1989 Ford Taurus 6cyl. Mystery electrical device

I recently bought this car. The previous owner said that he accidentally pulled out this electrical unit from under the dashboard near the steering column. I can see all the wires just hanging.

I will attempt to describe this unit:
-it is approx. 2 inches x 3 inches x 1 inch.
-It is a black plastic box with a FORD logo and the following number; VE6AB-10D840-A2A.
-On the top it looks like there is some sort of 1 inch diameter circular object underneath the plastic because there is a light circular raise in the plastic, and there are 4 notches along that circle.
- It is electrically connected by a grey connector with 7 wires going into it. some wire-colors: red-white, red, gray-blue, red-yellow, green-lime, black, black-red.
- It is mounted by two screw mounts on opposite corners.
-The bottom can be flipped up to see/service the internals, but I can't see anything but a board with a few resistors (all the electrical stuff is on the other side of the box, which isn't directly visible)
-There are a few patent numbers on it.

Thats all I can give. I tried tracing those wire colors but I found nothing. The car operates just fine as far as I can tell w/o the unit..but I am curious.

Also, is there any way to look up patent #'s for free?

Thanks for the help guys

-Tom Hey I found the solution. I figured I would keep this post up with the solution for you guys who were curious.

I looked up the patent numbers at

www.uspto.gov

(patent office) and found several patents relating to