Patents by Inventor Kenji Mizutani
Kenji Mizutani 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).
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Publication number: 20110311127Abstract: A motion space presentation device includes: a work area generation unit configured to generate a three-dimensional region in which the movable robot operates; an image capture unit configured to capture a real image; a position and posture detection unit configured to detect an image capture position and an image capture direction of the image capture unit; and an overlay unit configured to selectively superimpose dither an image of a segment approximation model of the movable robot as viewed in the image capture direction from the image capture position, or an image of the three-dimensional region as viewed in the image capture direction from the image capture position, on the real image captured by the image capture unit, according to the difficulty in recognizing each image.Type: ApplicationFiled: August 30, 2011Publication date: December 22, 2011Inventors: Kenji MIZUTANI, Taichi SATO
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Publication number: 20110249690Abstract: In an external cavity wavelength tunable laser device including an external cavity (20) which includes a semiconductor optical amplifier (2) and performs laser oscillation operation by feeding back external light, a wavelength tunable mirror (7) having at least a single peak reflection spectrum characteristic within a laser wavelength tuning range is placed on one end of the external cavity (20), and a Fabry Perot mode interval determined by the effective length of the external cavity (20) is not less than 1/10 times and not more than 10 times the reflection band full width half maximum of the wavelength tunable mirror (7).Type: ApplicationFiled: June 21, 2011Publication date: October 13, 2011Applicant: NEC CORPORATIONInventors: Kenji SATO, Jan De MERLI, Kenji MIZUTANI, Koji KUDO, Shinya SUDO, Mads L. NIELSEN
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Publication number: 20110188804Abstract: An optical joint (1) includes a 2×2 MMI coupler (30) and a 2×2 MMI coupler (31) joined to the 2×2 MMI coupler (30). The 2×2 MMI coupler (30) includes a port (32) and a port (33) at one side. The 2×2 MMI coupler (31) includes a port (34) and a port (35) at one side. A light-absorbing region (20) is connected to the port (33), and a light-absorbing region (second light-absorbing section) (21) is connected to the port (34). A reflecting boundary (22) that reflects light propagated through the 2×2 MMI coupler (30) or the 2×2 MMI coupler (31) is formed at the junction portion between the 2×2 MMI coupler (30) and the 2×2 MMI coupler (31).Type: ApplicationFiled: October 8, 2009Publication date: August 4, 2011Inventors: Takeshi Okamoto, Kenji Sato, Tomoaki Kato, Kenji Mizutani
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Patent number: 7991024Abstract: In an external cavity wavelength tunable laser device including an external cavity (20) which includes a semiconductor optical amplifier (2) and performs laser oscillation operation by feeding back external light, a wavelength tunable mirror (7) having at least a single-peak reflection spectrum characteristic within a laser wavelength tuning range is placed on one end of the external cavity (20), and a Fabry-Perot mode interval determined by the effective length of the external cavity (20) is not less than 1/10 times and not more than 10 times the reflection band full width half maximum of the wavelength tunable mirror (7).Type: GrantFiled: June 29, 2006Date of Patent: August 2, 2011Assignee: NEC CorporationInventors: Kenji Sato, Jan De Merli, Kenji Mizutani, Koji Kudo, Shinya Sudo, Mads. L Nielsen
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Publication number: 20110128363Abstract: A work recognition device that recognizes processes in user's work includes: a whole-state observation time determination unit (303) that determines, as a whole-state observation time, from among observation times of chronological first observation values generated by a first sensor (201) to represent movements of a user's hand, an observation time of observing a first observation value representing a predetermined movement of the hand; an observation value selection unit (304) that selects a second observation value corresponding to the time determined by the determination unit (303) from among chronological second observation values generated by a second sensor (202) to represent scenes (states) in the user's work; and a process recognition unit (305) that specifies a process in the work, by comparing the second observation value selected by the selection unit (304) to pieces of knowledge data associated with work processes in which the user performs predetermined movements of the hand.Type: ApplicationFiled: May 21, 2010Publication date: June 2, 2011Inventor: Kenji Mizutani
