Soon you can drop the pricey and bulky camera rigs used to capture 360 degree videos. Scientists have created a very thin material that works like how your usual camera works, but even better.

A prototype of a flexible wallpaper camera that can wrap around objects has just been invented by researchers from Columbia University. How it works and how it was developed are just some of the things worth looking at.

More and more miniature cameras have been introduced in the last decade. This is because smartphones have also boomed their way to the market, inspiring manufacturers to develop more camera options for consumers – those that are thinner, cheaper and novel.

The Columbia University team heeded that call and pursued a radical way to enhance imaging. Specifically, they wanted to go beyond capturing images from a single point of view, and they aimed to use large, thin and flexible materials to elevate the experience.

How Was The Flexible Camera Developed?

The researchers initially identified the property of a flexible lens that is required to show passive optical adaptation. They came up with a grid model of identical lenses made up of convex and planar sides.

The convex side of each lens served as the front surface and the planar side as the base, where the detector of the camera was also attached.

The team found that if the lens array is composed of objects that are very compact, it will develop a kind of adaptation that is required to attain optical anti-aliasing. Aliasing refers to an effect in signal processing where signals become indistinguishable when sampled.

How Does It Work?

Because of the aliasing problem, the team proposed a design of elastic lens array. They showed that if the product is designed meticulously, then the deformable lens array will change shape and focal length, bending forces just like regulating aliasing.

The team also said their work can be combined with a flexible sensor array to collect a complete sheet of camera.

"We have presented the design of a lens array that enables a new class of flexible sheet cameras," the authors write [PDF].

The next endeavor is to create a high-resolution lens array and add it to a large format image sensor.

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