50
centimeters from the camera, and the ladybug is 5 cm away.
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lower the freezing point sufficiently without adversely affecting
the image quality.
There is, however, one property for which this lens probably can't
beat the human body, and that is lifetime. But we can vary the
focus of this liquid lens—from one end of its range to the other—
more than a million times without any decrease in performance.
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Conclusion
So we can expect that within the next year or two these Fluid
Focus lenses will be enhancing the resolution of pictures taken
with cell phone and PDA cameras.
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References
http://www.umiacs.umd.edu/~ramani/cmsc828d/lecture3.pdf
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