ALEXANDRIA, Va., Aug. 20 -- United States Patent no. 12,392,982, issued on Aug. 19, was assigned to PANASONIC INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY MANAGEMENT Co. LTD. (Osaka, Japan).

"Infrared lens unit and infrared detection device" was invented by Minoru Tachibana (Osaka, Japan), Ryo Haseyama (Osaka, Japan) and Jun Murata (Osaka, Japan).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "An infrared lens unit includes a lens barrel and an infrared lens supported on the lens barrel. The lens barrel includes a tubular part extending along a central axis extending in upward and downward directions and having an inner circumferential surface surrounding the central axis and a through-hole therein demarcated by the inner circumfere...