Patents by Inventor Kazuhiro Nakadai

Kazuhiro Nakadai 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: 20190075393
    Abstract: A sound source localization unit determines a localized sound source direction that is a direction to a sound source on the basis of acoustic signals of a plurality of channels acquired from M (M is an integer equal to or greater than 3) sound pickup units being at different positions, and a sound source position estimation unit determines an intersection of straight lines to an estimated sound source direction, which is a direction from the sound pickup unit to an estimated sound source position of the sound source for each set of the two sound pickup units, classifies a distribution of intersections into a plurality of clusters, and updates the estimated sound source positions so that an estimation probability that is a probability of the estimated sound source positions being classified into clusters corresponding to the sound sources becomes high.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 4, 2018
    Publication date: March 7, 2019
    Inventors: Kazuhiro Nakadai, Daniel Patryk Gabriel, Ryosuke Kojima
  • Patent number: 10139470
    Abstract: A sound processing apparatus includes a sound collection position calculating unit configured to calculate sound collection positions of sound signals of multiple channels on the basis of the sound signals, a sound source direction calculating unit configured to calculate a sound source direction on the basis of the sound signals of multiple channels, a first transfer function calculating unit configured to calculate a first transfer function corresponding to the sound source direction on the basis of the sound signals of multiple channels, and a second transfer function calculating unit configured to calculate a second transfer function by interpolating the first transfer function corresponding to each of a plurality of sound source directions.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 23, 2015
    Date of Patent: November 27, 2018
    Assignee: HONDA MOTOR CO., LTD.
    Inventors: Keisuke Nakamura, Kazuhiro Nakadai, Surya Ambrose
  • Patent number: 10127922
    Abstract: A sound source identification apparatus includes a sound collection unit including a plurality of microphones, a sound source localization unit configured to localize a sound source on the basis of an acoustic signal collected by the sound collection unit, a sound source separation unit configured to perform separation of the sound source on the basis of the signal localized by the sound source localization unit, and a sound source identification unit configured to perform identification of a type of sound source on the basis of a result of the separation in the sound source separation unit, and a signal input to the sound source identification unit is a signal having a magnitude equal to or greater than a first threshold value which is a predetermined value.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 3, 2016
    Date of Patent: November 13, 2018
    Assignee: HONDA MOTOR CO., LTD.
    Inventors: Kazuhiro Nakadai, Satoshi Uemura
  • Publication number: 20180288110
    Abstract: A conference support system includes a plurality of terminals which are respectively used by a plurality of participants in a conference, and a conference support device. Each of the plurality of terminals includes an operation unit configured to sets utterance content as an important comment, and an important comment notifying unit configured to notify the other terminals of information indicating the important comment.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 23, 2018
    Publication date: October 4, 2018
    Inventors: Takashi Kawachi, Kazuhiro Nakadai, Tomoyuki Sahata, Yuki Uezono, Kazuya Maura
  • Publication number: 20180286388
    Abstract: A conference support system includes a plurality of terminals which are respectively used by a plurality of participants in a conference, and a conference support device. Each of the plurality of terminals includes an operation unit that sets uttering intention, and an own utterance notifying unit that notifies the other terminals of information indicating the uttering intention.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 23, 2018
    Publication date: October 4, 2018
    Inventors: Takashi Kawachi, Kazuhiro Nakadai, Tomoyuki Sahata, Syota Mori, Yasumasa Okuda, Kazuya Maura
  • Publication number: 20180288109
    Abstract: A conference support system has a terminal used by participants in a conference and a conference support apparatus. The conference support apparatus includes an acquisition unit configured to acquire a speech content, a context authentication unit configured to, when a pronoun is included in text information of the speech content, estimate words corresponding to the pronoun, and a communication unit configured to transmit the text information and the estimated words corresponding to the pronoun to the terminal, in which the terminal includes a display unit configured to display the text information and words corresponding to the pronoun.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 23, 2018
    Publication date: October 4, 2018
    Inventors: Takashi Kawachi, Kazuhiro Nakadai, Tomoyuki Sahata, Junko Kai, Meari Sayano, Keisuke Maeya, Kazuya Maura
  • Publication number: 20180286411
