ALEXANDRIA, Va., June 6 -- United States Patent no. 12,281,889, issued on April 22, was assigned to The Yokohama Rubber Co. LTD. (Tokyo).
"Tire shape measurement device and method" was invented by Naoki Akiyama (Kanagawa, Japan) and Satoru Nishio (Kanagawa, Japan).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "Provided are a tire shape measurement device and a method. In a measurement mode in which air is injected into an inside of a tire mounted on a holding portion to inflate the tire and the tire and a non-contact sensor are relatively moved in a tire circumferential direction to detect a shape of a predetermined site of the tire over an entire circumference in the tire circumferential direction by the sen...