OSA announces winners of the “Enabled by Optics” contest

From an OSA press release of September 16 : OSA announced the winners of its second Enabled by Optics contest. The contest, which is comprised of two tracks—one for companies and one for students—seeks to raise public awareness of the importance of optics and photonics technologies in furthering innovation and positively impacting society.

JDSU of Milpitas, CA, was named the winner for its innovative laser light source used in 3-D sensing technologies. This optical solution enables a natural user interface with devices by incorporating gestures and subtle activities such as facial expression and heart rate into applications like gaming, where gestures can replace physical controllers. 3-D sensing technology in general offers great promise for applications in many sectors, including retail, security, manufacturing, biomedicine, smart homes, transportation, and more.

Gustavo Almeida and a team of students at the Universidade de Sao Paulo in Sao Paulo, Brazil, tied for first place in the student contest for their video “Colors.” The video describes how colors are produced on electronic displays by explaining the red, green, blue (RGB) additive method.

Ethan Bratton, a student at Arkansas Tech University in Russellville, AR, was also named a first place winner in the student contest for his video “What Happens When We Watch a Movie, or Play a Game?” The video explains how a movie or game is stored on a disc and how a DVD player or game system reads the data on a disc using lasers. For more information, read the full release.

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To raise awareness of optics/photonics technologies and societal impacts