One limitation of traditional cameras is the fact that they must be long in order to have an optical zoom, which is composed of several lenses that bend and focus light. Digital zoom is available for spy cameras and mobile phones, but such zoom makes the image blurry and with low contrast.

A new technology developed at the University of California at San Diego could solve this problem, though. The technology involves optical lenses folded together like origami. Current prototypes are already producing the same image quality as that of a 6-megapixel camera, despite being much thiner.

Joseph Ford, an optical engineer involved on the project, commented: “Traditional camera lenses are typically made up of many different lens elements that work together to provide a sharp, high quality image. Here we did much the same thing, but the elements are concentric mirrors folded on top of one another to reduce the thickness of the optic (…) our imager is about seven times more powerful than a conventional lens of the same depth”

Just to get an idea of the effects of such technology consider that cell phones using the folded optics technology will be able to focus on objects as mush as eight times more distant than the current maximum.

The performance of spy cameras will follow alike, as you can imagine. By the way if you are looking for some spy gadgets check out the Mini Wireless Spy Camera or the Spy Tie!

Via: LiveScience