Patents by Inventor Akihito Aiba

Akihito Aiba 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: 20230037756
    Abstract: A diagnostic apparatus includes circuitry to determine a process number based on operation information that changes in accordance with an operation of a machine being a subject of diagnosis, and determine a state of the machine using corresponding one of a plurality of model parameters corresponding to the determined process number and state information that changes in accordance with the state of the machine. The process number indicates an order of a particular process in a plurality of processes executed by the machine.
    Type: Application
    Filed: July 11, 2022
    Publication date: February 9, 2023
    Applicant: Ricoh Company, Ltd.
    Inventors: Akihito AIBA, Junichi TAKAMI, Yuichi NODA, Satoshi HAGIWARA
  • Patent number: 10264210
    Abstract: A video processing apparatus includes a camera to continuously capture an image of an object to acquire video data, a memory, and circuitry to identify, from among a plurality of users appearing in the video data, a user who is speaking at a point in time when the video data is acquired as a currently-speaking user, store, in the memory, speech history information that associates, for each point in time when the video data is acquired during at least a predetermined time period, the currently-speaking user with time information indicating the point in time when the video data is acquired, and based on the speech history information, identify a first user currently speaking and a second user who is to be displayed enlarged together with the first user.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 25, 2016
    Date of Patent: April 16, 2019
    Assignee: Ricoh Company, Ltd.
    Inventor: Akihito Aiba
  • Patent number: 10015592
    Abstract: An acoustic signal processing apparatus includes circuitry to generate, when a plurality of sound receivers receive sound from a plurality of examination directions in a space and outputs acoustic signals of a plurality of channels, an effective signal corresponding to sound coming from each one of the examination directions based on the acoustic signals of the plurality of channels for each one of the examination directions, calculate a feature for each one of the examination directions based on the effective signal generated for each one of the examination directions, and select a target direction from the plurality of examination directions in the space based on the feature calculated for each one of the examination directions.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 11, 2017
    Date of Patent: July 3, 2018
    Assignee: Ricoh Company, Ltd.
    Inventors: Minoru Yoshida, Akihito Aiba
  • Patent number: 9959881
    Abstract: A voice processing device includes: a sound pickup to receive sounds respectively from a plurality of locations; and circuitry to: identify, from the plurality of locations, a sound source location at which a sound source exists, as a current sound source location; specify at least one location of the plurality of locations other than the current sound source location, from at least one sound source location that has been identified as the sound source location during a past predetermined time period, as a specified source location at which a sound to be enhanced exists; enhance a sound from the current sound source location, and a sound from the specified source location; and output an audio signal including the enhanced sounds.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 31, 2017
    Date of Patent: May 1, 2018
    Assignee: Ricoh Company, Ltd.
    Inventors: Akihito Aiba, Minoru Yoshida
  • Publication number: 20180040332
    Abstract: A voice processing device includes: a sound pickup to receive sounds respectively from a plurality of locations; and circuitry to: identify, from the plurality of locations, a sound source location at which a sound source exists, as a current sound source location; specify at least one location of the plurality of locations other than the current sound source location, from at least one sound source location that has been identified as the sound source location during a past predetermined time period, as a specified source location at which a sound to be enhanced exists; enhance a sound from the current sound source location, and a sound from the specified source location; and output an audio signal including the enhanced sounds.
    Type: Application
    Filed: July 31, 2017
    Publication date: February 8, 2018
    Inventors: Akihito AIBA, Minoru YOSHIDA
  • Publication number: 20170339488
    Abstract: An acoustic signal processing apparatus includes circuitry to generate, when a plurality of sound receivers receive sound from a plurality of examination directions in a space and outputs acoustic signals of a plurality of channels, an effective signal corresponding to sound coming from each one of the examination directions based on the acoustic signals of the plurality of channels for each one of the examination directions, calculate a feature for each one of the examination directions based on the effective signal generated for each one of the examination directions, and select a target direction from the plurality of examination directions in the space based on the feature calculated for each one of the examination directions.
    Type: Application
    Filed: May 11, 2017
    Publication date: November 23, 2017
    Inventors: Minoru YOSHIDA, Akihito AIBA
  • Patent number: 9794685
    Abstract: A video audio recording system includes a video acquisition unit, an audio acquisition unit, a video recording parameter acquisition unit, and an audio emphasis unit. The video acquisition unit acquires a video signal by recording video of a subject. The audio acquisition unit acquires an audio signal by recording a sound. The video recording parameter acquisition unit acquires first information representing a video recording direction of the video acquisition unit and second information representing a positional relationship between the video acquisition unit and the audio acquisition unit. The audio emphasis unit emphasizes, based on the acquired first and second information, the acquired audio signal of the sound arriving in a predetermined direction.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 30, 2015
    Date of Patent: October 17, 2017
    Assignee: Ricoh Company, Ltd.
