ALEXANDRIA, Va., Dec. 16 -- United States Patent no. 12,498,482, issued on Dec. 16, was assigned to MAXELL LTD. (Kyoto, Japan).
"Camera apparatus" was invented by Hiroshi Shimizu (Kyoto, Japan) and Osamu Kawamae (Kyoto, Japan).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "Provided is a camera apparatus capable of measuring a distance to a subject omnidirectionally while capturing an image of the subject omnidirectionally, and storing data of the image and the distance in correspondence therebetween. The camera apparatus includes two camera devices installed at positions that enable omnidirectional imaging; and two distance measurement devices installed at positions that enable omnidirectional distance measur...