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Patent number: 7904449Abstract: A content searching apparatus facilitating a search of a content, which a user desires, even where relativity between a content and a keyword change, wherein the content searching apparatus includes: a content table storing unit storing content tables; an input unit obtaining a keyword, which has been selected as a selected keyword; a relevant keyword creating unit (i) calculating a relevance degree, for each of keywords, to the selected keyword, based on a target content table, (ii) selecting a keyword having a predetermined relevance degree out of each of the keywords, and (iii) creating a relevant keyword out of the corresponding keywords; and a variance calculating unit calculating a variance value of selected keywords including the keyword, when the user is confused. Further, the content searching apparatus includes a content table selecting unit changing the above mentioned target content table to another content table, when the variance value is larger than a threshold value.Type: GrantFiled: October 30, 2007Date of Patent: March 8, 2011Assignee: Panasonic CorporationInventors: Kazutoyo Takata, Takashi Tsuzuki, Kenji Mizutani
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Publication number: 20110022634Abstract: Provided is an image search device which relatively easily searches a large amount of stored images for images that a user wishes to use for interpolation, and which includes: an interpolation range computing unit (103) which computes, as an interpolation range, a range of an area including a first photographing location where a first interpolation target image was taken and a second photographing location where a second interpolation target image was taken; an interpolation image candidate obtaining unit (104) which obtains, as candidate images, images whose photographing location are included in the interpolation range from the plurality of images; and an interpolation image selecting unit (106) which selects, from the candidate images, an image having a greater subject distance, which is a distance between a subject and an imaging device when the image was taken, as a traveling speed between the first photographing location and the second photographing location increases.Type: ApplicationFiled: November 5, 2009Publication date: January 27, 2011Inventors: Kazutoyo Takata, Kenji Mizutani
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Publication number: 20110002349Abstract: An object is to provide a wavelength-tunable laser apparatus that prevents a grid-hopping upon wavelength change, and a wavelength changing method thereof. A wavelength-tunable laser apparatus 101 according to the present invention includes a semiconductor optical amplifier 102 and a periodic wavelength-selection filter 106. Further, the wavelength-tunable laser apparatus 101 includes a phase control unit 111 that concurrently controls a current applied to the semiconductor optical amplifier 102 and a phase tuning of a wavelength-tunable laser under an open-loop control. Thus, dark-tuning can be achieved.Type: ApplicationFiled: December 9, 2008Publication date: January 6, 2011Inventors: Kenji Mizutani, Kenji Sato, Koji Kudo
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Patent number: 7844398Abstract: A path risk evaluating apparatus includes a secondary collision likelihood direction evaluating unit (108) and a secondary collision likelihood distance evaluating unit (109) which evaluate, based on the relationship between a movement path and a position of objects in an environment where a mobile device moves, the likelihood of the mobile device having primary collision with a first object and the first object further having secondary collision with a second object; a risky attribute combination evaluating unit (112) which determines degree of damage when secondary collision occurs, by referring to information, indicating degree of damage when objects in the environment collide, held by a risky attribute combination information holding unit (111); and a path evaluating unit (113) which evaluates the risk of the moving path for the mobile device, based on the evaluation result from the secondary collision likelihood direction evaluating unit (108) and the secondary collision likelihood distance evaluating unType: GrantFiled: July 8, 2009Date of Patent: November 30, 2010Assignee: Panasonic CorporationInventors: Taichi Sato, Kenji Mizutani
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Patent number: 7835914Abstract: A dialog supporting apparatus which can support an on-going dialog so that the dialog is smoothly completed. The dialog supporting apparatus includes an utterance receiving unit receiving an utterance of a dialog participant and outputting utterance information, an utterance processing unit translating the utterance identified by the utterance information, an utterance output unit outputting the translated utterance information, a dialog history database, an utterance prediction generating a first utterance prediction information based on the first utterance prediction information and the second utterance prediction information.Type: GrantFiled: November 28, 2007Date of Patent: November 16, 2010Assignee: Panasonic CorporationInventors: Kenji Mizutani, Yoshiyuki Okimoto
