'Origami lens' slims high resolution cameras

Interesting concept, it sort of like taking the concept of a Cassegrain telescope to a ridiculous level. I can see a couple of problems with the design however. Firstly you reduce the amount of light entering the lens considerably and secondly, like with a lens, every time the image is reflected it looses something.

I don't know if this sort of lens is applicable in all situations but it could certainly be useful where space is a problem.

This is similar to the method used to create the Fresnel lens. Fresnel found that the incident curvature was the important aspect and not all the glass in between the front and back surfaces of the lens. So...he fragmented the curve and took as much of the "body" of optics out of the lens, thus creating a light, Fresnel lens. Each fragment having the curvature of its original incident surface. Check it out at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fresnel_lens