    Abstract: A voice processing device includes: a sound source localization unit configured to determine a direction of each sound source on the basis of voice signals of a plurality of channels; a sound source separation unit configured to separate signals for respective sound sources indicating components of respective sound sources from the voice signals of the plurality of channels; a speech section detection unit configured to detect a speech section in which the number of speakers is 1 from the signals for respective sound sources; and a speaker identification unit configured to identify a speaker on the basis of the signals for respective sound sources in the speech section.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 23, 2018
    Publication date: October 4, 2018
    Inventors: Kazuhiro Nakadai, Tomoyuki Sahata
  • Publication number: 20180286423
    Abstract: An audio processing device includes a sound source localization unit that determines respective directions of sound sources from audio signals of a plurality of channels, a setting information selection unit that selects a setting information from a setting information storage unit that stores setting information including transfer functions of directions in advance for each acoustic environment, and a sound source separation unit that separates the audio signals of the plurality of channels into respective sound-source-specific signals of sound sources by applying a separation matrix based on transfer functions included in the setting information selected by the setting information selection unit.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 23, 2018
    Publication date: October 4, 2018
    Inventors: Kazuhiro Nakadai, Tomoyuki Sahata
  • Publication number: 20180286389
    Abstract: A conference system includes an utterance indication processing unit configured to display text information representing utterance content of each speaker on a display unit of each of one or more terminals, and a notification unit configured to notify a speaker of a request to slow down a speech rate of the speaker.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 23, 2018
    Publication date: October 4, 2018
    Inventors: Takashi Kawachi, Kazuhiro Nakadai, Tomoyuki Sahata, Syota Mori, Yuki Uezono, Kyosuke Hineno, Kazuya Maura
  • Patent number: 10063966
    Abstract: A speech-processing apparatus includes: a representative transfer function estimation unit that uses a sound signal which is collected by using a microphone array of which the arrangement is unknown, which has a plurality of channels, and of which the number of sound sources is unknown and that estimates a transfer function with respect to a sound source.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 25, 2016
    Date of Patent: August 28, 2018
    Assignee: HONDA MOTOR CO., LTD.
    Inventors: Takeshi Mizumoto, Keisuke Nakamura, Kazuhiro Nakadai
  • Patent number: 10020007
    Abstract: A conversation analysis device includes an utterance data acquisition unit that acquires utterance data representing a voice of each speaker and an utterance of the speaker, a speech state analysis unit that analyzes a speech state of each speaker on the basis of the voice, and a degree-of-contribution calculation unit that calculates a degree of contribution to the conversation of each speaker on the basis of the speech state.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 13, 2016
    Date of Patent: July 10, 2018
    Assignee: HONDA MOTOR CO., LTD.
    Inventors: Takeshi Mizumoto, Kazuhiro Nakadai
  • Patent number: 10013982
    Abstract: A conversation processing apparatus includes a sound collection unit configured to collect voice signals of a plurality of speakers, a conversation recording unit configured to record the voice signals of the speakers collected by the sound collection unit, and a conversation analysis unit configured to calculate a degree to which a conversation between any two speakers is stimulated by analyzing the conversation between the two speakers from the voice signals recorded on the conversation recording unit.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 6, 2016
    Date of Patent: July 3, 2018
    Assignee: HONDA MOTOR CO., LTD.
    Inventors: Takeshi Mizumoto, Kazuhiro Nakadai, Kenta Utsunomiya
  • Patent number: 10002623
    Abstract: A speech-processing apparatus includes: a sound source localization unit that localizes a sound source based on an acquired speech signal; and a speech zone detection unit that performs speech zone detection based on localization information localized by the sound source localization unit.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 29, 2016
    Date of Patent: June 19, 2018
    Assignee: HONDA MOTOR CO., LTD.
    Inventors: Keisuke Nakamura, Kazuhiro Nakadai
  • Patent number: 9971012
    Abstract: A sound direction estimation device includes a transfer function storage unit configured to store transfer functions of sound sources in correlation with directions of the sound sources, a calculation unit configured to calculate the number of classes to be searched and a search interval for each class based on a desired search range and a desired spatial resolution for searching for the directions of the sound sources, and a sound source localization unit configured to search the search range for every search interval using the transfer function, to estimate the direction of the sound source based on the search result, to update the search range and the search interval based on the estimated direction of the sound source until the number of classes calculated by the calculation unit is reached, and to estimate the direction of the sound source.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 11, 2013
    Date of Patent: May 15, 2018
    Assignee: HONDA MOTOR CO., LTD.
