ALEXANDRIA, Va., Jan. 13 -- United States Patent no. 12,523,866, issued on Jan. 13, was assigned to Apple Inc. (Cupertino, Calif.).
"Piezoelectric actuator for deformable lens" was invented by Richard J. Topliss (Cambridge, Great Britain) and James E. Pedder (Thame, Great Britain).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "Various embodiments include a piezoelectric actuator for driving motion of a deformable lens. The piezoelectric actuator may include a frame coupled with piezoelectric elements. According to some embodiments, the piezoelectric elements may be activated to produce relative elliptical motion between portions of the frame. The relative elliptical motion may modulate friction between surfac...