Patent ID: 8817172

Claim:
An optical component that is for uniform illumination of an object to be captured in a picture and that is integrated with a hand-held camera unit, the optical component comprising: a first end on a side of the camera unit and a second end on a side of the object to be captured in the picture, the first and the second ends being free of materials obstructing travel of light on a line of an optical axis of the camera unit; and at least one element configured to manipulate the propagation of light and made of at least partly light-diffusing material, the at least one element being arranged to diffuse light passing through the element and scatter the light based on (i) a local thickness of the element where the light passes through the element and (ii) an incident angle of a light ray of the light to a surface of the element where the light hits the element such that the thicker the local thickness of the element and the larger the incident angle of the light ray to the surface of the element, the more scattered the light is, the element forming a truncated cone such that the cone includes (i) a first optically free aperture, with a relatively smaller surface area, on a side of the element that is on the first end of the optical component, and (ii) a second optically free aperture, with a relatively larger surface area, on a side of the element that is on the second end of the optical component, wherein the thickness of a lateral structure of the cone varies along the length of the cone, and the first and second optically free apertures are on the line of the optical axis of the camera unit.