Patents by Inventor Masafumi Okada

Masafumi Okada 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: 20240110687
    Abstract: Provided is an illumination apparatus capable of forming ring-shaped irradiation light by using a simple configuration. Also provided is an illumination apparatus capable of freely changing a shape of the ring-shaped irradiation light. In order to achieve these objects, the present invention has the following means. That is, the illumination apparatus includes a first reflector having a first hole where a light source is arranged, a second hole that emits light, and a reflecting curved surface that connects the first hole and the second hole with each other, a light shield arranged at an area including a center of the second hole as seen in plan view, an opening portion formed in a ring-shaped manner between an inner edge of the second hole and an outer edge of the light shield, and a liquid crystal lens arranged so as to cover the opening portion.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 25, 2023
    Publication date: April 4, 2024
    Inventors: Makoto HASEGAWA, Masafumi OKADA
  • Patent number: 11898709
    Abstract: A lighting device including a first unit and a second unit, the first unit including: a first funnel shaped reflector having a first neck, a first opening, a first reflecting surface and a first light axis, a first LED emitting a first color disposed on the first neck, a first liquid crystal lens disposed at the first opening, a second unit including: a second funnel shaped reflector having a second neck, a second opening, a second reflecting surface and a second light axis, a second LED emitting a second color disposed on the second neck, a second liquid crystal lens disposed at the second opening; a length h1 of the first funnel shaped reflector is same as a length of the second funnel shaped reflector, and a diameter d1 of the first opening is same as a diameter of the second opening, and h1/d1 is two or more.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 20, 2023
    Date of Patent: February 13, 2024
    Assignee: Japan Display Inc.
    Inventors: Takashi Ota, Nobuyuki Suzuki, Makoto Hasegawa, Masafumi Okada
  • Publication number: 20240004238
    Abstract: According to one embodiment, an illumination device includes red light emitting elements, green light emitting elements and blue light emitting elements opposing a first side surface of a first light guide, and the red light emitting elements, the green light emitting elements and the blue light emitting elements are disposed along the first side surface in a third direction that intersects the first direction and the second direction, and, arranged to be symmetrical with respect to a central axis of the third direction of the first side surface.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 28, 2023
    Publication date: January 4, 2024
    Inventors: Masafumi OKADA, Shinichi KOMURA, Ken ONODA
  • Publication number: 20230417396
    Abstract: A lighting device according to the invention includes: a funnel shaped reflector including a first hole in which a light source is disposed, a second hole which emits light, and a reflecting curved surface connecting the first hole with the second hole, a first direction being defined as a direction of a line connecting a center of the first hole with a center of the second hole; a reflection plate, being opposed to the second hole of the funnel shaped reflector, major surface being tilted with a first angle; and a liquid crystal lens including an incident surface and opposing to the reflection plate, a major surface of the incident surface being tilted to the major surface of the reflection plate with a second angle, in which light emitted from the funnel shaped reflector is reflected at the reflection plate, and is emitted from the liquid crystal lens.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 21, 2023
    Publication date: December 28, 2023
    Inventors: Makoto HASEGAWA, Nobuyuki SUZUKI, Masafumi OKADA
  • Publication number: 20230417392
    Abstract: Disclosed is a lighting device including a light guide plate, a plurality of LEDs, a prism sheet disposed on a side toward the upper surface of the light guide plate, and a reflective sheet disposed on a side toward the lower surface of the light guide plate. The plurality of LEDs are arrayed on a side surface corresponding to a first side of the light guide plate in a first direction along the first side. The prism sheet includes a first prism array that is formed on a surface facing the light guide plate. The first prism array includes prisms that are extended in the first direction and arrayed in a second direction perpendicular to the first direction. The upper surface of the light guide plate and the prism sheet sandwich a diffusion sheet therebetween. The diffusion sheet has a haze value between 30% and 65% when measured in compliance with JIS K7361. The prisms on the first prism array have an apex angle between 55 degrees and 66 degrees.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 11, 2023
    Publication date: December 28, 2023
    Inventors: Masafumi OKADA, Makoto HASEGAWA, Nobuyuki SUZUKI
  • Patent number: 11852303
    Abstract: The purpose of the present invention is to realize a lighting device of small light distribution angle and less leakage light and further to realize a lighting device in which the light beam is easy to control. The following is an example of the structure to meet the above purpose. A lighting device including: a light guide; LEDs set at a side surface of the light guide; a prism sheet set on a major surface of the light guide, in which a first louver which extends in a first direction and, a second louver which extends in an orthogonal direction to the first direction are superposed on the prism sheet.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 20, 2023
    Date of Patent: December 26, 2023
    Assignee: JAPAN DISPLAY INC.
