360 degree camera lens

Recently, Olympus has announced the development of an "Axialsymmetrical free curved surface lens". This lens is capable ofgathering light from 360 degrees horizontally and 45 degreesvertically, and focusing it on a CCD without the use of other lenses.While only a prototype at the moment, possible uses for the lensinclude security cameras and extreme sports. Yeah, there are other 360 cameras on the market. But if ourunderstanding is right, the innovation in this case is that the onelens does all the focusing, negating the need for extra lenses, andallowing the manufacturing of more compact devices.

Source: translate.google.comAdded: 19 July 2007