Another Origami device: folding camera lens

As I read it, the lens doesn’t exactly fold up, but has concentric circles cut into it at various points so the image "folds". The purpose is to create a small camera lens that has a much wider telephoto range. Typically, the longer that range, the more focal length you need, which is why those megazoom lenses you see photographers use often rival the length of a baseball bat.

"When all is said and done, our camera will look a lot like a lens cap that can be focused and used as a regular camera" says one of the researchers. Ideally, the technology could be applied not only to surveillance applications, but cellphones and other consumer-grade cameras as well.

Here’s a cross-section pic showing how the image gets bounced from layer to layer: