The latest zenith of German technology is the 3D printed lens camera that is the size of a grain of salt and can be placed into the human body/brain with the help of an injectable syringe.
Researchers at the University of Stuttgart have built a 3-lens camera that can be fit at the end of an optical fiber which has a thickness of two hair strands. While talking to the Journal Nature phonetics, these researchers said that this camera could be used for endoscopic purposes or be utilized in ‘mini’ robots, or invisible security monitors. They can be used for both medical and industrial fields and also for security operations as due to their tiny size they can be safely placed at any point without being visible to the naked eye easily.
Due to manufacturing limitations, the lens of the cameras could not be so intricately built, but with 3D printing technology this innovation has been made possible. This lens is compact and efficient and it took only a few hours to build it. The lens is just 100 micrometers wide and 120 micrometers in width. It can be used to focus on an object from 3.00 mm and can reflect it to the end of an optic fiber of 1.7 m to which it is bound. This whole lens system fits well inside a syringe and can be transferred to the human body with great ease with the help of the syringe.
With the help of this technology, objects can now to be scrutinized in a non-invasive manner that will not pose any kind of harm to the human organs. This lens will then be successfully used in medical and industrial sectors.
This compound lens can also be 3D printed and incorporated into image sensors that are used in the digital cameras.
Source: abc.net.au