ALEXANDRIA, Va., June 18 -- United States Patent no. 12,326,026, issued on June 10, was assigned to MERCEDES-BENZ GROUP AG (Stuttgart, Germany).
"Detecting and preventing a trapping event" was invented by Alexander Wolf (Gerolsheim, Germany), Joaquin Rodrigo Pastor (Sindelfingen, Germany) and Wolfgang Schellhorn (Stuttgart, Germany).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A device for detecting a trapping event of a motor-actuatable closing system of a vehicle includes sensor and reference sensor electrodes at least partially surrounding the edge of a vehicle opening closable by a closure element. A control unit applies an electrical potential to the sensor electrode for a charging process and a ground...