ALEXANDRIA, Va., Nov. 6 -- United States Patent no. 12,459,418, issued on Nov. 4, was assigned to Volkswagen AG (Wolfsburg, Germany).
"Signal light display and environment detection by means of the same device" was invented by Eugen Thiessen (Bad Rothenfelde, Germany) and Roman Danov (Hannover, Germany).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A device for signal light display and environment detection includes a first light source for emitting visible light in a first spectral range in a temporally modulated manner, and a light source for emitting invisible light in a second spectral range. A lighting surface is designed to reflect and/or transmit light in the first spectral range in a diffused manner....