    Inventor: Akihito Aiba
  • Patent number: 9754606
    Abstract: A processing apparatus estimates a noise amplitude spectrum of noise included in a sound signal. The processing apparatus includes an amplitude spectrum calculation part configured to calculate an amplitude spectrum of the sound signal for each one of frames obtained from dividing the sound signal into units of time; and a noise amplitude spectrum estimation part configured to estimate the noise amplitude spectrum of the noise detected from the frame. The noise amplitude spectrum estimation part includes a first estimation part configured to estimate the noise amplitude spectrum based on a difference between the amplitude spectrum calculated by the amplitude spectrum calculation part and the amplitude spectrum of the frame occurring before the noise is detected, and a second estimation part configured to estimate the noise amplitude spectrum based on an attenuation function obtained from noise amplitude spectra of the frames occurring after the noise is detected.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 19, 2013
    Date of Patent: September 5, 2017
    Assignee: RICOH COMPANY, LTD.
    Inventors: Akihito Aiba, Junichi Takami
  • Publication number: 20170041556
    Abstract: A video processing apparatus includes a camera to continuously capture an image of an object to acquire video data, a memory, and circuitry to identify, from among a plurality of users appearing in the video data, a user who is speaking at a point in time when the video data is acquired as a currently-speaking user, store, in the memory, speech history information that associates, for each point in time when the video data is acquired during at least a predetermined time period, the currently-speaking user with time information indicating the point in time when the video data is acquired, and based on the speech history information, identify a first user currently speaking and a second user who is to be displayed enlarged together with the first user.
    Type: Application
    Filed: July 25, 2016
    Publication date: February 9, 2017
    Inventor: Akihito AIBA
  • Publication number: 20160219246
    Abstract: A video audio recording system includes a video acquisition unit, an audio acquisition unit, a video recording parameter acquisition unit, and an audio emphasis unit. The video acquisition unit acquires a video signal by recording video of a subject. The audio acquisition unit acquires an audio signal by recording a sound. The video recording parameter acquisition unit acquires first information representing a video recording direction of the video acquisition unit and second information representing a positional relationship between the video acquisition unit and the audio acquisition unit. The audio emphasis unit emphasizes, based on the acquired first and second information, the acquired audio signal of the sound arriving in a predetermined direction.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 30, 2015
    Publication date: July 28, 2016
    Inventor: Akihito AIBA
  • Patent number: 9392224
    Abstract: A multipoint connection apparatus (200) includes a video/audio-signal receiving unit (201) that receives video/audio signals from video/audio terminals (100); a volume-level calculating unit (205) that calculates volume levels from the video/audio signals; a volume-display-image generating unit (207) that generates volume display images indicating volume from the volume levels; a layout-setting-information receiving unit (209) that receives layout setting information indicating information about arrangement of videos to be displayed on the video/audio terminal (100); a combined-video/audio-signal generating unit (211) that generates a combined video/audio signal by combining the video/audio signals and the volume display images based on the layout setting information; and a transmitting unit (215) that transmits the video/audio signal to the video/audio terminal (100).
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 10, 2012
    Date of Patent: July 12, 2016
    Assignee: RICOH COMPANY, LIMITED
    Inventor: Akihito Aiba
  • Publication number: 20150098587
    Abstract: A processing apparatus estimates a noise amplitude spectrum of noise included in a sound signal. The processing apparatus includes an amplitude spectrum calculation part configured to calculate an amplitude spectrum of the sound signal for each one of frames obtained from dividing the sound signal into units of time; and a noise amplitude spectrum estimation part configured to estimate the noise amplitude spectrum of the noise detected from the frame. The noise amplitude spectrum estimation part includes a first estimation part configured to estimate the noise amplitude spectrum based on a difference between the amplitude spectrum calculated by the amplitude spectrum calculation part and the amplitude spectrum of the frame occurring before the noise is detected, and a second estimation part configured to estimate the noise amplitude spectrum based on an attenuation function obtained from noise amplitude spectra of the frames occurring after the noise is detected.
    Type: Application
    Filed: April 19, 2013
    Publication date: April 9, 2015
    Inventors: Akihito Aiba, Junichi Takami
  • Publication number: 20140139611
    Abstract: A multipoint connection apparatus (200) includes a video/audio-signal receiving unit (201) that receives video/audio signals from video/audio terminals (100); a volume-level calculating unit (205) that calculates volume levels from the video/audio signals; a volume-display-image generating unit (207) that generates volume display images indicating volume from the volume levels; a layout-setting-information receiving unit (209) that receives layout setting information indicating information about arrangement of videos to be displayed on the video/audio terminal (100); a combined-video/audio-signal generating unit (211) that generates a combined video/audio signal by combining the video/audio signals and the volume display images based on the layout setting information; and a transmitting unit (215) that transmits the video/audio signal to the video/audio terminal (100).
    Type: Application
    Filed: July 10, 2012
    Publication date: May 22, 2014
    Inventor: Akihito Aiba