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Patent number: 7809499Abstract: When traveling to a destination reported in a television broadcast or the like, the user has had to make a memo while watching the television and, when actually traveling by car, the user has had to enter necessary information into an in-vehicle terminal by looking at the memo. A broadcast provider broadcasts a travel program together with travel destination information related to it, and a television terminal presents the received broadcast and travel destination information to the user. If the user desires to travel to the destination thus presented, the television terminal downloads the received travel destination information into a memory card.Type: GrantFiled: April 13, 2007Date of Patent: October 5, 2010Assignee: Panasonic CorporationInventors: Hidetsugu Maekawa, Yoshifumi Hirose, Shinichi Yoshizawa, Kenji Mizutani, Yumi Wakita
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Publication number: 20100246618Abstract: The present invention provides an external resonator-type wavelength tunable laser device that can properly fulfill a wavelength tuning function even with the use of a planar wavelength tunable reflector involving a considerable level of residual reflection. The external resonator-type wavelength tunable laser device includes a planar reflection structure enabling a reflection spectral peak wavelength to be varied and a semiconductor element as a semiconductor gain medium. The semiconductor gain medium is composed of a multiple quantum well in which product ?·L of optical confinement constant ? and semiconductor gain medium length L (?m) of a gain layer is at least 25 ?m and at most 40 ?m and in which gain peak wavelength ?0 (nm) observed during carrier injected with a maximum modal gain equal to an internal loss of the semiconductor gain medium is larger than ?3·?R/2+(?c+35) and smaller than (?(?·L)/7+8)·?R+(?(?·L)+?c+45).Type: ApplicationFiled: May 22, 2008Publication date: September 30, 2010Inventors: Shinya Sudo, Kenji Sato, Koji Kudo, Kenji Mizutani, Jan De Merlier
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Publication number: 20100217528Abstract: A path risk evaluating apparatus includes a secondary collision likelihood direction evaluating unit (108) and a secondary collision likelihood distance evaluating unit (109) which evaluate, based on the relationship between a movement path and a position of objects in an environment where a mobile device moves, the likelihood of the mobile device having primary collision with a first object and the first object further having secondary collision with a second object; a risky attribute combination evaluating unit (112) which determines degree of damage when secondary collision occurs, by referring to information, indicating degree of damage when objects in the environment collide, held by a risky attribute combination information holding unit (111); and a path evaluating unit (113) which evaluates the risk of the moving path for the mobile device, based on the evaluation result from the secondary collision likelihood direction evaluating unit (108) and the secondary collision likelihood distance evaluating unType: ApplicationFiled: July 8, 2009Publication date: August 26, 2010Inventors: Taichi Sato, Kenji Mizutani
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Patent number: 7761437Abstract: A named entity extracting apparatus that extracts a named entity suitable for a user by enabling an order to be set in which the named entity is extracted from texts includes: an extraction order reading unit 103 that acquires a named entity pattern name stored in association with an extraction order in an extraction order storage unit 102; a named entity extracting unit 105 that extracts the named entity from input texts using a named entity pattern corresponding to the named entity pattern name acquired by the extraction order reading unit 103; and an extraction end judging unit 106 which outputs, in the case where extraction has not ended, a text on which the extraction is in progress to the extraction order reading unit 103, and continues the named entity extraction processing.Type: GrantFiled: December 26, 2005Date of Patent: July 20, 2010Assignee: Panasonic CorporationInventors: Takashi Tsuzuki, Yoshiyuki Okimoto, Kenji Mizutani, Satoshi Matsuura, Tsuyoshi Inoue, Hiroshi Kutsumi
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Patent number: 7752051Abstract: A dialog supporting apparatus is provided which can support an on-going dialog so that the dialog is smoothly completed irrespective of the other party in the dialog. The dialog supporting apparatus includes utterance receiving units which receive the utterances of the dialog participants and output utterance information for identifying an utterance. Moreover, the dialog supporting apparatus includes utterance outputting units which output the utterance information from the other participant in the dialog as an utterance, and an utterance processing unit which transforms the utterance identified by the utterance information into an other utterance form. Furthermore, the dialog supporting apparatus includes a dialog history selection unit which selects an optimum dialog history in a dialog history database and an utterance prediction unit which predicts utterances in the dialog based on the selected dialog history.Type: GrantFiled: February 9, 2006Date of Patent: July 6, 2010Assignee: Panasonic CorporationInventors: Kenji Mizutani, Yoshiyuki Okimoto
