ALEXANDRIA, Va., Feb. 17 -- United States Patent no. 12,554,106, issued on Feb. 17, was assigned to Apple Inc. (Cupertino, Calif.).
"Folded lens system" was invented by Yuhong Yao (San Jose, Calif.) and Yoshikazu Shinohara (Cupertino, Calif.).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A folded lens system that includes lenses with refractive power and two light folding elements such as prisms. A first lens on a first axis refracts light to a first folding element. The first folding element redirects the light from the first axis onto a second axis on which one or more lenses are arranged. The lenses on the second axis refract the light to a second folding element. The second folding element redirects the ...