ALEXANDRIA, Va., Nov. 11 -- United States Patent no. 12,468,281, issued on Nov. 11, was assigned to STEELCASE INC. (Grand Rapids, Mich.).
"Affordance control system and method" was invented by Francis Gerard Graziano (Grand Rapids, Mich.), Mark Baloga (East Grand Rapids, Mich.), Paul Noll (Grand Rapids, Mich.), Terry West (Caledonia, Mich.) and Nicolas De Benoist (Paris).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A system for use with at least one affordance in space, the affordance including at least one controllable operating characteristic, the system for controlling the operating characteristic and comprising a gadget including a housing, an output device, at least a first sensor for sensing the gadge...