Dual range focus element
AssigneeEastman Kodak Company
InventorsJohn N. Border, Russell J. Palum
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
An autofocus system is provided for image capture that includes a liquid crystal focus lens which includes a dual range liquid crystal lens with a thinner liquid crystal lens (385) and a thicker liquid crystal lens (365) separated by a single shared electrode (370). Wherein the thinner liquid crystal lens (385) has a smaller optical power and a faster response time and the thicker liquid crystal lens (365) has a larger optical power and a slower response time. The autofocus system has a focusing effect that is produced by the combined optical power of the thinner liquid crystal lens and the thicker liquid crystal lens. A method for focusing an image capture device and an image capture device are also described.
Claims20
A dual range focus element, comprising:
- a first liquid crystal lens;
- a second liquid crystal lens having a common optical axis with the first liquid crystal lens;
- the first liquid crystal lens having a greater thickness than the second liquid crystal lens;
- and
- the first and second liquid crystal lens each use different focusing techniques and together form a focusing system.
A method for focusing an image capture device including first and second liquid crystal lenses having a common optical axis and the first liquid crystal lens having a greater thickness than the second liquid crystal lens, comprising:
- focusing the first and second crystal lenses differently from each other in order to decrease the time it takes to focus the image being captured.
An image capture device, comprising:
- an image sensor;
- a first liquid crystal lens;
- a second liquid crystal lens having a common optical axis with the first liquid crystal lens and the image sensor;
- the first liquid crystal lens having a greater thickness than the second liquid crystal lens;
- and
- the first and second liquid crystal lens each use different focusing techniques and together form a focusing system.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.