Photonics for a Better World

Photonics technologies are helping Nepal cope with recent devastating earthquakes. (Image: GlobalMedic) When massive, lethal earthquakes hit Nepal earlier this spring, photonics technologies from satellites to smartphones were employed to aid first responders and follow-on relief efforts. Photonics is also helping to predict future earthquake locations and possibly mitigate the potential for destruction, reported Rebecca Pool in the SPIE Newsroom . Some highlights from the article: 1. High-resolution satellite imagery : Immediately after the first earthquake, the Global Disaster Alert and Coordination System, a joint United Nations and European Commission initiative, instructed the UN’s high-resolution satellite imagery program, UNOSAT, and partners to start mapping the region. Images of priority regions were swiftly integrated into a web map. 2. Interferograms : To pinpoint areas at greatest risk from future earthquakes, the European Space Agency has produced interferog...

To a child with impaired vision, it might seem like magic. You put on the glasses and turn a dial to adjust the lenses to correct the particular refractive error in your own eyes. Voilà! Instant prescription! Instant clear vision! But it’s not magic. It’s photonics. Specifically, these are “instant prescription eyewear” using adaptive optics, techniques that correct optical signals within a particular system. Applications in astronomy provide a good illustration. Light coming in from space to telescopes on Earth is distorted by particles and gases in the atmosphere. Adaptive optics techniques make corrections in the final viewed image, based on analysis of what has caused the distortion, and render a clear image of what’s out there. A student at Bwindi Watoto School in Uganda wears Child ViSion's instant prescription eyewear. Photo courtesy Child ViSion. Joshua Silver, CEO of the Centre for Vision in the Developing World, and Dow Corning are working to bring a...