Patents by Inventor Akane Sano

Akane Sano has filed for patents to protect the following inventions. This listing includes patent applications that are pending as well as patents that have already been granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).

  • Publication number: 20090271496
    Abstract: State information of a user is detected via a biometric information sensor (21) and so on and the state information is accumulated in a nonvolatile memory (14) by associating it with a content ID of content that is being used. A recommendation request including the state information detected at that time via the biometric information sensor (21) and so on and a predetermined extraction condition is generated and transmitted. Provided information transmitted in response to the recommendation request is received and is provided to the user. When an information provision request is received, information to be provided is extracted from the information stored in the nonvolatile memory (14) based on the state information and extraction condition included in the received information provision request and the extracted information is transmitted to a requesting source.
    Type: Application
    Filed: January 31, 2007
    Publication date: October 29, 2009
    Applicant: Sony Corporation
    Inventors: Takatoshi Nakamura, Toru Sasaki, Yuichi Sakai, Yoichiro Sako, Toshiro Terauchi, Hirofumi Tamori, Makoto Inoue, Katsuya Shirai, Motoyuki Takai, Kenichi Makino, Akihiro Komori, Akane Sano, Susumu Takatsuka
  • Publication number: 20090247216
    Abstract: A communication system includes: sender-side communication equipment including a detection unit configured to detect information indicating the condition of a user, and a transmission unit configured to transmit information indicating the condition of the user detected through the detection unit to a communication partner; and receiver-side communication equipment including a reception unit configured to receive information indicating the condition of the user transmitted from the sender-side communication equipment, a notification unit configured to notify the condition corresponding to the condition of the user received through the reception unit, and a control unit configured to control the notification unit based on information indicating the condition of the user received through the reception unit.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 24, 2009
    Publication date: October 1, 2009
    Applicant: Sony Corporation
    Inventors: Yoshiteru KAMATANI, Masamichi ASUKAI, Taiji ITO, Yoichiro SAKO, Akane SANO, Akinobu SUGINO
  • Publication number: 20090235811
    Abstract: Content is selected on the basis of changes of a walking tempo. The walking tempo is detected (S5). In a state determination process (S7), it is determined whether the walking tempo tends to increase, be constant, or decrease. A walking tempo corrective coefficient is calculated on the basis of the determined result and a corrective walking tempo is calculated with the walking tempo corrective coefficient (S9). It is determined whether or not music is changed on the basis of the corrective walking tempo rather than the actually detected walking tempo (S11). When music is changed, relevant music content is searched. Controls are performed in such a manner that when the walking tempo is decreasing, the foregoing state is kept for a while, when the walking tempo is increasing, music is quickly selected according to the increase of the walking tempo, and when the walking tempo is stable, music is not selected.
    Type: Application
    Filed: January 11, 2007
    Publication date: September 24, 2009
    Applicant: Sony Corporation
    Inventors: Akihiro Komori, Susumu Takatsuka, Toru Sasaki, Yuichi Sakai, Yoichiro Sako, Toshiro Terauchi, Hirofumi Tamori, Makoto Inoue, Katsuya Shirai, Motoyuki Takai, Kenichi Makino, Takatoshi Nakamura, Akane Sano
  • Publication number: 20090240461
    Abstract: A vertical component is extracted from an acceleration vector corresponding to body movement of a user from a three-axis acceleration sensor, and the vertical-component is separated by a high-band/low-band separating unit into a high-band component and a low-band component. Using these components, a peak detection/determination processing unit detects a peak-position candidate of action of the user in the vertical direction, identifies a peak-position candidate on the basis of an energy ratio between the high-band component and the low-band component, performs waveform matching regarding a predetermined range including each peak-position candidate, thereby determining a peak position, and detects body movement on the basis of the peak position, and a step-position analyzing unit detects a body-movement pitch.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 9, 2007
    Publication date: September 24, 2009
    Applicant: Sony Corporation
    Inventors: Kenichi Makino, Akane Sano, Noboyuki Takai
  • Publication number: 20090205482
    Abstract: Provided is a device for playing audio with improved convenience, wherein music can be played such that oneness with the actions of the user can be obtained at all times, without giving the user any unnaturalness whatsoever such as unpleasant sensations. After starting playing of music data through such as an audio signal output processing unit 31, action tempo of the user is detected by an exercise information analyzing circuit 23, based on detection output from an exercise information sensor 24, and in the event that the difference between the detected action tempo of the user and the tempo of the music data being played is not a predetermined range, music data with a tempo of which the difference as to the action tempo of the user is within the predetermined range is searched by searching means such as a music playing data generating device unit 22, and a control unit 10 changes the music data to be played so as to play this searched music data.
