ALEXANDRIA, Va., Nov. 3 -- United States Patent no. 12,783,092, issued on Nov. 3, was assigned to ALPS ALPINE Co. LTD. (Tokyo).
"Input operation device" was invented by Kazuma Horie (Miyagi, Japan), Yoshihiro Hashimoto (Unterschleissheim, Germany) and Hiromi Motoi (Miyagi, Japan).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "An input operation device includes: an operation member to be pushed by an operator at a plurality of press positions of the operation member; a push switch to be in an on state from an off state by pushing; a panel that includes an operation surface that is to be touched by the operator and on which a plurality of symbols are arranged; an electrostatic detection sensor that includes a p...