lens A lens is a transmissive optical device that focuses or disperses a light beam by means of refraction. A simple lens consists of a single piece of transparent material, while a compound lens consists of several simple lenses (''elements'') ...

is an optical element which converges or diverges light. Lens may also refer to:

Optics

Lens (anatomy) The lens, or crystalline lens, is a Transparency and translucency, transparent Biconvex lens, biconvex structure in most land vertebrate eyes. Relatively long, thin fiber cells make up the majority of the lens. These cells vary in architecture and ...

, a part of the eye *

Corrective lens A corrective lens is a transmissive optical device that is worn on the eye to improve visual perception. The most common use is to treat refractive errors: myopia, hypermetropia, astigmatism, and presbyopia. Glasses or "spectacles" are w ...

for correction of human vision **

Contact lens Contact lenses, or simply contacts, are thin lenses placed directly on the surface of the eyes. Contact lenses are ocular prosthetic devices used by over 150 million people worldwide, and they can be worn to correct vision or for cosmetic ...

, placed on the cornea of the eye *

Camera lens A camera lens, photographic lens or photographic objective is an optical lens (optics), lens or assembly of lenses (compound lens) used in conjunction with a camera body and mechanism to Imaging, make images of objects either on photographic film ...

, a lens designed for use on a camera

Other radiation focus and forces

Gravitational lens A gravitational lens is matter, such as a galaxy cluster, cluster of galaxies or a point particle, that bends light from a distant source as it travels toward an observer. The amount of gravitational lensing is described by Albert Einstein's Ge ...

, a massive astronomical object which causes visual distortions *

Electrostatic lens An electrostatic lens is a device that assists in the transport of charged particles. For instance, it can guide electrons emitted from a sample to an electron analyzer, analogous to the way an optical lens assists in the transport of light in an o ...

, a device used to focus or collimate electron beams *

Explosive lens An explosive lens—as used, for example, in nuclear weapons—is a highly specialized shaped charge. In general, it is a device composed of several explosive charges. These charges are arranged and formed with the intent to control the sha ...

, a shaped explosive charge with focused blast

Places

Lens, Pas-de-Calais Lens (; ) is a city in the Pas-de-Calais department in northern France. It is one of the main towns of Hauts-de-France along with Lille, Valenciennes, Amiens, Roubaix, Tourcoing, Arras and Douai. The inhabitants are called ''Lensois'' (). Metro ...

, a city in Northern France * Arrondissement of Lens, an arrondissement in the Pas-de-Calais département of France **

RC Lens Racing Club de Lens (), commonly referred to as RC Lens or simply as Lens, is a French professional football club based in the northern city of Lens in the department of Pas-de-Calais. The club's nickname, ''Les Sang et Or'' (), comes from i ...

, a football (soccer) club from Lens, France *

Lens, Belgium Lens (; ) is a municipality of Wallonia located in the province of Hainaut, Belgium. In 2007 its population was 4042. The total area is 49.42 km² which gives a population density of 80 inhabitants per km². The municipality consists of t ...

* Lens, Valais, Switzerland

Science

* ''Lens'' (plant), the genus of the lentil plant *

Lens (geometry) In 2-dimensional geometry, a lens is a convex set, convex region bounded by two circular arcs joined to each other at their endpoints. In order for this shape to be convex, both arcs must bow outwards (convex-convex). This shape can be formed as ...

, a geometric shape formed from two arcs *

Lens (geology) In geology, a lens or lentil is a body of ore or Rock (geology), rock that is thick in the middle and thin at the edges, resembling a convex lens in cross-section. To thin out in all directions is to "lens out", also known as "lensing". The adjec ...

, a body of ore or rock that is thick in the middle and thin at the edges *

Lens (hydrology) In hydrology, a lens, also called freshwater lens or Ghyben-Herzberg lens, is a convex layer of fresh groundwater that floats above the denser saltwater and is usually found on small coral or limestone islands and atolls. This aquifer of fresh w ...

, a layer of fresh water derived from rainfall, overlying saline groundwater * Kamera lens (biology), a unicellular, flagellate organism and the only species of the genus Kamera. *

Ice lens Ice lenses are bodies of ice formed when moisture, diffusion, diffused within soil or rock (geology), rock, accumulates in a localized zone. The ice initially accumulates within small collocated pores or pre-existing crack, and, as long as the co ...

Computing

Filter (social media) Filters are digital image effects often used on social media. They initially simulated the effects of Photographic filter, camera filters, and they have since developed with Facial recognition system, facial recognition technology and computer-gen ...

, sometimes called a lens *

Google Lens Google Lens is an image recognition technology developed by Google, designed to bring up relevant information related to objects it identifies using visual analysis based on a neural network. First announced during Google I/O 2017, it was first ...

, an augmented reality feature for smartphones * Microsoft Lens, a document scanning feature part of Microsoft Office *

Bidirectional transformation In computer programming, bidirectional transformations (bx) are programs in which a single piece of code can be run in several ways, such that the same data are sometimes considered as input, and sometimes as output. For example, a bx run in the f ...

in computer science

Other uses

* ''Lens'' (film), a 2016 Indian film made simultaneously in Malayalam and Tamil * "Lens" (Alanis Morissette song), 2012 *

Lens (Frank Ocean song) "Lens" is a single by American R&B singer Frank Ocean. It debuted on episode 4 of '' Blonded Radio'' on April 23, 2017 and was released one day later on all streaming platforms. Production "Lens" features warped, distorted vocals using Auto-Tu ...

, 2017 * "Lens" (''The Leftovers''), a 2015 television episode *

The Lens The Lens (formerly Patent Lens) is a free, searcheable online database of patents and scholarly literature, provided by Cambia, a non-profit organization based in Australia. The Lens functions as an aggregation platform, drawing bibliometric data ...

, an online patent search facility and knowledge resource * The Lens (band), a predecessor of IQ, a British neo-progressive rock group * The Lens (website), in-depth news and investigations for New Orleans, USA *

European Laboratory for Non-Linear Spectroscopy The European Laboratory for Non-linear Spectroscopy (LENS) is an interdisciplinary research center established by the Ministry of Education, Universities and Research (Italy), Italian Ministry of Education in 1991 within the University of Florence ...

(LENS) * Laser engineered net shaping, a rapid prototyping technology capable of building fully dense metal parts * Lens (surname) * Lens, a fictional alien device in E. E. Smith's

Lensman series The ''Lensman'' series is a series of science fiction novels by American author E. E. "Doc" Smith. It was a runner-up for the 1966 Hugo Award for Best All-Time Series, losing to the ''Foundation'' series by Isaac Asimov. Plot The series begi ...