    Type: Application
    Filed: January 23, 2007
    Publication date: August 20, 2009
    Applicant: Sony Corporation
    Inventors: Katsuya Shirai, Yuichi Sakai, Yoichiro Sako, Masamichi Asukai, Makoto Inoue, Motoyuki Takai, Akane Sano
  • Publication number: 20090187597
    Abstract: There is provided an information processing device capable of communicating with a purchase history storage device for storing purchase history data and a display device, the information processing device including a storage unit for storing user image data and property data; a communication unit; a purchase history data acquiring unit for acquiring the purchase history data; a property data recording unit for generating and recording the property data based on the purchase history data; a property data updating unit for updating the property data to property data including a second property image represented with a time interval from when the user purchased the property until present based on the property data and time information; and a display data generating unit for generating display data shown with the user image and an image of the property according to the display request.
    Type: Application
    Filed: January 12, 2009
    Publication date: July 23, 2009
    Applicant: Sony Corporation
    Inventors: Yasunori Kamada, Yoichiro Sako, Kazunori Hayashi, Takayasu Kon, Takashi Fukushima, Masamichi Asukai, Akane Sano, Taiji Ito, Akinobu Sugino, Yoshiteru Kamatani, Mitsuru Takehara
  • Publication number: 20090156234
    Abstract: A guide information providing system including terminal and server devices, comprising: a specified location acceptance unit in the terminal device, to accept input of a specified location; a display unit in the terminal device, to display information; a storing unit, in the server device, to store guide information classified by position wherein guide information including time-of-day information, and position information, of an object of guiding, are correlated; an information selecting unit to select guide information correlated with position information indicating the position corresponding to the specified location based on the content of specified location information accepted by the specified location acceptance unit, and the guide information classified by position, and satisfies a time-of-day condition with at least the current time-of-day and thereafter as reference; and a display control unit in the terminal device, configured to control the display unit to provide the guide information selected by
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 9, 2008
    Publication date: June 18, 2009
    Applicant: SONY CORPORATION
    Inventors: Yoichiro Sako, Mitsuru Takehara, Masamichi Asukai, Taiji Ito, Akinobu Sugino, Akane Sano, Yoshiteru Kamatani, Takayasu Kon, Yasunori Kamada, Kazunori Hayashi
  • Publication number: 20090136909
    Abstract: An interpersonal relationship evaluation method includes the steps of: obtaining position information obtained at each of the two or more terminal devices over a plurality of points in time; and calculating a mean value of distance between the respective terminal devices with a point in time as a target wherein a predetermined condition holds to obtain the mean value as an interpersonal relationship evaluation value regarding each terminal device user.
    Type: Application
    Filed: November 21, 2008
    Publication date: May 28, 2009
    Applicant: Sony Corporation
    Inventors: Masamichi Asukai, Taiji Ito, Akinobu Sugino, Akane Sano, Kazunori Hayashi, Takayasu Kon, Yasunori Kamada, Mitsuru Takehara, Yoichiro Sako, Yoshiteru Kamatani
  • Publication number: 20090115617
    Abstract: An information provision system includes a terminal device, and an information provision device that can communicate with the terminal device. The information provision device includes a communicating section configured to communicate with the terminal device, a head count information managing section configured to manage current head count information for each position, and a crowd information generating section configured to determine a position for making a notification display based on the managed head count information, and generate crowd information containing information of the determined position, and a transmission control section configured to transmit the generated crowd information from the communicating section to the terminal device.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 9, 2008
    Publication date: May 7, 2009
    Applicant: Sony Corporation
    Inventors: Akane Sano, Masamichi Asukai, Taiji Ito, Akinobu Sugino, Yoshiteru Kamatani, Kazunori Hayashi, Takayasu Kon, Yasunori Kamada, Mitsuru Takehara, Yoichiro Sako
  • Patent number: 7521624
    Abstract: A content reproduction list generation device includes an operation section, a storage section, and a reproduction list generation section. The storage section is configured to store a change pattern indicating reproduction tempo changes during content reproduction. The reproduction list generation section is configured to specify a change pattern in accordance with an input into the operation section, associate content with the specified change pattern, and generate a content reproduction list for informing a reproduction section of the reproduction order and reproduction tempo of content to be reproduced in accordance with the specified change pattern and the associated content.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 12, 2007
    Date of Patent: April 21, 2009
    Assignee: Sony Corporation
    Inventors: Masamichi Asukai, Katsuya Shirai, Makoto Inoue, Akane Sano
  • Publication number: 20090073286
    Abstract: An image-pickup apparatus includes an image-pickup section that picks up images to obtain picked-up-image-data items, a temporarily retaining section that temporarily retains the picked-up-image-data items, a storage-process section that performs a storage process on the picked-up-image-data items, a movement-detecting section that detects a movement of the image-pickup apparatus, an operation section that performs a shutter operation, and a control section that causes the temporarily retaining section to retain picked-up-image-data items in a shutter-operation period, that selects, on the basis of detection results obtained by the movement-detecting section in the shutter-operation period, a picked-up-image-data item from among the retained picked-up-image-data items, and that causes the storage-process section to perform the storage process on the selected picked-up-image-data item.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 26, 2008
    Publication date: March 19, 2009
    Applicant: Sony Corporation
