This isn’t the first time we’re featuring work by Caltech researchers. After that 3D scanning camera chip for mobile, here is a new innovation that will hopefully make cameras thinner than ever. An ultra-thin camera without lenses is in the works at Caltech. We know cameras are getting smaller but they can’t be really flat because of the lenses. A recent project is said to be a game-changer in mobile photography.
Some engineers have tried to design a camera that uses an ultra-thin optical phased array instead of lenses. The OPA is said to manipulate incoming light so it can capture an image. The idea is that camera can look in different directions now because the OPA has many light receivers already.
Here’s how Ali Hajimiri, Electrical Engineering and Medical Engineering’s Bren Professor at Caltech’s Division of Engineering and Applied Science has described the project, “We’ve created a single thin layer of integrated silicon photonics that emulates the lens and sensor of a digital camera, reducing the thickness and cost of digital cameras. It can mimic a regular lens, but can switch from a fish-eye to a telephoto lens instantaneously—with just a simple adjustment in the way the array receives light.”
This improvement in technology will make cameras truly flat. In the near future, we’ll probably see a super thin camera sans the obvious bump.
SOURCE: Caltech
