Initial Design

First Sketch

The Lens:

The Material of the Lens: Ooho

Ooho is a vessel that contains water in a double membrane, using a technique to shape liquids in spheres called “spherification.” Ooho is formed when brown seaweed extract and calcium chloride form a gel-like structure that acts as an elastic membrane and retains water inside. The principle of the formation of ooho is that sodium alginate and calcium chloride react, and sodium and calcium substitute for each other to form calcium alginate. Before sodium and calcium are substituted, sodium alginate is a soft polymer net, but after they are substituted, calcium alginate becomes a gel-like form because the flexibility of the polymer net is reduced. Sodium alginate is soluble in water, but calcium alginate is not soluble in water, so a gel-like film is formed on the outside in contact with the aqueous calcium lactate solution, and water can be stored inside.

Making Ooho: The Procedures

1. Add 1L of water

2. Add 5g of sodium alginate

3. Mix the 1L of water & 5g of sodium alginate

4. Let the mixture stay until it gets clearer

5. Bring an additional 1L of water in a separate bowl

6. Add 5g of calcium lactate

7. Mix the water with calcium lactate

8. Use a scoop and scoop the water mixed with sodium alginate into the calcium lactate water carefully

Placement of the Lens

The lens is going to go on the platform made below the "pressing mechanism". The motor above is going to rotate and the gear is going to move the yellow stick up and down. As the stick goes up and down, the lens gets pressed, and because the lens material is very malleable, the lens changes its shape. The change in the shape then changes the focal point created by the lens, creating the ability to change focus instantly. The original lens material was ooho, but as you see in the image above, the material had to be changed. More explanation will be provided in the Testing section of the website.

The "Pressing" Mechanism:

Bottom

This is the mechanism that presses the liquid crystalline lens, which changes the shape of the lens. By changing the shape of the lens, the focus point of the lens changes.

Top

This is where the motor and the gears are. There is a single motor that has a constant speed. The motor can be turned in both clockwise & counterclockwise motions, and it pulls the stick up and down.

Limitations

Because liquid lens technology requires so much cutting-edge technology to build it perfectly, as a normal high school student, it is almost impossible to create a perfectly clear and well focusing lens. As this technology isn't commercialized yet, even experts in this field couldn't create a well-working liquid lens that outperforms contemporary lenses yet. The lens on the top-left is a prototype of an electric liquid lens. This lens is a different type of liquid lens than what I created: the liquid lens I created is for changing focus, and the lens on the right changes the focal length of the lens. This liquid lens is also tunned electrically when the lens I created changes shape mechanically. A focal length on a lens is how far the lens can see, and we call lenses that can change focal lengths, zoom lenses. As the photo on the right shows, the focal length is changed by the size of the image being produced at the end of the lens. This changes the magnification of the final image that hits the camera sensor. The first image, featuring a zoom lens, is made out of liquid lens technology. As the liquid's shape inside of the lens changes from concave to convex, the focal length of the lens changes. Especially compared to the 2nd photo with a traditional lens, you can clearly see that the liquid lens is more efficient because it takes up much less space.