Optical Design of a Novel Collimator System with a Variable Virtual-Object Distance for an Inspection Instrument of Mobile Phone Camera Optics

Low-loss tunable beam collimator and expander assembly with no moving parts using an engineered diffuser and varifocal lenses

In this paper, we present a novel design for a tunable beam collimator. A variable collimator assists in achieving an adaptive size of an output collimated beam. Alternatively, it can also provide an adjustable output beam divergence angle for a noncollimated beam output. Tunable collimators are highly desirable for various applications in testing, engineering, and measurements. Such devices are also useful in providing tunable illumination of samples or targets in microscopes and emulating different target distances for characterizing the performance of camera systems in laboratory settings. The proposed collimator has two distinct advantages: it is light-efficient compared with pinhole-based collimator designs, and it delivers a large range of output beam sizes without involving the mechanical motion of bulk components. These attributes are achieved via the use of an engineered diffuser (in the place of a pinhole) and a pair of large aperture tunable focus lenses, which deliver a tunable magnification to the output collimated beam. In laboratory experiments, we achieve an optical transmission efficiency of 90% for the proposed tunable collimator.

Fisheye lens design for solar-powered mobile ultrasound devices

BACKGROUND: Compared to benchtop ultrasound machines, mobile ultrasound machines require portable batteries when acquiring information regarding human tissues during outdoor activities. OBJECTIVE: A novel fisheye lens type was designed to address the charging issue where it is difficult to constantly track the sun. This method does not require the use of a mechanical motor that constantly tracks the sun to charge the portable batteries. METHODS: To obtain an optical solar power system, the numerical aperture (NA) and field angle must be increased. Therefore, we use the fisheye lens with the largest field angle. RESULTS: The NA of the designed fisheye lens system reaches 0.75, allowing light collection of approximately ± 48∘. Additionally, the efficiency ratio of the central and surrounding areas also satisfies more than 80% at a field angle of 85∘ and more than 70% at field angles of 85∘ to 90∘, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: We designed a novel fisheye lens for solar-powered mobile ultrasound machines used outdoors.

New Optical Design Method of Floating Type Collimator for Microscopic Camera Inspection

Recently released mobile phone cameras are capable of photographing objects at a fairly close distance. In addition, the field angle from the camera has increased. To measure the resolution of a mobile phone camera, the target must be photographed. To measure the resolution according to the object distance change from a mobile phone camera with a wide field angle, the target size must be large, whereas the target position must be moved. However, the target size cannot be changed. A virtual object for the target was created using a collimator. Moving a part of the lens group constituting the collimator also changes the virtual object distance. If the amount of change in the virtual object distance is large, the resolution of the collimator may also change. Therefore, a collimator that maintains the resolution even when the distance of the virtual object changes is designed as a floating type in which two lens groups move. Therefore, we propose a new floating collimator optical system that can inspect the resolution of mobile phone cameras from infinity to a close range to compensate for aberrations caused by object distance changes.

Quantitative Analysis of Fluorescence Detection Using a Smartphone Camera for a PCR Chip

Most existing commercial real-time polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) instruments are bulky because they contain expensive fluorescent detection sensors or complex optical structures. In this paper, we propose an RT-PCR system using a camera module for smartphones that is an ultra small, high-performance and low-cost sensor for fluorescence detection. The proposed system provides stable DNA amplification. A quantitative analysis of fluorescence intensity changes shows the camera’s performance compared with that of commercial instruments. Changes in the performance between the experiments and the sets were also observed based on the threshold cycle values in a commercial RT-PCR system. The overall difference in the measured threshold cycles between the commercial system and the proposed camera was only 0.76 cycles, verifying the performance of the proposed system. The set calibration even reduced the difference to 0.41 cycles, which was less than the experimental variation in the commercial system, and there was no difference in performance.

Asymmetric Double Freeform Surface Lens for Integrated LED Automobile Headlamp

We propose a design method of asymmetric double freeform surface lens for an integrated LED automobile headlamp and develop an integrated LED automobile optical system. A single asymmetric double freeform surface lens is designed to redistribute rays emitting from the light source for realizing both low and high beams. Moreover, a freeform surface reflector is used to improve the energy efficiency of high beams. The prism placed in the optical path can suppress chromatic dispersion on the edge of the target plane. Simulation and experimental results show that the illumination values and color temperature of the key points can fully meet the requirements of United Nations Economic Commission for Europe vehicle regulations (ECE) R112, 48, and 128. The volume of the whole optical system comprised of freeform surface elements is smaller than that of the low beam system of a traditional headlamp, resulting in saved space, in which other electronic devices can be installed for the safety of the driver, which indicates that the proposed method is practical in the field of automobile lighting.