US Patent Issued to OLYMPUS on Dec. 9 for "Optical unit, image pickup apparatus, endoscope and driving method of optical unit" (Japanese Inventor)

ALEXANDRIA, Va., Dec. 9 -- United States Patent no. 12,493,176, issued on Dec. 9, was assigned to OLYMPUS Corp. (Tokyo).

"Optical unit, image pickup apparatus, endoscope and driving method of optical unit" was invented by Yuichi Wataya (Hachioji, Japan).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "An optical unit includes a fixed barrel configured to accommodate a moving barrel configured to hold an optical element configured to form an object image and formed of a nonmagnetic body to be able to advance and retract between a first position and a second position in a direction along an optical axis, a first magnet provided at the fixed barrel and configured to attract the moving barrel in a first direction a...