Patents by Inventor Akio Tokura

Akio Tokura 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).

  • Patent number: 11709082
    Abstract: A fluid measurement device includes sensor elements that are arranged around a pipe in which a fluid containing a scatterer flows and include each of a light source, a light receiver, and a partition structure for shading between the light source and the light receiver, a signal processor that processes the signals obtained from the light that has been received and photoelectrically converted by the light receivers, and a calculator that calculates at least one of a flow velocity and a flow rate using the signals processed by the signal process unit. The light source and the light receiver in each of the sensor elements are arranged in proximity along the pipe axis direction of the pipe so as to have a reverse positional relationship to the light source and the light receiver in the adjacent sensor elements.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 24, 2019
    Date of Patent: July 25, 2023
    Assignee: Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation
    Inventor: Akio Tokura
  • Publication number: 20230059323
    Abstract: A wearable environmental sensor includes an environmental sensor arranged on a wall surface of a housing including a sealed section, the wall being in contact with an environment, and a protective structure formed around the environmental sensor, wherein the protective structure includes a plurality of ventilating holes, a sensor surface of the environmental sensor is arranged to face an opening of at least one of the ventilating holes, and an attaching part for attaching the environmental sensor to the wall surface comes into contact only with an edge of a sensor substrate of the environmental sensor and with a portion of a back face of the sensor substrate.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 19, 2019
    Publication date: February 23, 2023
    Inventors: Akio Tokura, Kei Kuwabara, Takako Ishihara
  • Publication number: 20220397460
    Abstract: A wearable environmental sensor is configured to measure environmental information regarding a place where the device is worn, and includes a black-bulb temperature sensor including a black bulb and a temperature sensor for measuring internal temperature in the black bulb, the black-bulb temperature sensor being in a housing, wherein the black bulb includes an insertion hole into which the temperature sensor is inserted, the black bulb includes a weld portion welded to the housing, in an outer-circumferential portion of the bottom surface, the black bulb includes a guide portion in an outer-circumferential portion around the insertion hole, the housing includes an insertion opening into which the guide portion of the black bulb is inserted, the housing includes a protruding portion at an outer-circumferential portion around the insertion opening, and the guide portion is supported by the protruding portion.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 19, 2019
    Publication date: December 15, 2022
    Inventors: Akio Tokura, Kei Kuwabara, Takako Ishihara, Hiroyoshi Togo
  • Publication number: 20220382325
    Abstract: A wearable sensor device includes a temperature and humidity sensor that measures ambient environmental information around a living body. The temperature and humidity sensor is provided on an outer wall surface of a housing or provided to be separated from the outer wall surface. The outer wall surface of the housing faces a left or right side or diagonally downward when the wearable sensor device is attached to the living body and the living body is in a standing posture.
    Type: Application
    Filed: November 6, 2019
    Publication date: December 1, 2022
    Inventors: Kei Kuwabara, Akio Tokura, Takako Ishihara, Toshiki Wada, Yuichi Higuchi, Yuki Hashimoto, Hiroyoshi Togo
  • Publication number: 20220361815
    Abstract: A wearable sensor device includes a temperature and humidity sensor that measures ambient environmental information around a living body, a snap button connected to a bioelectrode, a biological information measurement unit that measures biological information, an inertial sensor that measures inertial information, a calculation unit that calculates a biological feature amount based on the biological information and calculates an inertial feature amount based on the inertial information, and a wireless communication unit that transmits the biological information, the inertial information, the biological feature amount, the inertial feature amount, and the environmental information to the outside.
    Type: Application
    Filed: November 6, 2019
    Publication date: November 17, 2022
    Inventors: Kei Kuwabara, Akio Tokura, Hiroto Matsuoka, Takako Ishihara, Takayuki Ogasawara, Yuki Hashimoto, Kenichi Matsunaga, Toshiki Wada, Hiroyoshi Togo
  • Publication number: 20220349758
    Abstract: A wearable environmental sensor device includes a temperature/humidity sensor disposed on a wall surface of a housing that is exposed to an environment and configured to measure ambient environmental information around a living body, and a protective structure formed around the temperature/humidity sensor. The temperature/humidity sensor is disposed, directly or via a support structure, on or over the wall surface of the housing, wherein the wall surface faces substantially downward from the living body when the wearable environmental sensor device is attached to the living body and the living body is in a standing posture. The protective structure has respective ventilation holes provided in two or more pairs of opposed surfaces thereof each facing in a direction other than a vertical direction of the living body when the wearable environmental sensor device is attached to the living body and the living body is in the standing posture.
