Side-Sliding Lenses Could Improve Smartphone Cameras

Oct-05-14 The startup DynaOptics hopes to improve smartphone photographs by incorporating lenses that move side-to-side instead of back and forth.

Created with the trend toward ever-thinner phones in mind, the lenses are able to provide the more powerful optical zoom to smartphone cameras without increasing bulk. Traditionally, optical zoom works by increasing the distance between the image sensor and the lens by physically moving the lens away from the camera body, but such mechanisms require extra space.

In contrast, the optical zoom created by DynaOptics packs an array of lenses—each of which is both concave and convex—into the main lens module (currently a prototype). The lens module is equipped with an electric motor and connects to the image sensor, which in turn is tethered to a laptop that runs the company's software. When the system is activated by remote control, the lenses will shift to overlap sideways and bring the selected image into focus.

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[TECHNOLOGYREVIEW.COM]
[DYNAOPTICS.COM]

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