ALEXANDRIA, Va., Oct. 21 -- United States Patent no. 12,441,150, issued on Oct. 14, was assigned to Hitachi Astemo Ltd. (Hitachinaka, Japan).
"Damping force variable shock absorber" was invented by Masato Tokuhara (Hitachinaka, Japan) and Akira Nishimoto (Hitachinaka, Japan).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A damping force variable shock absorber includes a damping force variable mechanism including a damping force generator, a damping force variable actuator, and a damping force controller which controls an operation of the damping force variable actuator, and a vehicle height control mechanism including a self-pumping mechanism configured to, using a vibration caused by traveling of a vehicle ...