ALEXANDRIA, Va., Sept. 17 -- United States Patent no. 12,418,289, issued on Sept. 16, was assigned to Logitech Europe S.A. (Lausanne, Switzerland).
"Hybrid analog key structure" was invented by Kuo Hsiang Chen (Toufen, Taiwan), Jeremie Willemin (Zhubei, Taiwan) and Feng-Hao Lin (Hsinchu, Taiwan).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A keyboard key structure comprising a key stem, a contact-based mechanical trigger, and a contactless analog key switch. The key stem is configured to be depressed and move along a linear path over a range of operation. The contact-based mechanical trigger is configured to activate after the key stem is depressed a threshold distance in the range of operation. In response...