What's Next In Science & Technology

The Varioptic lens is based on the principles of electro-wetting. This is the tendency of liquid to spread on a substrate.

"It means we can tune the shape of the drop to create a lens. Think about a tunable lens, like in the human eye."

The lens has a simple structure: two liquids, of equal density, sandwiched between two windows in a conical vessel. One liquid is water, which is conductive. The other, oil, acts as a lid, allowing the engineers to work with a fixed volume of water, and provides a measure of stability for the optical axis.

The interface between the oil and water will change shape depending on the voltage applied across the conical structure. At zero volts, the surface is flat, but at 40 volts, the surface of the oil is highly convex.

The first product will be the auto focusing lens for cell phone cameras, but Varioptics will soon have a true zoom capability, using two of the liquid lenses.

While these liquid lenses will allow us to take better pictures with our digital cameras, the largest potential is in the medical imaging and biometry/identification fields.

With its response time of 2/100 of a second, the variation rate of the liquid lens is a major asset for character reading, bar codes, or other biometrical identification elements such as iris and fingerprint recognition.

Medical uses include endoscopy, imaging by confocal microscopy, laser beam focus, control on tumours...

Ophthalmology can also take benefit of the adaptive liquid optics, perhaps eventually fashioning a life-like artifical eye for those who suffer from ocular diseases.