ALEXANDRIA, Va., Dec. 16 -- United States Patent no. 12,496,056, issued on Dec. 16, was assigned to Richard Mackool (Astoria, N.Y.).
"Pupil expander" was invented by Richard Jonathan Mackool (Astoria, N.Y.), Christopher Dean Smith (Ronkonkoma, N.Y.) and Luke Mackool (Astoria, N.Y.).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A pupil expander is formed from a frame of shape-memory material with a covering made of elastomer. The frame is in the form of two arc-shaped sections connected together at one end to form a broken circle having free distal ends. Each arc-shaped section has an upper frame portion and a lower frame portion connected to each other at the distal ends thereof. The covering is disposed ove...