    Inventors: Keisuke Nakamura, Kazuhiro Nakadai
  • Patent number: 9972315
    Abstract: A speech processing device includes a sound source localization unit configured to determine a sound source position from acquired speech, a reverberation suppression unit configured to suppress a reverberation component of the speech to generate dereverberated speech, a feature quantity calculation unit configured to calculate a feature quantity of the dereverberated speech, a feature quantity adjustment unit configured to multiply the feature quantity by an adjustment factor corresponding to the sound source position to calculate an adjusted feature quantity, and a speech recognition unit configured to perform speech recognition using the adjusted feature quantity.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 8, 2016
    Date of Patent: May 15, 2018
    Assignee: HONDA MOTOR CO., LTD.
    Inventors: Randy Gomez, Kazuhiro Nakadai
  • Publication number: 20180108356
    Abstract: A voice processing apparatus includes: a scenario storing unit configured to store a scenario as text information; a sound collecting unit configured to collect sound uttered by an utterer; a voice recognizing unit configured to perform voice recognition on the sound collected by the sound collecting unit; and a subtitle generating unit configured to read the text information from the scenario storing unit, to generate subtitles, and to change a display of a portion which has been already uttered by the utterer in a character string of the subtitles on the basis of a result of voice recognition by the voice recognizing unit.
    Type: Application
    Filed: July 10, 2017
    Publication date: April 19, 2018
    Inventors: Takeshi Mizumoto, Kazuhiro Nakadai
  • Patent number: 9936320
    Abstract: A transfer function calculation unit is configured to calculate a transfer function from a sound source installed in a predetermined target direction to each microphone of a microphone array, and a determination unit is configured to determine whether or not the microphone array is normal on the basis of a difference amount between a transfer function to each microphone and a predetermined ideal transfer function to each microphone.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 1, 2017
    Date of Patent: April 3, 2018
    Assignee: HONDA MOTOR CO., LTD.
    Inventors: Takeshi Mizumoto, Keisuke Nakamura, Kazuhiro Nakadai
  • Publication number: 20180070170
    Abstract: A sound processing apparatus includes an acquisition unit configured to acquire sound signals collected by a microphone array, a sound source localization unit configured to determine a sound source direction on the basis of the sound signals acquired by the acquisition unit, and a sound source identification unit configured to identify a type of sound source on the basis of a sound model indicating a dependence relationship between sound sources, in which the sound model is represented by a probabilistic model expression including sound source localization as an element.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 12, 2017
    Publication date: March 8, 2018
    Inventors: Kazuhiro Nakadai, Ryosuke Kojima
  • Patent number: 9911436
    Abstract: A sound recognition apparatus can include a sound feature value calculating unit configured to calculate a sound feature value based on a sound signal, and a label converting unit configured to convert the sound feature value into a corresponding label with reference to label data in which sound feature values and labels indicating sound units are correlated. A sound identifying unit is configured to calculate a probability of each sound unit group sequence that a label sequence is segmented for each sound unit group with reference to segmentation data. The segmentated data indicates a probability that a sound unit sequence will be segmented into at least one sound unit group. The sound identity unit can also identify a sound event corresponding to the sound unit group sequence selected based on the calculated probability.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 26, 2014
    Date of Patent: March 6, 2018
    Assignee: HONDA MOTOR CO., LTD.
    Inventors: Keisuke Nakamura, Kazuhiro Nakadai
  • Publication number: 20180061398
    Abstract: A separation unit separates voice signals of a plurality of channels into an incoming component in each incoming direction, a selection unit selects a statistic corresponding to an incoming direction of the incoming component separated by the separation unit from a storage unit which stores a predetermined statistic and a voice recognition model for each incoming direction, an updating unit updates the voice recognition model on the basis of the statistic selected by the selection unit, and a voice recognition unit recognizes a voice of the incoming component separated using the voice recognition model.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 15, 2017
    Publication date: March 1, 2018
    Inventors: Randy Gomez, Kazuhiro Nakadai