US Patent Issued to Toyota Motor Engineering & Manufacturing North America, Toyota Jidosha on April 7 for "Morphable surface" (Michigan Inventors)

ALEXANDRIA, Va., April 7 -- United States Patent no. 12,595,810, issued on April 7, was assigned to Toyota Motor Engineering & Manufacturing North America Inc. (Plano, Texas) and Toyota Jidosha K.K. (Toyota, Japan).

"Morphable surface" was invented by Koray Benli (Ann Arbor, Mich.), Yuyang Song (Ann Arbor, Mich.), Umesh N. Gandhi (Farmington Hills, Mich.) and Shinnosuke Shimokawa (Ann Arbor, Mich.).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A system can include a base and an outer layer defining an outer surface. An actuator can be positioned between the base and outer layer. The actuator can include a body that is inflatable and has a bellows configuration. The actuator is movable between an activated co...