ALEXANDRIA, Va., July 7 -- United States Patent no. 12,675,141, issued on July 7, was assigned to Synaptics Inc. (San Jose, Calif.).
"Touch sensor close detection" was invented by Tom Vandermeijden (San Jose, Calif.) and Samuel Toba (San Jose, Calif.).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "Methods and systems for close detection are provided. An input device has an opened state and a closed state. The input device includes a first portion comprising a touch sensor having a sensing area. The touch sensor includes a plurality of transmitter electrodes and a plurality of receiver electrodes. The input device also has a second portion comprising a plurality of features. A sensor circuit is configured to d...