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Transparent multifunctional smart glass uses integrated microstructured optics to act as both a display and an imaging system |
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Stabilized Ruggedized Imaging Lenses minimize pixel shift after shock and vibration |
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Non-line-of-sight imaging systems utilize lasers to generate 3D models of hidden objects around corners and behind obstacles |
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Ultrafast highly-dispersive mirrors compensate for dispersion in ultrafast laser systems with low loss |
Continuous advancements in the optics and imaging industries impact markets all over the world. Industries such as wearable technology, automotive, machine vision, and medicine have all benefited from recent technological breakthroughs. Edmund Optics’ monthly Trending in Optics series highlights key trends in optics and imaging to keep the community informed of the most impactful and innovative technologies. The top trends highlighted in 2019 included multifunctional smart glass, Stabilized Ruggedized imaging lenses, non-line-of-sight imaging, and ultrafast highly-dispersive mirrors.
Trending in Optics June 2019
When most people think of “smart glass” they think of electrochromic glass which utilizes liquid crystals to change transmission in response to an applied voltage. However, new multifunctional smart glass developed by ZEISS integrates a series of integrated microstructured optics to introduce a wide range of other capabilities. These optics are invisible to the naked eye and allow multifunctional smart glass to simultaneously act as a transparent window, display, and imaging system.
Dr. Alexandre Gatto from ZEISS Microstructured Optics said, “you can use any size of glass you like with any number of functions. The smart glass will soon be able to illuminate, identify, filter and project. It’s a fantastic innovation that could be used to do great things in augmented reality and in the automotive industry.” Multifunctional smart glass has a wide range of potential applications including heads up displays for automotive windshields, intuitive gesture recognition systems, smart homes, and wearable technology.
Trending in Optics August 2019
Stabilized Ruggedized imaging lenses minimize pixel shift after shock and vibration, making them ideal for demanding machine vision environments. All individual lens elements are glued in place and the number of moving mechanical parts is reduced, resulting in robust mechanics with a simplified focus. These modifications maintain optical pointing stability, which is critical for demanding machine vision applications such as factory automation, robotics, and industrial inspection.
When using a Stabilized Ruggedized lens, an object point at the center of the lens’ field of view that falls on the exact center sensor pixel will always fall there even after the system has been exposed to heavy vibrations. The individual lens elements will not decenter or move within the housing, thus preserving the calibration of the system’s field of view. Alternative types of ruggedization are available including sealed imaging lenses that are water-, dust-, and fog-proof.
Trending in Optics March 2019
Imaging applications typically require a direct line of sight between the object and the imaging system. This paradigm is now starting to shift as cutting-edge research into non-line-of-sight imaging makes it possible to image around corners and obstacles. Lasers, sensitive cameras, and computational reconstruction methods can be combined to detect hidden targets by scattering light off surrounding objects, similar to LiDAR (light detection and ranging).
Ultrafast laser pulses are sent towards objects near the hidden target where they scatter and propagate towards the hidden target. The light scatters a second time off of the hidden target and propagates back to the original objects, at which point it is detected using a highly sensitive camera. The time-of-flight of these scattered pulses is used to reconstruct a 3D model of the hidden target. Non-line-of-sight technology has the potential to make significant impacts in autonomous vehicles, public safety, and medical imaging.
Trending in Optics April 2019
Ultrafast lasers emit extremely short pulses and are highly advantageous for applications including biomedical, materials processing, micromachining, nonlinear imaging, microscopy, and communications. However, their short pulse durations correspond with a wider wavelength spectrum compared to that of most lasers and, consequently, they exhibit much more dispersion in optical media than other laser types.
Ultrafast highly-dispersive mirrors are a compact, alignment insensitive, broadband option for compensating for dispersion and compressing ultrafast pulses. These mirrors combine wavelength-dependent penetration and multi-resonance effects to allow for low loss and a negative group delay dispersion (GDD) of a high magnitude. This is ideal for compensating for positive ultrafast dispersion. Ultrafast highly-dispersive mirrors also avoid the issues associated with other pulse compressing optics, such as the GDD oscillations of chirped mirrors and the limited bandwidth of Gires-Tournois interferometer (GTI) mirrors.
Does Edmund Optics sell multifunctional smart glass or electrochromic glass?
Does Edmund Optics sell Stabilized Ruggedized lenses?
Yes, Edmund Optics offers several standard families of Stabilized Ruggedized lenses. The Cr Series Lenses are compact ruggedized versions of our C-mount C Series Lenses. The Rugged Blue Series M12 Lenses are ruggedized versions of our small form factor Blue Series M12 Lenses. Finally, the HPr Series Lenses are ruggedized versions of our high-resolution HP Series Lenses. Other lenses can also be ruggedized by request.
In non-line-of-sight imaging, does the initial laser light scatter overpower the secondary scatter off of the hidden target?
The light that scatters directly off of the visible object is much stronger than the secondary scatter off of the indirect object, but there is a time delay between them that allows highly sensitive detectors with a high enough temporal resolution to differentiate the two signals.
At what pulse duration is a laser considered to be “ultrafast?”
Laser pulses with picosecond, femtosecond, and attosecond pulse durations (<100ps) are typically considered ultrafast.
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