SAN DIEGO, Jan. 31 (UPI) -- U.S. engineers say they have built a powerful, yet ultra-thin, digital camera by folding the telephoto lens.
University of California-San Diego researchers say the technology might yield lightweight, ultra-thin, high-resolution miniature cameras for unmanned surveillance aircraft, cell phones and infrared night vision applications.
"Our imager is about seven times more powerful than a conventional lens of the same depth," said Eric Tremblay, an electrical and computer engineering doctoral candidate and first author of the study.
"This type of miniature camera is very promising for applications where you want high-resolution images and a short exposure time. This describes what cell phone cameras want to be when they grow up," said Professor Joseph Ford, who led the project. "Today's cell phone cameras are pretty good for wide angle shots but because space constraints require short focal length lenses, when you zoom them in, they're terrible. They're blurry, dark and low contrast."
To reduce camera thickness, but retain good light collection and high-resolution capabilities, Tremblay and colleagues replaced the traditional lens with a "folded" optical system.
The project is detailed in the February issue of the journal Applied Optics.
