ALEXANDRIA, Va., Sept. 17 -- United States Patent no. 12,416,979, issued on Sept. 16, was assigned to Alps Alpine Co. Ltd. (Japan).
"Multi-directional input device" was invented by Nobuyuki Ninomiya (Miyagi-ken, Japan).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A multi-directional input device has: a housing; a tiltable manipulation member that swings around an axis; a linked member, which has a pivotally supported section supported by the housing so as to be swingable around the axis and also has a connecting portion in contact with the manipulation member, the linked member swinging in response to a tilting motion applied to the manipulation member; and a swing detection section that detects the swing o...