ALEXANDRIA, Va., April 9 -- United States Patent no. 12,269,452, issued on April 8, was assigned to DENSO Corp. (Kariya, Japan).
"Pedal device" was invented by Daisuke Hokuto (Kariya, Japan), Etsugo Yanagida (Kariya, Japan), Masashi Arao (Kariya, Japan), Kengo Ito (Kariya, Japan) and Yasuhisa Fukuda (Kariya, Japan).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A pedal pad in an organ-type pedal device swings about a predetermined axis when stepped on by a driver's foot. A sensor unit outputs a signal corresponding to a swing angle of the pedal pad. A reaction force generation mechanism has an elastic member that generates a reaction force against a driver's pedaling force applied to the pedal pad. A first ho...