ALEXANDRIA, Va., Aug. 12 -- United States Patent no. 12,385,777, issued on Aug. 12, was assigned to Oracle International Corp. (Redwood Shores, Calif.).

"Acoustic detection of cargo mass change" was invented by Matthew T. Gerdes (Oakland, Calif.), Guang C. Wang (San Diego), Timothy D. Cline (Gainesville, Va.) and Kenny C. Gross (Escondido, Calif.).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "Systems, methods, and other embodiments associated with acoustic detection of changes in mass of cargo carried by a vehicle are described herein. In one example method for acoustic cargo surveillance, a first acoustic output of a vehicle carrying cargo at a first time of surveillance of the vehicle is recorded. Then, a ...