Could it be that liquid lenses for cellphone cameras are finally about to go from promising-but-undelivered tech to the real thing? We're not holding out hope -- they didn't rock the world when they popped up in a couple nondescript Samsung phones before -- but Varioptic and Seiko have just announced a deal to crank out 500,000 of the goopy buggers a month starting in Q3. It's not clear exactly what cellphones these are going to turn up in, apart from being targeted at 5 megapixel camera modules that require continuous auto-focus in video mode. Varioptic is to concentrate more on the development of the technology. Varioptic liquid lens have better properties than conventional glass lenses in many respects. They are much smaller, cheaper and faster. They function on a very simple principle. The tiny device is made up of two liquids that don't mix with each other and have a different coefficient of refraction and the curve of the surface between them can be changed with electricity.
Translated by Szaszati