    Inventors: Akinobu Sugino, Nozomu Ozaki, Masamichi Asukai, Taiji Ito, Hidehiko Sekizawa, Akane Sano, Hirotaka Sakaguchi, Yoshiteru Kamatani, Yoichiro Sako, Itaru Kawakami
  • Publication number: 20090070029
    Abstract: There is provided an information delivery apparatus including an event information storage portion to store event information including a place, date and time of an event held in a predetermined place on predetermined date and time, a location information receiving portion to receive location information indicating a current location of a mobile communication terminal, a travel time calculating portion to calculate a necessary travel time from the current location of the terminal to the event place based on the location information, a delivery time determining portion to determine a delivery time of the event information to the terminal based on the necessary travel time, and an event information delivery portion to deliver the event information to the terminal at the delivery time. The delivery time determining portion determines the delivery time so that the interval between the delivery time and the event time is longer than the necessary travel time.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 9, 2008
    Publication date: March 12, 2009
    Applicant: Sony Corporation
    Inventors: Mitsuru Takehara, Yoichiro Sako, Masamichi Asukai, Taiji Ito, Akinobu Sugino, Akane Sano, Yoshiteru Kamatani, Kazunori Hayashi, Takayasu Kon, Yasunori Kamada
  • Publication number: 20090068992
    Abstract: There is provided an information delivery apparatus including a receiving portion to receive location information of a mobile communication terminal at a given time and acquired date and time of the location information from the terminal, an event information storage portion to store event information including an event place, date and time, a delivery terminal selecting portion to select the mobile communication terminal to which the event information is to be delivered based on the location information and the acquired date and time of the location information and on the event place, date and time, and an event information delivery portion to deliver the event information to the selected mobile communication terminal. The delivery terminal selecting portion selects the mobile communication terminal whose location indicated by location information is within a predetermined range and whose acquired date and time of the location information are before the event date and time.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 9, 2008
    Publication date: March 12, 2009
    Applicant: Sony Corporation
    Inventors: Mitsuru Takehara, Yoichiro Sako, Masamichi Asukai, Taiji Ito, Akinobu Sugino, Akane Sano, Yoshiteru Kamatani, Kazunori Hayashi, Takayasu Kon, Yasunori Kamada
  • Publication number: 20090050687
    Abstract: There is provided an electronic wallet device using electronic value concerning a prescribed service by means of a non-contact type IC card capable of non-contact communication with an external unit, which includes a holding section to hold a plurality of non-contact type IC cards, an external communication antenna to perform non-contact communication with the external unit, a card communication antenna to perform non-contact communication with the non-contact type IC cards held in the holding section, a value storing section capable of storing electronic value, and a control section to receive a transaction request concerning the service from the external unit via the external communication antenna and, in response to the transaction request, transfer electronic value between the value storing section and at least one of the plurality of non-contact type IC cards via the card communication antenna.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 19, 2008
    Publication date: February 26, 2009
    Applicant: Sony Corporation
    Inventors: Takayasu Kon, Yasunori Kamada, Takashi Fukushima, Yoichiro Sako, Miki Abe, Masamichi Asukai, Taiji Ito, Akane Sano, Mitsuru Takehara
  • Publication number: 20090050688
    Abstract: There is provided an electronic wallet device including a holding section to hold a plurality of non-contact type IC cards, an external communication antenna to perform non-contact communication with an external unit, a card communication antenna to perform non-contact communication with the IC cards held in the holding section, a card selecting section to select at least one IC card by narrowing down candidates for an IC card to be used for communication with the external unit from the plurality of IC cards based on a plurality of different card selection criteria, and a communication control section to connect the selected IC card with the external unit via the external communication antenna and the card communication antenna so that the selected non-contact type IC card and the external unit communicate with each other.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 19, 2008
    Publication date: February 26, 2009
    Applicant: Sony Corporation
    Inventors: Takayasu Kon, Yasunori Kamada, Takashi Fukushima, Yoichiro Sako, Miki Abe, Masamichi Asukai, Taiji Ito, Akane Sano, Mitsuru Takehara
  • Publication number: 20090040231
    Abstract: An information processing apparatus includes a bio-information obtaining unit configured to obtain bio-information of a subject; a kinetic-information obtaining unit configured to obtain kinetic information of the subject; and a control unit configured to determine an expression or movement of an avatar on the basis of the bio-information obtained by the bio-information obtaining unit and the kinetic information obtained by the kinetic-information obtaining unit and to perform a control operation so that the avatar with the determined expression or movement is displayed.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 4, 2008
    Publication date: February 12, 2009
    Applicant: Sony Corporation
    Inventors: Akane SANO, Masamichi ASUKAI, Taiji ITO, Yoichiro SAKO
  • Publication number: 20090033756
    Abstract: An imaging preventing apparatus includes imaging means for obtaining an imaged image signal by performing imaging processing, image analyzing means for performing image analyzing processing on the imaged image signal obtained by the imaging means, imaging preventing operation performing means for performing a preventing operation against imaging by a different camera system, and control means for determining the possibility of being imaged by a different camera system based on the analysis result information by the image analyzing means and, if it is determined that there is a possibility of being imaged, causing the imaging preventing operation performing means to perform the preventing operation.
