US Patent Issued to ALPS ALPINE on April 15 for "Push-type input device and push-type shifter device" (Japanese Inventors)

ALEXANDRIA, Va., June 5 -- United States Patent no. 12,276,998, issued on April 15, was assigned to ALPS ALPINE Co. LTD. (Tokyo).

"Push-type input device and push-type shifter device" was invented by Asuka Koike (Miyagi, Japan), Shigeru Furuki (Tokyo), Daisaku Sugawara (Tokyo), Masanori Fujita (Miyagi, Japan), Masato Fumiwake (Tokyo), Hayate Natsusaka (Miyagi, Japan) and Yu Takeda (Miyagi, Japan).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A push-type input device according to one embodiment includes: an operation knob configured to receive a pushing operation by an operator; a click sensation-imparting mechanism configured to impart a click sensation to the pushing operation; a slider configured to slide ...