this post was submitted on 24 Oct 2023
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Metalenses are a relatively fringe optical technology — at least, they were. Until now, it has been largely pursued by startups and scientists but that is changing as Canon has jumped into the fray and not only makes them but also produces the equipment necessary to manufacture them.

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[–] JehovahJoe@lemm.ee 73 points 8 months ago (3 children)

The goal of a metalens would be to, eventually, wholly eliminate the smartphone camera bump.

They'll do anything to avoid giving us a slightly thicker battery...

[–] BearOfaTime@lemm.ee 20 points 8 months ago (2 children)

Right? Why not increase battery thickness, then no more camera bump!

[–] frezik@midwest.social 12 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (1 children)

Reviewers then write "it's got great battery life, but it's so bulky" and take a star off. It's possible nobody actually cares, or that most people think extra battery life is worth the bulkiness. But that's what reviewers will write, and it will affect sales.

See also: laptop bezels. Reviewers say you're supposed to want the thinnest one possible. Problem is, web cams tend to be better if they can be bigger, and there isn't enough room in those thin bezels for a good one. Thus, your laptop web cam looks substantially worse than your smartphone.

Reviewers need to think harder about what they emphasize.

[–] BearOfaTime@lemm.ee 2 points 8 months ago

It's so weird what reviewers will focus on. The tiny bezel thing is terrible, for phones and laptops.

I need to be able to hold my phone - without bezels I'm constantly touching the wrong part of the screen.

And you already covered the laptop webcam. OK, fine, make the side and bottom bezels smaller, but leave the top one for... Wifi antennas and webcam?

[–] pahlimur@lemmy.world 9 points 8 months ago (2 children)

My previous phone was a motoG power and though it was bulky and a bit laggy the battery life was amazing. It's I think 3 years old now and I still use it in airplane mode for reasons. The battery lasts 3 weeks when I don't touch it. Compare that the s22 I'm typing this on which barely lasts 1 day in standby with batter saver enabled. I hate this phone after having that sweet multi day battery life.

[–] MonkderZweite@feddit.ch 3 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago)

Ok, to be honest, Samsung software was crap and is still crap. They only fixed the lagginess with more cpu/gpu power, leading to shorter battery life.

[–] BearOfaTime@lemm.ee 2 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Yep, battery size and life was increasing nicely... Once it got to 1 day for the "average" user (i.e. People who barely use them) manufacturers said "good enough".

I charge 2-3 times a day... Though I don't let it get below 30%, mostly in case I need to suddenly walk out the door.

And I can't even buy an external battery phone case these days, like I used to.

[–] pahlimur@lemmy.world 3 points 8 months ago

Yeah I'm old enough to have started with candy bar phones. Battery life has been creeping back below 1 day for a while. That motoG power would play music on Bluetooth all day if I started at 10% battery. It could also sit at 1% battery for hours if I didn't touch it. Getting this new flagship phone is making me realize I value battery life way more than I realized.

Biggest issue with the older motoG was the camera sucked. I think the new version fixed that so I'll probably go back to it.

[–] Redjard@lemmy.dbzer0.com 18 points 8 months ago (2 children)

Fuck smartphones, I wanna finally have glasses that are thin, light, and without distortions, reflections, or chromatic aberration

[–] mild_deviation@programming.dev 12 points 8 months ago (1 children)

And have a bigger sweet spot.

Same for VR headset optics.

[–] emptiestplace@lemmy.ml 1 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Is this currently limited by lens diameter? It seems it would be - so huge glasses would be more forgiving in this sense?

[–] Redjard@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Mainly it's number of lenses.
High quality camera lenses have like 10-20 lenses, while glasses have ... 1

[–] Morphit@feddit.uk 1 points 8 months ago

Sir, that's called a monocle.

[–] jackalope@lemmy.ml 5 points 8 months ago (1 children)
[–] SatansMaggotyCumFart@lemmy.world 4 points 8 months ago

Okay Mr. Hands.

[–] Salamendacious@lemmy.world 3 points 8 months ago

I'd take a thicker battery any day of the week.

[–] Imgonnatrythis@sh.itjust.works 20 points 8 months ago

"Oddly, Canon declined to provide PetaPixel with detailed information about its metalens technology and also chose not to provide any photos of its tech" Oddly a megatech corporation elected to keep a tight grip on its early IP? 🤔

[–] kevinbacon@lemmy.world 20 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Nah, used to get these in the bottom of a packet of chips with a pokemon on em.

[–] MortyMcFry@aussie.zone 10 points 8 months ago
[–] TryingToEscapeTarkov@lemmy.world 9 points 8 months ago (2 children)

I wonder when companies are going to shift from making stupid stuff we don't need like this and start working on things to clean up the environment they destroyed making things for the last 40 years.

[–] surewhynotlem@lemmy.world 24 points 8 months ago

Why would they?

I'm not being trite, I'm being serious. If they're not given a reason to do so, companies don't do things.

[–] AI_toothbrush@lemmy.zip 6 points 8 months ago

But you gotta admit that this is fucking cool. And its relatively innocent compared to some other inventions.

[–] bassomitron@lemmy.world 8 points 8 months ago

Really cool tech, hopefully this means the costs of producing them will eventually decrease to affordable levels.

[–] lolcatnip@reddthat.com 7 points 8 months ago (1 children)

So basically nano-scale Fresnel lenses?

[–] Salamendacious@lemmy.world 3 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago)

Those are beautiful. A couple years ago I went on a hunt trying to find one to hang up as wall art. They are pricey.

[–] Kazumara@feddit.de 5 points 8 months ago

I wonder if they have any application in optical networking, like making wavelength selective switches (WSS) cheaper, more reliable, or smaller.

[–] helenslunch@feddit.nl 0 points 8 months ago (1 children)
[–] qisope@lemmy.world 5 points 8 months ago

I think they're metal enses