Technology is indisputably booming these days, especially in the field of optics.
First there was the magnification lens called Micro Phone Lens that instantly transforms any smart phone or tablet into a portable and less complicated version of a microscope. It was invented by Thomas Larson, a mechanical engineer graduate of the University of Washington.
The Micro Phone Lens, which comes with a carrying case and is suitable for smartphones or tablets having a minimum of five megapixels, looks like an elastic, soft, and button-sized lens that sticks to a camera of the device without the need of any adhesive.
It is easy to the pocket, too, compared to the other lenses having the same purposes, as it is only priced at $14.99 for one lens, with an additional charge of $5 for the shipping fee lest orders come from abroad.
The latest to make headlines is a team of researchers from the Australian National University (ANU) who invented a much cheaper alternative for the soon-to-trend smartphone optical accessory. These inexpensive yet high-quality lenses can only cost a startling less than a penny apiece.
Any ordinary commercial smartphone camera can function as a low-cost digital dermascope, with its impressive 60x magnification that can immediately visualize extremely small components on skin such as sweat pores.
How is this possible? The invention is a spinoff from the simple universal phenomenon that "a droplet of clear liquid can bend light."
The tiny lenses are made by carefully placing droplets of transparent polymer, or polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS), the same substance used for making contact lenses, on a microscope cover slip and turning them upside down to let the gravity do the job of putting the right curvature of the micro lenses before curing them in the oven.
The researchers further discovered that adding more polymer into the droplets could increase the magnifying power of the homemade lenses by 160 times. In short, the more prominent the curvature of the lenses are, the powerful it will be.
"It would be perfect for the third world. All you need is a fine tipped tool, a cover slip, some polymer and an oven," Steve Lee, M.D. of ANU Research School of Engineering, said in a press release.
In fact, Lee admits, the first lens was made by accident.
"I nearly threw them away. I happened to mention them to my colleague Tri Phan, and he got very excited," he narrated. "So then I decided to try to find the optimum shape, to see how far I could go. When I saw the first images of yeast cells I was like, 'Wow!'"
Tri Giang Phan, M.D. is from Sydney's Garvan Institute of Medical Research and is also one of the authors of the study.
The invention was published in the journal Biomedical Optics Express.
