Indian-American researcher at Columbia University creates unique flexible camera

NEW YORK (Diya TV) — Shree K. Nayar’s team at Columbia University have created a novel sheet camera that can be wrapped around everyday objects in an effort to capture images that can’t be taken with traditional cameras.

“Cameras today capture the world from essentially a single point in space,” Nayar said. “While the camera industry has made remarkable progress in shrinking the camera to a tiny device with ever increasing imaging quality, we are exploring a radically different approach to imaging.”

“We believe there are numerous applications for cameras that are large in format but very thin and highly flexible,” he added.

Nayar is a graduate of the Birla Institute of Technology, Ranchi, in 1984.

His team designed a flexible lens array that adapts its optical properties when the sheet camera is bent. The optical adaptation allows for the production of high-quality images over a wider range. If such an imaging system could be mass-produced, it could be developed to wrap around a variety of objects, such as street poles, cars, furniture and even people’s clothing, Nayar said.

“The adaptive lens array we have developed is an important step towards making the concept of flexible sheet cameras viable,” he noted.

“The next step will be to develop large-format detector arrays to go with the deformable lens array. The amalgamation of the two technologies will lay the foundation for a new class of cameras that expand the range of applications that benefit from imaging,” he said.