    Type: Application
    Filed: May 19, 2008
    Publication date: February 5, 2009
    Applicant: Sony Corporation
    Inventors: Yoshiteru Kamatani, Nozomu Ozaki, Masamichi Asukai, Taiji Ito, Akinobu Sugino, Hidehiko Sekizawa, Akane Sano, Hirotaka Sakaguchi, Yoichiro Sako
  • Publication number: 20090016645
    Abstract: Disclosed herein is an image-processing apparatus. The apparatus includes: a taken-image acquisition section configured to acquire a taken image; and a to-be-processed area setting section configured to carry out an analysis on a taken image acquired by the taken-image acquisition section and configured to use the pixel area of a photographed-subject image of a specific type in the taken image as a to-be-processed area of an image conversion process in accordance with the size of the photographed-subject image if a result of the analysis indicates that the photographed-subject image exists in the taken image. The apparatus further includes an image conversion section configured to carry out the image conversion process on the photographed-subject image with the pixel area thereof used as the to-be-processed area in order to generate a post-conversion image obtained as a result of the image conversion process.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 18, 2008
    Publication date: January 15, 2009
    Applicant: Sony Corporation
    Inventors: Yoichiro Sako, Masamichi Asukai, Itaru Kawakami, Masaaki Tsuruta, Nozomu Ozaki, Hirotaka Sakaguchi, Taiji Ito, Akinobu Sugino, Hidehiko Sekizawa, Akane Sano, Yoshiteru Kamatani, Kouichi Matsuda
  • Publication number: 20080316339
    Abstract: A picture imaging apparatus includes: an imaging means for imaging a subject picture to acquire taken picture data; a storage processing means for performing a storage process of taken picture data acquired by the imaging means; a motion detecting means for detecting motion of the picture imaging apparatus itself; a manipulating means for manipulating a shutter; and a control means for instructing the imaging means to perform a process in accordance with a shutter manipulation at a timing based on a result detected in the motion detecting means during a period during which the shutter is being manipulated by the manipulating means.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 17, 2008
    Publication date: December 25, 2008
    Applicant: Sony Corporation
    Inventors: Akinobu Sugino, Nozomu Ozaki, Masamichi Asukai, Taiji Ito, Hidehiko Sekizawa, Akane Sano, Hirotaka Sakaguchi, Yoshiteru Kamatani, Yoichiro Sako, Itaru Kawakami
  • Patent number: 7449627
    Abstract: An audio signal reproducing apparatus includes a storage unit for storing digital audio data of music pieces each having a tempo corresponding to either a first tempo or a second tempo, the second tempo being different from the first tempo, if a walking tempo of a user is either the first tempo or the second tempo, a reproducing circuit for reproducing the digital audio data, a detecting unit for detecting the walking tempos of the user, a calculating circuit for calculating a change in the walking tempo detected by the detecting unit, and a control circuit for retrieving the digital audio data from the storage unit in accordance with the walking tempo detected by the detecting unit and sending the retrieved digital audio data to the reproducing circuit.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 4, 2006
    Date of Patent: November 11, 2008
    Assignee: Sony Corporation
    Inventors: Yoichiro Sako, Akane Sano, Akihiro Komori, Takatoshi Nakamura, Kenichi Makino, Motoyuki Takai, Katsuya Shirai, Makoto Inoue, Hirofumi Tamori, Toshiro Terauchi, Yuichi Sakai, Toru Sasaki, Susumu Takatsuka