Varioptic and Seiko to start manufacturing liquid camera lenses

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.

[Via Phone Scoop]

[ryangohabs @ Mar 14th 2008 9:18PM]

Whats next! Computers with cameras!? Oh wait...

[tha-don @ Mar 14th 2008 10:48PM]

i think cameras with cameras would be the most natural next step.

[Chris McDowell @ Mar 14th 2008 11:15PM]

pfftt cameras with cameras. Please. Next step is monkeys with cameras implanted in the back of their head.

I think next is going to be monitors with cameras built into the display portion.

[phrogg @ Mar 15th 2008 2:12AM]

@Chris:
Like in Max Headroom!

[Reader @ Mar 15th 2008 2:44AM]

Cameras with cameras? This isn't the U.K...

[Luis @ Mar 15th 2008 8:50AM]

you DO have cameras with cameras, how do you think liveview is achieved?

[YoJIMbo @ Mar 15th 2008 1:13AM]

@ everyone above me


Did we all forget to take our humor-enhancing medications today?

[ryangohabs @ Mar 15th 2008 1:31AM]

No, I took to much, thats the bottle that says Viagra right?

[YoJIMbo @ Mar 15th 2008 1:43AM]

That's a hard question to answer!





(sorry!)

[bob @ Mar 15th 2008 1:36AM]

LCDC?



Liquid Crystal Display/Camera?

[Omedian @ Mar 15th 2008 3:50AM]

What's next ? A camera able to "look at specific things" by itself or even an eye driven camera. The only thing missing to that digital eye is the eye movement, don't you think ?

[Ricardo @ Mar 15th 2008 7:37AM]

I don't think you guys see the potential of this technology.

First: cameras won't need motors anymore, reducing body size, weight and battery life.

Second: we can have a zoom lens that doesn't need to move, making things much smaller.

[tasteslikechicken @ Mar 16th 2008 2:06AM]

Ding ding ding... You win. You, Ricardo, can see that this isn't a pointless technology, that the mechanical lenses that make today's cameras sooo much better than cellphone cameras (which suck because they have fixed lenses) is going to go bye bye. Imagine having a camera phone that took pictures as nice as a real camera (of a couple years ago). Being able to take better than youtube quality video with your camera. It opens up new opportunities as well, imagine having a camera on a necklace or hat or broach or belt buckle that takes a 2 or 3 megapixel camera shot every 10 seconds and thus records your entire day, every day, also recording GPS coordinates.

[Rusty @ Mar 15th 2008 11:20AM]

Are these things going to have tiny heaters inside them, so when you forget and leave it in your car when it is -20 outside, that the liquid won't expand and break?

[MizB @ Mar 15th 2008 1:18PM]

According to the Varioptic website, they use additives to alter the regular feezing point of the water droplet - so the lens can operate at temps down to -20 and can be stored down to -40. That's pretty darn good!

more info here: http://www.varioptic.com/res/faq.pdf

[VasR @ Mar 15th 2008 2:55PM]

Great! I can now have a internal freezer mounted camera that'll prove that my cat is stealing my frozen lasagnia.