ALEXANDRIA, Va., Sept. 17 -- United States Patent no. 12,416,998, issued on Sept. 16, was assigned to ALPS ALPINE Co. LTD. (Tokyo).
"Electrostatic input device" was invented by Kazuhito Oshita (Miyagi, Japan), Daisuke Takai (Tokyo) and Toshiki Nakamura (Miyagi, Japan).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "An electrostatic input device includes a capacitance detector that is disposed at an operation part to be operated by a living body, and is configured to detect capacitance; and a controller that is formed of an integrated circuit, and is configured to transition the capacitance detector to an activated state in response to an increment in the capacitance detected by the capacitance detector reachin...