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Shaping light with a Smartlens
In a study recently published in Nature Photonics, [...] researchers demonstrate an adjustable technique to manipulate light without any mechanical movement. In this approach, coined Smartlens, a current is passed through a well-optimized micrometer-scale resistor, and the heating locally changes the optical properties of the transparent polymer plate holding the resistor.
In much the same way as a mirage bends light passing through hot air to create illusions of distant lakes, this microscale hot region is able to deviate light. Within milliseconds, a simple slab of polymer can be turned into a lens and back: small, micrometer-scale Smartlenses heat up and cool down quickly and with minimal power consumption. They can even be fabricated in arrays, and the authors show that several objects located at very different distances can be brought into focus within the same image by activating the Smartlenses located in front of each of them, even if the scene is in colours.
By modelling the diffusion of heat and the propagation of light and using algorithms inspired by the laws of natural selection the authors show they can go way beyond simple lenses: a properly engineered resistor can shape light with a very high level of control and achieve a wide variety of optical functions. For instance, if the right resistor is imprinted on it, a piece of polymer could be activated or deactivated at will to generate a given "freeform" and correct specific defects in our eyesight, or the aberrations of an optical instrument.
Tunable and free-form planar optics[$], Nature photonics (DOI: 10.1038/s41566-019-0486-3)
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 29 2019, @07:01AM (3 children)
So let me be clear on this: to correct an oh-so-slowly-changing problem with my eyesight, you want to use a device which needs a very high amount of complex control (my eyesight is screwed up in complicated ways and has very fine resolution, thank you), kept exactly constant for second, after second, after second ... for years, without any conceivable way of auto-tuning the actual results (i.e.: no closed control loop possible for the foreseeable future!), needs a constant flow of power to stay working, and is immediately responsible for my performance in a life-threatening, hair-trigger-reaction activity (driving my car at 60 miles). All of that presumably embedded in a _free-floating_ contact lens?
Now, pray tell, why are you not, first, manufacturing an equally complexly fine-tuned contact lens _without_ the need for constant adjustment? That would already help me _a lot_, you know? And it would have the additional advantage of not being a total, technological rainbow pony cloud castle.
Now, don't get me wrong: I'm as excited about technological progress as anybody here, and I'm very sure this stuff has excellent, immediate uses that it can, should and will be put to, but I find the "eyesight"-claim to be absolutely preposterous bullshit, obviously geared at that sweet, sweet investment funding: "Wooaaahhh!!! HUUUUGGGEEEEE market!!! Let's corner it with the patents! PUT!, I say, PUT!, or even better BUYOUT!!"
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Monday July 29 2019, @07:27AM
Hey, I believe you when you say you are not in any market segment that can benefit.
But, for example, real-time vision correction for the oh-so-many affected by beer goggles is of outmost importance to their immediate quality of life and, indeed, for the humanity's issue with overpopulation.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 29 2019, @01:07PM
If you presume silly things, that's on you. It would obviously be more practical as eyeglasses than contact lenses.
They already make equally complex eyeglass lenses without constant adjustment, although the normal single-axis astigmatism correction is enough for most people.
The benefit for eyeglasses is not the additional complexity available, it's the adjustability.
You know a lot of people with severely limited focal range currently use multiple eyeglass prescriptions for different tasks, right? Whether in the form of bifocal/trifocal glasses, contacts + reading glasses, etc.
Depending on the power requirements, it seems like it could be pretty nifty for some of those people. Even manually selected prescriptions, without extra glasses to carry around (and risk losing) when not using them, could be worth the obvious downside of a powered system. Combined with eye-tracking, etc., you could even slave the eyeglass focus to convergence or focus for an automatic system.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 29 2019, @05:34PM
Funny thing -- not all of us are young and agile.
I used to silently scoff at the people who couldn't read the dim, tiny fonts on my computer screen. That was twenty-five years ago.
Now I'm in my sixties and I have several pair of adjustable reading glasses. Going from computer screen to television to a book and back and forth requires more than just bifocals or tri-focals. My eyeballs lose the ability to re-focus depending on other outside factors too. I've noticed my sugar intake affects what level of reading glasses I need. Coffee. Exercise. If I drive for an extended period of time at high speed so I'm used to focusing farther out, then try to read a book, requires a whole different kind of glasses than if I picked up the same book fist thing in the morning upon waking up.
Yeah, I could really use a good smart pair of glasses. How many other people are their in my age group?