An optical image stabilization using a droplet manipulation on a liquid crystal and polymer composite film

Abstract

Motion blur is one of the major factors decreasing the image quality of a hand-held optical imaging system while the system is under shakes or vibrations during exposure. Optical image stabilization (OIS) is a technique to reduce such a blurring. The basic principle of OIS is to stabilize the recorded image in a camera by varying the optical path to the sensor under vibrations during exposure. In this paper, we demonstrate optical image stabilization (OIS) for an imaging system using a droplet manipulation on a liquid crystal and polymer composite film (LCPCF) that reduces the motion blur. The mechanism is based on manipulation of position of the liquid lens on LCPCF by means of electrically adjusting orientations of liquid crystals. The change of the position of the liquid lens compensates the deviation of light when the image system is under a handshake vibration. Therefore, the imaging system forms a clear image with a droplet on different position to overcome handshake vibration. The concept in this paper can also be extended to design other optical components for modulating the direction of light.