US Patent Issued to Apple on March 31 for "Controllable aperture with index-matched central region for a portable electronic device imaging system" (California Inventors)

ALEXANDRIA, Va., March 31 -- United States Patent no. 12,591,162, issued on March 31, was assigned to Apple Inc. (Cupertino, Calif.).

"Controllable aperture with index-matched central region for a portable electronic device imaging system" was invented by Erik J. Bjornard (San Jose, Calif.) and Tingjun Xu (San Jose, Calif.).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "An imaging system for a portable electronic device includes a variable aperture between a lens group and an image sensor. The variable aperture is defined by an electrochromic stack that defines a switching region and a central non-switching region. The non-switching region can be etched through the same material or set of materials defining t...