1. Ibn Al-Haytham’s Camera Obscura
at the University of Jordan
Islam M. Bazlamit
Hanin Sharif
Hanan Sa’adeh
The University of Jordan
Department of Physics,
Amman, JORDAN

2. Outline
 Ibn Al-Haytham “Alhazen”
 Camera Obscura
 Motivations
 Project Stages & Preliminary Results
 Sponsors & Acknowledgements

3. Ibn Al-Haytham “Alhazen”
 Explained the nature of light and vision by
correcting the previous wrong explanation.
 The author of Kitab Al-Manazir “The Book of
Optics”.
 The 2015 International Year of Light celebrated
the 1000 anniversary of his book.

4. Ibn Al-Haytham “Alhazen”
Ibn Al-Haytham Bust by the artist Ali Amro
(http://www.ibnalhaytham.com/)

5. Camera Obscura
 The Latin translation of “Albeit Almuzlim”.
 This phenomenon occurs when a light that
reflected from an object passes through a
pinhole of a dark chamber, then inverted
image of the object will be appeared on the
screen inside.
 The surroundings of the projected image have
to be relatively dark for the image to be clear.

6. https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/ec/001_a01_camera_obscura_abrazolas.jpg

7. Motivations
 To shine light on the ancient Arab and Muslim
minds in science.
 To provide an illustrative model of the nature of
light and vision that helps the students of optics
courses, and opens the door in front of students
to share their ideas that assist in the wheel of
development.
 To make it as one of the landmarks at the
University of Jordan.

8. Stages and Preliminary Results
 1st Stage: Portable Camera Obscura.
 2nd Stage: Transforming a room of Ibn Al-
Haytham’s laboratory into camera obscura.
 3rd Stage: Building Ibn Al-Haytham’s camera
obscura on the top of Physics Department.

9. 1st Stage: Portable Camera Obscura
 Designed by LAMBDA Physics Group in
celebrating the 2015 International Year of Light
at UJ.
 This stage was done by two steps.
* Without Lens.
* With Lens.

10. Without Lens

11. Object Image

12. With Lens

13. Object Image

14. Before After
With LensWithout Lens

15. Portable camera obscura presented in the “Bright Tuesday”,
8/12/2015, and 15/12/2015. (http://science.ju.edu.jo/en/lambda)

17. 2nd Stage
Transforming a Room in Ibn Al-
Haytham Lab into Camera Obscura

26. Pinhole
Screen

30. Problems & Difficulties
in Location of this Room
 Located at the corner of the lab, so it has a fixed
view only, and the view from this window is
blocked by the Physics Building.
 Might be taken back for experiments.
 The only room in the lab that contains a window,
and it has a small size
 The image can be hardly collected for a short time
before sunset.

31. 3rd Stage: Ibn Al-Haytham’s Camera
Obscura on the Top of Physics
Department
 This stage is consisting of two steps:
* Simple Camera Obscura.
* Rotating Camera Obscura.

33. Simple room of (5*4*3 m) on the top of
physics building, completely dark except a
small hole on the wall side.
By using mirrors and some lenses to process
the viewing on the screen, we will get a great
view as same as the outside.
Simple Camera Obscura
(One View)

34.  Dome with a set of holes at different angles, will be built on
top of the simple camera obscura.
 A mirror will be suspended from the top of the dome at an
angle of 45 degrees relative to the plane of holes; in order to
reflect the incident light form a hole to the table covered by a
white screen. An appropriate lens is positioned in the way of
the reflected light rays; for focusing and vision corrections
preceding image formation on the screen.
 All the holes will be covered except one using a mobile rail,
where the railroad is rotated alternately between holes, and
thus the external landscape that will appear on the display
screen will change.
Rotating Camera Obscura
(Different Views)

39.  LAMBDA Physics Group at UJ.
 Deanship of Scientific Research at
UJ.
 ??
Sponsors

40.  Deanship of Faculty of Science.
 LAMBDA Physics Group at UJ.
 Optics Lab technician.
 JUVAC staff.
Acknowledgements

41. E_201119@yahoo.com
asl0130748@sci.ju.edu.jo
Thank You