Picture this: New camera uses water as lens

Water refracts, but it also depicts. Cutting-edge technology developed at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) has harnessed this capacity molecule by molecule until — voilà! — a camera emerged.

Amir H. Hirsa, a scientist and professor at RPI, has designed a lens that requires just two droplets of water to capture an image. In an age of generous carbon footprints, the new cameras do not cost much, weigh much, or use much energy.

According to a Newswise press release “The lens is made up of a pair of water droplets, which vibrate back and forth upon exposure to a high-frequency sound, and in turn change the focus of the lens. By using imaging software to automatically capture in-focus frames and discard any out of focus frames, the researchers can create streaming images from lightweight, low-cost, high-fidelity miniature cameras.”

Researchers at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute claim the camera can take 250 pictures per second. Herza thinks the technology will be useful for cell phone companies as well as for defense and homeland security.

Read more here.

Source: Newswire