Photonics/​Optics

Lenses

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Products: Photonics/Optics
See the new products, including TRIOPTICS' ImageMaster® PRO AR Reflection waveguide testing solution; TOP-TICA’s Clock Laser System; Aerotech Inc.'s HexGen® HEX150-125HL Miniature Hexapod, a six degree-of-freedom precision positioning system; Teledyne e2v's Optimom™ 5D turnkey imaging module; Coherent Corp.'s set of pluggable optical transceivers optimized for use in data centers that incorporate optical circuit switches; and more.
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Briefs: Photonics/Optics
Augmented reality has become a hot topic in the entertainment, fashion, and makeup industries. Though a few different technologies exist in these fields, dynamic facial projection mapping is among the most sophisticated and visually stunning ones. Read on to learn more about it.
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Briefs: Photonics/Optics
Innovators at NASA Johnson Space Center have developed a handheld digital microscope to fill the critical microscopy needs of human space exploration by providing flight crews in situ hematological diagnostic and tracking ability to assess and monitor crew health in the absence of gravity. Read on to learn more.
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INSIDER: Photonics/Optics
A beam of light doesn’t sound like a material that can create a knot. Until now.
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Articles: Semiconductors & ICs
See the products of tomorrow, including paper-thin optical lenses simple enough to mass produce like microchips; a compact cooling technology that can pump away heat continuously using layers of flexing thin films; and a multilayered chip design that doesn’t require any silicon wafer substrates and works at temperatures low enough to preserve the underlying layer’s circuitry.
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Briefs: Manufacturing & Prototyping
Researchers in the emerging field of spatial computing have developed a prototype augmented reality headset that uses holographic imaging to overlay full-color, 3D moving images on the lenses of what would appear to be an ordinary pair of glasses. Read on to learn more about it.
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INSIDER: Photonics/Optics
Seven early-stage startup companies have been selected to compete for a top prize of $10,000 at the 15th annual SPIE Startup Challenge at Photonics West Tuesday, January 28.
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INSIDER: Imaging
The SPIE Photonics West 2025 technical conference and exhibition returns to San Francisco's Moscone Center, January 25 to 30, providing attendees the opportunity to learn...
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Briefs: Medical
Researchers have made it possible to expand tissue twentyfold in a single step. This simple, inexpensive method could pave the way for nearly any biology lab to perform nanoscale imaging. Read on to learn more.
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Briefs: AR/AI
Researchers have developed an optical design technology that dramatically reduces the volume of cameras with a folded lens system utilizing “metasurfaces,” a next-generation nano-optical device. Read on to learn more.
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Briefs: Photonics/Optics
A team from the University of Barcelona and the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya has designed a methodology that facilitates the recognition of QR codes in these physical environments, where reading is more complicated. Read on to learn more.
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Briefs: Photonics/Optics
In a paper published in the journal Nature Nanotechnology, a team of Caltech engineers reports building a metasurface patterned with miniscule tunable antennas capable of reflecting an incoming beam of optical light to create many sidebands, or channels, of different optical frequencies. Read on to learn more.
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Briefs: Imaging
Butterflies can see more of the world than humans, including more colors and the field oscillation direction, or polarization, of light. Other species, like the mantis shrimp, can sense an even wider spectrum of light, as well as the circular polarization, or spinning states, of light waves. Inspired by these abilities in the animal kingdom, researchers have developed an ultrathin optical element known as a metasurface, which can attach to a conventional camera and encode the spectral and polarization data of images captured in a snapshot or video through tiny, antenna-like nano-structures that tailor light properties.
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Blog: Imaging
A team developed a pinhole compound vision system by adopting new materials and structures. This system features several key characteristics, including an inherent hemispherical perovskite nanowire array imager with high pixel density to enlarge the imaging field and a 3D-printed lens-free pinhole array.
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Articles: Photonics/Optics
Optics are used in a vast range of applications in virtually every sector of human endeavor, from scientific microscopes to medical diagnostic imaging, from automobile headlights to telescopes pointed at the stars. Read on to learn about their advances.
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Briefs: AR/AI
A new method enables optical devices that more closely match their design specifications, boosting accuracy and efficiency. Read on to learn more.
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Briefs: Photonics/Optics
The palm-sized light field camera could improve autonomous driving, classification of recycled materials, and remote sensing. Read on to learn more about it.
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Briefs: Imaging
This innovative camera technology represents a significant advance in object detection, offering numerous potential applications across various industries. Read on to learn more.
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Blog: Photonics/Optics
A new camera could prevent companies from collecting embarrassing and identifiable photos and videos from devices like smart home cameras and robotic vacuums.
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Blog: Photonics/Optics
Researchers have developed a technique that allows artificial intelligence (AI) programs to better map three-dimensional (3D) spaces using two-dimensional (2D) images captured by multiple cameras.
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Blog: Photonics/Optics
Researchers have leveraged deep learning techniques to enhance the image quality of a metalens camera. The new approach uses AI to turn low-quality images into high-quality ones.
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INSIDER: Imaging
Think of all the information we get based on how an object interacts with wavelengths of light — also known as color. Color can tell us if food is safe to eat or if a piece of...
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Application Briefs: Imaging
Understanding how to effectively tolerance aspheres is an incredibly useful communication tool to get the most out of your lens. In this article, we will provide some context behind asphere tolerances, exploring the factors that influence cost and performance.
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Briefs: Photonics/Optics
Robots and cameras of the future could be made of liquid crystals, thanks to a new discovery that significantly expands the potential of the chemicals already common in computer displays and digital watches. The findings are a simple and inexpensive way to manipulate the molecular properties of liquid crystals with light exposure.
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Briefs: Medical
Usually developing slowly over time, many cases of glaucoma are only picked up during routine eye tests, by which time lasting damage may already have been caused. But this could change in the future as academics from the U.K. and Türkiye have developed a contact lens which can detect changes in eye pressure which signal possible glaucoma.
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Products: Photonics/Optics
See the product of the month: 2Pi Optics' high-resolution fisheye sensor based on optical metalens technology.
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Products: Design
See the products of the year: The Talaria TWO Module Ultra-Low Power Wi-Fi optimized solution for cloud-connected IP video IoT devices by InnoPhase IoT; Hexagon's Elements, simulation software to better understand the increasingly complex behavior of systems in modern products; and Nexa3D's highest throughput additive production system, the QLS 820.
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Products: Software
See what's new on the market, including igus' two- and four-hole fixed flange bearings; FixtureBuilder 3D fixture-modelling software from Renishaw; XENON Corporation's X-1100/2x Pulsed Light Research System; Rad Source NDT's NDT 1000 X-ray Inspection System; and more.
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Briefs: Research Lab
Researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory have developed an autonomous, or self-driving, microscopy technique. It uses AI to selectively target points of interest for scanning. Read on to learn more.
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