Researchers from the University of Cambridge and GlitterinTech, a startup founded by the same research group, have unveiled a fundamentally new type of optical spectrometer that delivers laboratory-grade precision in a device small enough to be embedded in portable and wearable technologies. By rethinking how spectra are measured and processed, the team has demonstrated a spectrometer costing only around $10, operating at a centimeter scale, and capable of applications ranging from industrial quality control to real-time health care monitoring.
  • DrakeAlbrecht@lemmy.worldEnglish
    92·
    3 months ago

    Unlike conventional spectrometers, which rely on dispersing light or algorithmic reconstruction to recover spectra, the convolutional spectrometer physically performs a convolution operation on the incoming light. This is achieved using a simple cascade of optical components with periodic spectral responses, such as unbalanced Mach–Zehnder interferometers or micro-ring resonators.

    Is this thing a spectrometer or a fucking turbo encabulator?

    • davad@lemmy.worldEnglish
      10·
      3 months ago

      I’ve worked with spectrometers and on spectrometry design before, and that quote from the article is intelligible. It’s also pretentious and poorly explained.

  • davad@lemmy.worldEnglish
    4·
    3 months ago

    The writing in the linked article is a little weird, as others have pointed out. However the journal publication is very cool. If this is reproducible, it’ll likely have a noticeable impact over the next 10 years or so. We won’t see $10 spectrometers, but we might see handheld ones in a similar format to the cheap IR cameras.

    Here’s the link for anyone interested.

    https://www.nature.com/articles/s41566-026-01891-6