    Type: Application
    Filed: November 7, 2019
    Publication date: November 3, 2022
    Inventors: Akio Tokura, Kei Kuwabara, Hiroto Matsuura, Takako Ishihara, Toshiki Wada, Yuichi Higuchi, Yuki Hashimoto
  • Publication number: 20220268608
    Abstract: A fluid measurement device includes sensor elements that are arranged around a pipe in which a fluid containing a scatterer flows and include each of a light source, a light receiver, and a partition structure for shading between the light source and the light receiver, a signal processor that processes the signals obtained from the light that has been received and photoelectrically converted by the light receivers, and a calculator that calculates at least one of a flow velocity and a flow rate using the signals processed by the signal process unit. The light source and the light receiver in each of the sensor elements are arranged in proximity along the pipe axis direction of the pipe so as to have a reverse positional relationship to the light source and the light receiver in the adjacent sensor elements.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 24, 2019
    Publication date: August 25, 2022
    Inventor: Akio Tokura
  • Publication number: 20220265158
    Abstract: An embodiment optical blood pressure monitor includes a laser Doppler blood flowmeter, which measures the blood flow velocity in a peripheral blood vessel, a photoplethysmography monitor, which measures the pulse waveform in a peripheral blood vessel, a heart rate monitor, which measures data relating to the pulsation of a heart, a characteristic point extraction portion, which extracts a characteristic point relating to the pulsation from the data relating to the pulsation of the heart, a first calculation portion, which determines the pulse wave velocity from the pulse waveform, and a second calculation portion, which determines the blood pressure based on the pulse wave velocity and the blood flow velocity.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 8, 2019
    Publication date: August 25, 2022
    Inventor: Akio Tokura
  • Publication number: 20220057242
    Abstract: First to N-th (N is an integer of three or more) sensor elements each including a light source unit and a light reception unit are arranged around a tube that allows a fluid containing scatterers to flow at equiangular intervals, and coherent light which is emitted from the light source unit of any one sensor element of the first to N-th sensor elements and is transmitted through the fluid flowing through the tube is received by the light reception unit of another predetermined sensor element of the first to N-th sensor elements. At this time, when a distance between the light source unit and the light reception unit of any one sensor element is d and an outer radius of the tube is r, a distance between any one sensor element and another predetermined sensor element is set to ?d/2 or more and ?3r or less.
    Type: Application
    Filed: January 14, 2020
    Publication date: February 24, 2022
    Inventor: Akio Tokura
  • Patent number: 10156517
    Abstract: This N2O analysis device is provided with: a light source (11) which radiates laser light onto an exhaust gas (5) containing N2O, H2O and CO2; a light receiver (13) which receives the laser light that has been radiated onto the exhaust gas (5); a light source control unit (14a) of a control device (14), which controls the wavelength of the laser light radiated by the light source (11) to between 3.84 ?m and 4.00 ?m; and a signal analyzing unit (14b) of the control device (14), which calculates the N2O concentration by means of infrared spectroscopy, using the laser light received by the light receiver (13) and the laser light controlled by the light source control unit (14a) of the control device (14).
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 29, 2016
    Date of Patent: December 18, 2018
    Assignees: NIPPON TELEGRAPH AND TELEPHONE CORPORATION, MITSUBISHI HEAVY INDUSTRIES, LTD.
    Inventors: Osamu Tadanaga, Akio Tokura, Kenji Muta, Shuuji Fujii, Yoichiro Tsumura, Tatsuyuki Nishimiya
  • Patent number: 10101270
    Abstract: To provide an SO3 analysis device and analysis method capable of accurately and rapidly measuring the concentration of SO3 in exhaust gas without pre-processing. The present invention is provided with a light source (11) for radiating laser light (2) to exhaust gas (1) including SO3, CO2, and H2O, a photodetector (13) for receiving the laser light (2) radiated to the exhaust gas (1), a light source control unit (14a) of a control device (14) for controlling the wavelength of the laser light (2) radiated by the light source (11) so as to be 4.060 ?m to 4.192 ?m, and a concentration calculation unit (14b) of the control device (14) for calculating the SO3 concentration by infrared spectroscopy on the basis of the output from the photodetector (13) and a reference signal from the light source control unit (14a).
