Varioptic (Lyon, France), which makes electrically controlled liquid lenses, has developed its first liquid lens that offers optical image stabilization (OIS) to mobile phones.
Varioptic’s autofocus (AF) liquid lenses, which operate via electrowetting, are used in consumer, medical, and industrial devices such as HD-DV camcorders, barcode readers, security cameras, dental cameras, and machine-vision cameras. The company’s liquid lenses have been in production since January 2007 and, more recently, have been ramping up to mass production with Japanese partner Seiko Instruments.
Eliminating effects of shaky hands
Varioptic has now finalized the next generation of OIS liquid lenses that correct for blur caused by the normal amount of “hand-shake.” Today’s camera phones deliver relatively poor image capture indoors with a frustrating hand-shake blur. The new Varioptic liquid lens with the OIS function (model number A316S) compensates for hand-shake, producing an image quality comparable to a compact digital still camera.
The new liquid lens has no moving parts and uses less than 50 mW of power during a shot. The liquid lens actuator fits in a typical AF camera module volume.
“This unique OIS technology, developed by Varioptic, will enable our customers to integrate liquid lenses in camera phones in early 2011, accelerating Varioptic’s growth,” said Christian Dupont, Varioptic’s CEO.
Low light indoor photography and stabilized video capture will be demonstrated during the Mobile World Congress (Barcelona, Spain; February 15 to 18, 2010). OIS developer’s kits and samples of the new A316S liquid lenses are available upon request ( [email protected]).
John Wallace | Senior Technical Editor (1998-2022)
John Wallace was with Laser Focus World for nearly 25 years, retiring in late June 2022. He obtained a bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering and physics at Rutgers University and a master's in optical engineering at the University of Rochester. Before becoming an editor, John worked as an engineer at RCA, Exxon, Eastman Kodak, and GCA Corporation.