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Patent number: 7735105Abstract: To purchase an item which is viewed on a broadcast. The items may include furniture, jewelry, clothing and automobiles. The viewer is able to utter a phrase in reference to a viewed item that they wish to view or purchase. The system then searches the broadcast information and displays all relevant items. The viewer is then able to select and purchase a particular item.Type: GrantFiled: August 22, 2002Date of Patent: June 8, 2010Assignee: Panasonic CorporationInventors: Yumiko Kato, Takahiro Kamai, Kenji Mizutani, Hideyuki Yoshida
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Publication number: 20100111119Abstract: In an external resonator type semiconductor wavelength tunable laser apparatus using a wavelength tunable mirror or a wavelength tunable filter which uses a refractive index change of liquid crystal, a resonant frequency is set as FR, when a response of the refractive index change to a drive voltage frequency of liquid crystal becomes maximum. A frequency F1 of a drive AC power supply voltage to control the refractive index of liquid crystal is set to a frequency largely different from FR. A wavelength tunable mirror or a wavelength tunable filter is driven with a signal in which a dither AC signal F2 of a frequency close to the FR and an AC power supply voltage are superimposed. A PD to monitor a light output from the laser controls an amplitude of the drive AC power voltage such that an amplitude of the dither AC signal F2 become minimum. Thus, high laser mode stability is realized.Type: ApplicationFiled: February 6, 2008Publication date: May 6, 2010Inventors: Kenji Sato, Kenji Mizutani, Shinya Sudo, Koji Kudo
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Publication number: 20100100541Abstract: An information retrieval apparatus, which can present to a user only a related word matching a user search intent, includes: an associative dictionary storage unit (102A) for storing words included in plural pieces of text to be searched and relevance degrees between the words; an appearance frequency storage unit (102B) for storing an appearance frequency that is the number of pieces of text in which the words stored in the associative dictionary storage unit (102A) appear, among the plural pieces of text to be searched; and a related word obtaining unit (104) that obtains a related word to be presented to the user, from the relevance degree between the search word entered by the user and another word among the words, the appearance frequency, and the user search intent.Type: ApplicationFiled: November 6, 2007Publication date: April 22, 2010Inventors: Takashi Tsuzuki, Kenji Mizutani, Kazutoyo Takata, Satoshi Matsuura
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Publication number: 20100030461Abstract: When traveling to a destination reported in a television broadcast or the like, the user has had to make a memo while watching the television and, when actually traveling by car, the user has had to enter necessary information into an in-vehicle terminal by looking at the memo. A broadcast provider broadcasts a travel program together with travel destination information related to it, and a television terminal presents the received broadcast and travel destination information to the user. If the user desires to travel to the destination thus presented, the television terminal downloads the received travel destination information into a memory card.Type: ApplicationFiled: April 13, 2007Publication date: February 4, 2010Applicant: Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd.Inventors: Hidetsugu Maekawa, Yoshifumi Hirose, Shinichi Yoshizawa, Kenji Mizutani, Yumi Wakita
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Patent number: 7656911Abstract: To facilitate phase adjustment in an external resonator type wavelength-variable laser. An external resonator type wavelength-variable laser (50) includes a semiconductor light amplifier (1), a wavelength selection filter (3) having periodic frequency characteristics, an external resonator (6), and a wavelength-variable filter (4). ?f is divided into one or more regions. The following conditions are satisfied for one ?fi region: mj=(j×?ffs)/?fFP where ?ffs: a period of the wavelength selection filter, ?fFP: a Fabry-Perot mode interval dependent on a length of the external resonator, j: an integer not smaller than 1 and not larger than (?fi/?ffs). A coefficient Mj is an integer obtained by rounding off the first digit after decimal point of the coefficient mj. A coefficient Ni,j is an integer obtained by discarding the first digit after decimal point of ?fi/(j×?ffs). In this regard, a relation of (|Ni,j×2?(Mj?mj)|<?/2) is satisfied for one j.Type: GrantFiled: May 25, 2005Date of Patent: February 2, 2010Assignee: NEC CorporationInventors: Kenji Mizutani, Koji Kudo, Kenji Sato, Jan De Merlier