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 29, 2016
    Date of Patent: October 16, 2018
    Assignees: NIPPON TELEGRAPH AND TELEPHONE CORPORATION, MITSUBISHI HEAVY INDUSTRIES, LTD.
    Inventors: Akio Tokura, Osamu Tadanaga, Kenji Muta, Shuuji Fujii, Yoichiro Tsumura, Tatsuyuki Nishimiya
  • Publication number: 20180095030
    Abstract: This N2O analysis device is provided with: a light source (11) which radiates laser light onto an exhaust gas (5) containing N2O, H2O and CO2; a light receiver (13) which receives the laser light that has been radiated onto the exhaust gas (5); a light source control unit (14a) of a control device (14), which controls the wavelength of the laser light radiated by the light source (11) to between 3.84 ?m and 4.00 ?m; and a signal analyzing unit (14b) of the control device (14), which calculates the N2O concentration by means of infrared spectroscopy, using the laser light received by the light receiver (13) and the laser light controlled by the light source control unit (14a) of the control device (14).
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 29, 2016
    Publication date: April 5, 2018
    Inventors: Osamu TADANAGA, Akio TOKURA, Kenji MUTA, Shuuji FUJII, Yoichiro TSUMURA, Tatsuyuki NISHIMIYA
  • Publication number: 20180080866
    Abstract: To provide an SO3 analysis device and analysis method capable of accurately and rapidly measuring the concentration of SO3 in exhaust gas without pre-processing. The present invention is provided with a light source (11) for radiating laser light (2) to exhaust gas (1) including SO3, CO2, and H2O, a photodetector (13) for receiving the laser light (2) radiated to the exhaust gas (1), a light source control unit (14a) of a control device (14) for controlling the wavelength of the laser light (2) radiated by the light source (11) so as to be 4.060 ?m to 4.192 ?m, and a concentration calculation unit (14b) of the control device (14) for calculating the SO3 concentration by infrared spectroscopy on the basis of the output from the photodetector (13) and a reference signal from the light source control unit (14a).
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 29, 2016
    Publication date: March 22, 2018
    Inventors: Akio TOKURA, Osamu TADANAGA, Kenji MUTA, Shuuji FUJII, Yoichiro TSUMURA, Tatsuyuki NISHIMIYA
  • Patent number: 9065243
    Abstract: The phase sensitive amplifier according to the present invention is a phase sensitive amplifier that uses the optical mixing using a nonlinear optical effect to amplify the signal light. The phase sensitive amplifier according to the present invention includes: the first second-order nonlinear optical element; and the second second-order nonlinear optical element. The first second-order nonlinear optical element causes the fundamental wave light to generate second harmonic light used as pump light and separates only the second harmonic light. The second second-order nonlinear optical element includes a multiplexer to multiplex the signal light with the second harmonic light and spectrally separates only the amplified signal light. The multiplexed signal light and second harmonic light are used subjected to parametric amplification.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 20, 2012
    Date of Patent: June 23, 2015
    Assignee: NIPPON TELEGRAPH AND TELEPHONE CORPORATION
    Inventors: Masaki Asobe, Takeshi Umeki, Kouji Enbutsu, Akio Tokura, Yutaka Miyamoto, Hidehiko Takara, Hirokazu Takenouchi, Isao Tomita
  • Publication number: 20150036210
    Abstract: The phase sensitive amplifier according to the present invention is a phase sensitive amplifier that uses the optical mixing using a nonlinear optical effect to amplify the signal light. The phase sensitive amplifier according to the present invention includes: the first second-order nonlinear optical element; and the second second-order nonlinear optical element. The first second-order nonlinear optical element causes the fundamental wave light to generate second harmonic light used as pump light and separates only the second harmonic light. The second second-order nonlinear optical element includes a multiplexer to multiplex the signal light with the second harmonic light and spectrally separates only the amplified signal light. The multiplexed signal light and second harmonic light are used subjected to parametric amplification.
    Type: Application
    Filed: January 20, 2012
    Publication date: February 5, 2015
    Inventors: Masaki Asobe, Takeshi Umeki, Kouji Enbutsu, Akio Tokura, Yutaka Miyamoto, Hidehiko Takara, Hirokazu Takenouchi, Isao Tomita