    Inventors: Makoto Hasegawa, Takeo Koito, Nobuyuki Suzuki, Masafumi Okada
  • Patent number: 11828454
    Abstract: The purpose of the present invention is to realize a lighting device which can be switched between an overall lighting and a local lighting with a single lighting device. The concrete structure is a lighting device including: a first light guide having a first major surface and a first back surface, and a first hole; a second light guide, disposed on the first light guide, and having a second major surface, a second back surface, and a second hole; a reflection sheet disposed under the first back surface of the first light guide; a liquid crystal lens disposed above the second major surface of the second light guide, in which first LEDs and second LEDs are disposed circumferentially along a side wall of the first hole and a side wall of the second hole, respectively, and the first LEDs and the second LEDs are displaced each other in azimuth direction.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 13, 2022
    Date of Patent: November 28, 2023
    Assignee: Japan Display Inc.
    Inventors: Makoto Hasegawa, Nobuyuki Suzuki, Masafumi Okada
  • Publication number: 20230375775
    Abstract: A lighting device capable of changing light direction includes: a light guide plate having a first side surface extending in a first direction; and LEDs at the first side surface, in which the light guide plate has a first area extending in a second direction which is a direction perpendicular to the first direction and a second area extending in the second direction and adjacent to the first area, corresponding to the first area, at least one LED is arranged at the first side surface, corresponding to the second area, at least one LED is arranged at the first side surface, a first prism array is formed under a bottom surface of the first area, and a second prism array is formed under a bottom surface of the second area, and a prism height of the second prism array is taller than a prism height of the first prism array.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 8, 2023
    Publication date: November 23, 2023
    Inventors: Makoto HASEGAWA, Masafumi OKADA
  • Patent number: 11815259
    Abstract: The purpose is to provide a rectangle light spot with a simple structure. The invention is: A lighting device having a funnel shaped reflector which includes a neck portion and an opening portion, in which an LED as a light source is disposed at the neck, the opening portion of the funnel shaped reflector is a circle in a plan view, provided a distance from the neck portion to the opening portion along an optical axis is h, and a diameter of the circle is d, h/d is two or larger, and a liquid crystal lens is disposed at the opening.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 29, 2022
    Date of Patent: November 14, 2023
    Assignee: Japan Display Inc.
    Inventors: Masafumi Okada, Nobuyuki Suzuki
  • Patent number: 11789193
    Abstract: A lighting device including: a light guide having a first side surface extending in a first direction and a second side surface opposing to the first side surface and extending in the first direction, a first LED being disposed at the first side surface, a second LED being disposed at the second side surface; in which a first area extends in the first direction and a second area extends in the second direction in the light guide; a prism sheet is disposed on the light guide; a prism extending in the first direction and arranged in the second direction is formed on the prism sheet; a first surface of the prism has a first angle with normal direction of the second prism sheet; a second surface of the prism has a second angle with normal direction of the second prism sheet; the first angle is larger than the second angle.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 3, 2022
    Date of Patent: October 17, 2023
    Assignee: JAPAN DISPLAY INC.
    Inventors: Makoto Hasegawa, Masafumi Okada
  • Publication number: 20230314869
    Abstract: The purpose of the present invention is to realize a lighting device of thin, low power consumption and high emitting efficiency. A concrete structure of the inventions is as follows. A lighting device including a first light guide and a second light guide stacked on the first light guide, a reflecting sheet disposed under the first light guide, and a prism sheet disposed on the first light guide, in which a concentric first prism array is formed on the prism sheet, a plurality of first LEDs are disposed along a circumferential direction of a side wall of a first hole of the first light guide, a plurality of second LEDs are disposed along a circumferential direction of a side wall of a second hole of the second light guide, and the plurality of the first LEDs and the plurality of the second LEDs are displaced in azimuth direction.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 9, 2023
    Publication date: October 5, 2023
    Applicant: Japan Display Inc.
