What Can Be Developed with Optical Engineering
Wednesday, January 7, 2015
Lasers, LEDs, and
fiber optics — oh my! These technological innovations are just a small sample
of what optical engineers can develop within their discipline. These three
developments are some of the biggest and most well-known accomplishments
optical engineering has provided the world with, but, there are other
innovations that the field of study has helped create. While you may be
scratching your head with what these developments are, you’d be interested to
know how often you use these devices.
To put it briefly,
optical engineering is the study that focuses on optics and its applications. What
do those applications cover? You’d be surprised to know how often you use an
item that has been developed because of optical engineering. Peruse the list
below to see how frequently your life is affected by optics.
• Lasers
Mentioned above, the advancement of
this tool over the decades has expanded the applications in which it is used. Not
everyone carries a simple laser pointer on a daily basis, but lasers have more
versatility than that. As most of the names imply, laser printers, bloodless
surgery, laser eye surgery and laser hair removal all require the use of
lasers. Since optics deals with lights, there has to be some form of light
involved with lasers, right? The acronym laser denotes that by standing for
“Light Amplification by Stimulate Emission of Radiation.” The amplified light
described in its name can be seen in the narrow beam that light lasers emit. The
applications of lasers doesn’t end with these few; they are used in welding,
latent fingerprint detection, spectroscopy and the next application on our list
…
• Optical
disc systems
Back when VHS players and cassettes were the norm, people
probably didn’t use a laser in a daily routine. But now, with DVD players, CD
players and the rise of Blu-ray players, you’re using technology from optical
engineering more often than you may have thought. While disc systems are still
a fairly new convenience to homes, the first optical disc was invented in 1958.
This disc was different than ones used in video players, but was an important
milestone. The first disc considered to be an early DVD was registered to the
U.S. Patent Office in 1961 and 1969 by David Paul Gregg. Both DVD players and
Blu-ray players require a laser to read the discs. But did you know that many
video games too use this same technology? As old as the Nintendo GameCube
system, video game systems use lasers to read the game discs. The discs for the
Wii and Wii U both also use modern optical engineering technology to function.
So next time the kids think they don’t have the newest video game system, they
can learn how modern they really are!
• Lenses
Optics
involves light, and how else do humans see light than through our eyes? Whether
you wear contact lenses or opt for glasses, optical engineers have developed
those lenses. Lenses work through refraction: the beam of light is focused
through refraction within a lens. Depending on what needs to be focused, lenses
can be concave or convex. There are also simple lenses and complex lenses (for
example, bifocals) and many aren’t just used to help people see better. Microscopes,
magnifying glasses, cameras, projectors, binoculars and telescopes all require
lenses in order to work.
Next time you’re
watching “The Shawshank Redemption” on Blu-ray, put on your glasses or just
want your cat to catch the red dot from a laser pointer, you’ll have a better
understanding of how engineers’ work on these items helps better them to make
people’s lives operate more smoothly.
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