ALEXANDRIA, Va., Nov. 6 -- United States Patent no. 12,461,605, issued on Nov. 4, was assigned to Alps Alpine Co. Ltd. (Japan).
"Input device" was invented by Kunio Hosono (Fukushima-ken, Japan), Tetsuo Muranaka (Miyagi-ken, Japan), Tetsu Numata (Miyagi-ken, Japan) and Sadayuki Yaginuma (Miyagi-ken, Japan).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "An input device includes a strain generation body having an operation shaft, a load sensor configured to detect a load in a horizontal direction applied to the operation shaft, an operation member disposed in an upper portion of the operation shaft, the operation member being configured to be operated in a pressing operation, a switch section configured to dete...