ALEXANDRIA, Va., June 16 -- United States Patent no. 12,304,549, issued on May 20, was assigned to ALPS ALPINE Co. LTD. (Tokyo).
"Sensor device and steering wheel" was invented by Hajime Osako (Miyagi, Japan) and Kenji Kawano (Miyagi, Japan).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A capacitive sensor device for use with a steering wheel is provided. The steering wheel includes a rim and a spoke that is connected to the inner side of the rim, and the sensor device is provided on the spoke. The sensor device includes an electrode configured to be capacitively coupleable to an object to be detected, and includes a controller configured to detect a change in capacitance of the electrode, and determine whet...