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The article discusses efforts to rejuvenate Rochester, New York's optics industry as of May 2014. It recalls that eyewear company Bausch & Lomb has exited most lens businesses in the 1980s, Xerox its copiers in the 1970s while Kodak has downsized from 60,000 employees in 1980 to 5,000. It talks about the Rochester Regional Photonics Cluster and optics programs to develop the next generation's talents through the Monroe Community College (MCC) and Rochester's East High School laboratories.

Microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) can be used to measure the stiction between two moving surfaces brought together by capillarity of liquid between them, or the dynamic characteristics of fluid flowing through micro channels. The success and the influence of a technological invention depend on a variety of factors, including the status of competing technology, market demands, economics, and the workforce that can mature the technology. Researchers have developed an experimental method, using MEMS to study the mechanical behavior of thin films under uniaxial tension. Opto-mechanical devices have the ability to change or modulate the path of a light beam. The most common micro-optical elements are those that reflect, diffract, or refract light.

Scientists and engineers at Royal Philips Electronics NV of the Netherlands are developing a fluid lens that loosely duplicates the way in which they see with their own eyes. Called the FluidFocus lens, it focuses by adjusting the shape of the lens itself. According to the company, the lens may eventually fill applications in digital photography, endoscopy, home security, and optical storage. The lens, filled with one part insulating oil and one part conductive aqueous solution, forms a hemispheric bubble in the unenergized state as the hydrophobic sides repel the water and oil fills the void.

The article reports that a team at Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee recently set a new record for imaging very small objects --0.06 nanometer. The feat was performed thanks to an image-enhancing technology known as aberration correction. To test the process, the team, led by materials scientist Stephen Pennycook, made an image of a silicon crystal using a 300-kilovolt scanning transmission electron microscope. The researchers hope that such images will help nanotechnologists better understand the properties and behavior of material at the nanoscale.

The article discusses the Membrane Optical Imager for Real-Time Exploitation project of researchers at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). Topics discussed include the project to develop a glass-free imaging system that relies on plastic, the optics to enable surveillance satellites to provide constant coverage from target sites in geosynchronous orbit and researchers' development of plastic films etched with a diffraction pattern.

This article reports that a new infrared radiation bonding technique called P-Wave, promises a combination of speed, the reduced likelihood of cosmetic damage, and the ability to join even unusually shaped three-dimensional plastic parts. The process, called P-Wave through-transmission, was developed by a startup, Kubota Research Associates Inc. of Hockessin, Delaware. It works by tuning the infrared output to match the frequencies best absorbed by a polymer. This heats and melts the workpiece. According to Kubota, the process works with both clear and colored thermoplastics as well as with such difficult-to-join materials as polyimides, fluoropolymers, and ultrahigh molecular weight polyethylene. Advanced optics enable P-Wave to match infrared output with polymer absorption while focusing the beam of energy below the surface.