A South Korean researcher for the company Nanophotonics, has designed an inexpensive optical lens that produces a distortion-free “super-wide” angle image. Unlike traditional fish eye lenses, which produce quite a significant amount of distortion- this new wide-angle lens is lighter, smaller and more affordable than commercially available "rectilinear" lenses, which also produce low-distortion views.

It is made of inexpensive components and is available for little more than $100 from the Nanophotinics site.

"Because it uses a mirror, it is easy to translate the lens design for other wavelengths, such as the infrared,says lead author Gyeong-il Kweon of Homan University in South Korea. Wide-angle lenses in these other wavelengths have other potential applications, such as wild-fire monitoring and human search-and-rescue."

The Raw Feed via Nanophotonics