Two things that particularly impress me, in any piece of research, are simplicity and cost effectiveness.

(a) Simplicity, in the sense of a paper which reports a profoundly simple solution to a difficult problem, will in my view always increase the degree of uptake of an idea by the broader scientific community. This degree of uptake is even more true if one comes up with a simple solution that is obvious in retrospect. This “obvious in retrospect” attribute adds kudos, in my view, to those who first thought of such a simple and beautiful solution.

(b) If simplicity can be coupled with cost-effectiveness, not just in the sense of affordability but also in the sense of being able to use off-the-shelf components, then I am even more impressed.

The Spotlighted new paper by Chen and colleagues definitely hits both marks indicated above.

To make an effective and accurate sensor for two-dimensional phase maps, using off-the-shelf components such as a laser scanning pico projector, is a wonderful piece of work which makes an important addition to the literature on wavefront sensing. The scanning beam is provided by the scanning projector, with a nice algorithm related to phase-shifting interferometry used as an intrinsic part of the analysis. I won't explain the underpinning optical theory here, since I'd rather you read the paper for that pleasure! The experimental demonstration of the idea is very convincing, and thoroughly tested using Fizeau interferometry as a reference standard.

Clearly, this is a “beautifully simple and cost-effective method that works”, which utilises off-the-shelf technology to achieve a new and important advance in the field. I warmly recommend this paper to your attention.

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