ALEXANDRIA, Va., Dec. 16 -- United States Patent no. 12,501,016, issued on Dec. 16, was assigned to HUAIBEI KANGHUI ELECTRONIC TECHNOLOGY Co. LTD. (Huaibei, China).

"Imaging apparatus and method, and device" was invented by Benhua Wu (Anhui, China) and Jianfei Wu (Anhui, China).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "Disclosed are an imaging apparatus and method, and a device. The imaging apparatus includes an imaging element with an imaging surface of a spherical structure, where angles between all parts of the spherical imaging surface and light emitted by an image source at an intersection of the imaging surface are 90deg, and a plurality of imaging units are regularly arranged on the imaging surfac...