The 'Origami Lens' for Camera Phones

The researchers at the University of California at San Diego have designed a very interesting new type of camera lens, the 'origami lens' that has the purpose of slimming high resolution cameras.

Their 5 mm thick and 8 fold imager delivers images that can be easily compared as quality to the photos taken with a compact camera lens with a 38 mm focal length.

Provided manufacturers will decide to adopt this new lens, they could soon be used in high resolution miniature cameras for unmanned surveillance aircraft, mobile phones and infrared night vision applications.

The research project has been conducted at the UCSD Jacobs School of Engineering and led by Eric Trembley, an electrical and computer engineering Ph.D., under the direction of Joseph Ford, a professor of electrical and computer engineering.

"This type of miniature camera is very promising for applications where you want high resolution images and a short exposure time. This describes what mobile phone cameras want to be when they grow up," said Ford. "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."

The lens' new folded system bends and focuses light while it is reflected back and forth inside a single 5mm thick optical crystal, instead of bending and focusing light through separate mirrors and lenses.

While this sounds promising, there's no telling when we'll actually get to see this included in mobile phones. Tremblay said, "I don't know, but I'm hopeful. I think it's a good possibility."