ALEXANDRIA, Va., Dec. 31 -- United States Patent no. 12,510,979, issued on Dec. 30, was assigned to Alps Alpine Co. Ltd. (Japan).
"Input device" was invented by Kunio Hosono (Fukushima-ken, Japan) and Sadayuki Yaginuma (Miyagi-ken, Japan).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "An input device includes a strain generation body having a base and a pillar section extending from the base in a vertical direction, and four strain sensors disposed to the base of the strain generation body. The four strain sensors are disposed in four directions different by 90deg with respect to a center of the pillar section, the pillar section has protrusions on an outer circumferential surface in a tip portion, the protru...