Camera That Does Not Require Focusing Developed By An Indian Scientist

The camera that does not need a focusing feature has been invented by an Indian scientist-led team. In order to achieve their goal, a single lens that had one-thousandth of an inch thick was used for the experiment. 

According to the Rajesh Menon, head of the project, the advance they are experimenting with could be adapted to thinner smartphone cameras, much smaller lenses for biomedical imaging like endoscopy, or more compact cameras for automobiles. 

As described in the journal Optica, newly-developed technology offers huge benefits compared to conventional cameras such as those in most smartphones, which require plenty of lenses to have high-quality, in-focus images. 

Menon and companions noted that the flat lens can focus on the objects that are about six meters apart from each other. 

In flat lenses, bulky glass or plastic are replaced by nanostructures on a flat surface to obtain the important optical properties which control the way light travels. 

The Indian scientist also stated that their design approach could be spread out to be applied to create optical components with many other properties such as extreme bandwidth, easier manufacturability or more reasonable price. 

Experiments proved that the new lens performed as perfectly as expected; it obtained a depth of focus some orders of magnitude which is larger than that of a similar traditional lens. 

Therefore, the lens is planned to be extended to larger numerical apertures to be used with the full visible light spectrum. 

The most important thing is that the researchers have ensured that these lenses could be manufactured on a large scale to meet the need for commerce.