axxxr
Joined: Mar 21, 2003
Posts: > 500
From: Londinium
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Via: theinquirer
Here's a picture of the actual liquid lens technology that French start-up Varioptic has sold to Samsung.
VARIABLE OPTICS WILL give an enormous boost to cameraphone usage according to French specialist firm, Varioptic. The company's lenses can offer both auto focus and zoom capabilities with no moving parts.
Already one component manufacturer, Senco (part of the Samsung empire), has licensed the technology to create modules which could be fitted inside cameraphones. The first handsets utilising the technology should appear in Q4 2005. Moreover Varioptic hopes that Senco might sell to other Korean mobile phone manufacturers – not just Samsung. Like LG, then.
Etienne Paillard, CEO of Varioptic, told The INQ that one of the main reasons why multimedia messaging (MMS) is failing to take off, lies with the quality of images handset users capture. Without autofocus and zoom, the quality of pictures is frequently low.
His company's technology provides the solution because the lenses aren't just small (typically 20x10x10 mm) but they are also rugged. Mobile phone operators are extremely reluctant to offer cameraphones which employ mechanical zoom or focus since they feel such components would prove unreliable in the field. People simply don't look after a handset as carefully as a digital still camera.
At present Varioptic's technology can provide a zoom rate of up to three times (3x), which Paillard feels it good enough for cameraphone usage. He believes that initial cost per unit will be around €3-€5 (Euros), although with mass production in millions that should go down to just €1.
Market watchers are predicting that while only 10 per cent of handset had a camera in 2003, that number should rise to 40 per cent by 2008. Varioptic's technology has applications in other areas too such as cars, bar code readers and medical equipment.
[addsig] |
Posted: 2004-12-17 15:35
