New wide-angle lens produces pictures without distortion
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Photograph of a wide-angle "catadioptric" lens with a lipstick-shaped bullet camera on a pole. Credit: Gyeong-il Kweon, Honam University, South Korea, and colleagues
South Korean researchers have designed and built an inexpensive optical lens that collects light from a large area and produces a virtually distortion-free wide-angle image. Standing in contrast to commonly known "fisheye" lenses, which produce significant amounts of visual distortion, low-distortion wide-angle lenses can potentially improve image-based applications such as security-camera systems and robot navigation. The new wide-angle lens is lighter, smaller and more affordable than commercially available "rectilinear" lenses, which also produce low-distortion views.
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