Nano-Light Announces Flat Camera Patent

Nano-Light Technologies LLC has announced its U.S. patent for the technology of its nanoCam high-definition MP camera that can be flattened to the thickness of a postage stamp.

Nano-Light Technologies’s recently patented nanoCam high-definition MP camera. Courtesy of Nano-Light Technologies.

The camera replaces the external lens to focus the image and collapses the entire apparatus. Each tiny lens rests over a sensor layer of a number of pixels depending on the limit of the lens. Each of these nano-assemblies becomes a nano-sized camera receiving noisy images. However, the entire assembly of multiple mini cameras is sharpened through computerized interpolation transformation of each of the images to present the observer with a single high-resolution image. Since each element receives slightly different spatial information from the observed object, it also becomes possible to render 3D imaging and depth information.

The technology behind the nanoCam is covered by U.S. Patent No. 8,077,245 for an “Apparatus for Imaging Using an Array of Lenses.” The patent covers an imaging system consisting of multiple nano-sized optical elements arranged in an array format with more than one pixel per optical element and will have a higher resolution than each element individually.

Applications for the nanoCam include consumer cameras on a contact lens, security and surveillance, medical electronics and diagnostics, endoscopy, smartphones and medical research.