ALEXANDRIA, Va., Dec. 16 -- United States Patent no. 12,498,461, issued on Dec. 16, was assigned to DENSO Corp. (Kariya, Japan).
"Ranging apparatus" was invented by Koki Hayashi (Kariya, Japan), Kunihiko Hayashi (Kariya, Japan) and Kouhei Tooyama (Kariya, Japan).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A ranging apparatus is provided with a mirror module that rotates when being driven by a motor. The mirror module includes a pair of deflection mirrors, a mirror support member and a clip. The deflection mirrors include a narrow width portion in which a width of a reflection surface along a direction orthogonal to a rotational axis is narrower than that of other portion on the reflection surface. The mirr...