    Inventors: Makoto HASEGAWA, Nobuyuki SUZUKI, Masafumi OKADA
  • Patent number: 11768325
    Abstract: Display device is provided and includes display panel; and illumination device provided on rear surface side of display panel, wherein illumination device includes light sources, and light guiding member arranged at rear surface side of display panel, light guiding member has holes which penetrates the light guiding member, light sources are housed in corresponding hole, rear surface of light guiding member has first inclined surface inclined upwardly from light source housed in one of holes, front surface side of light guiding member has second inclined surface inclined upwardly from light source housed in one of the holes, and angle of first inclined surface to center line of one of holes is greater than angle of second inclined surface to center line.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 12, 2022
    Date of Patent: September 26, 2023
    Assignee: Japan Display Inc.
    Inventors: Koji Hiramoto, Masafumi Okada, Hiroshi Nakamoto, Ken Kagabu, Ken Sugiyama
  • Publication number: 20230280013
    Abstract: The purpose is to realize a lighting device of thin, small light distribution angle, and less leak light. Further, the purpose is to realize a lighting device which can control light beam accurately with liquid crystal lenses. The structure of the invention is as follows. A lighting device including: a reflector cylinder including a mirror thereinside; and a liquid crystal lens assembly that is disposed at a light emitting surface of the reflector cylinder and includes a plurality of liquid crystal lenses being stacked, in which the liquid crystal lens assembly includes a light shading film which defines a light emitting area of the liquid crystal lens assembly and which is formed in parallel with the light emitting surface of the reflector cylinder.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 3, 2023
    Publication date: September 7, 2023
    Applicant: Japan Display Inc.
    Inventors: Masafumi OKADA, Nobuyuki SUZUKI, Makoto HASEGAWA
  • Patent number: 11747670
    Abstract: The purpose of the present invention is to realize a lighting device of thin, low power consumption and small light distribution angle. The present invention takes the following structure to realize the above task: A lighting device comprising: a disc shaped light guide, having a main surface and a rear surface, including a first hole at a center, a disc shaped reflection sheet, disposed at the rear surface side of the light guide, including a second hole at a center, a prism sheet, disposed at the main surface side of the light guide, including a concentric first prism array, wherein a reflection mirror is set in the first hole of the light guide at the side near to the prism sheet, an LED is set opposing to the reflection mirror.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 29, 2022
    Date of Patent: September 5, 2023
    Assignee: Japan Display Inc.
    Inventors: Makoto Hasegawa, Nobuyuki Suzuki, Masafumi Okada
  • Patent number: 11739909
    Abstract: The purpose is to realize a lighting device which can project a light spot of rectangle with a simple structure. The invention is: A lighting device having a light source unit 1, the light source unit 1 including a funnel shaped reflector 10 and an LED 20, in which the funnel shaped reflector 10 includes a neck and an opening, the LED 20 is disposed at the neck of the funnel shaped reflector 10, a plan view of the opening is a rectangle, and provided a distance from the neck to the opening along axis is d, and one side of the rectangle is x, either one of the first light source unit and the second light source unit satisfies, d/x is 2 or larger.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 13, 2022
    Date of Patent: August 29, 2023
    Assignee: Japan Display Inc.
    Inventors: Masafumi Okada, Nobuyuki Suzuki, Makoto Hasegawa
  • Publication number: 20230266619
    Abstract: According to one embodiment, a light emitting device includes a light guide plate with a plurality of first protrusion parts arranged along a first direction and extending along a second direction which crosses the first direction, and a prism sheet, wherein a cross-sectional shape of each of the first protrusion parts along the first direction has an apex angle between 55 degrees and 65 degrees, inclusive, the light guide plate includes a plurality of second protrusion parts which extend along the first direction and are arranged along the second direction, and a cross-sectional shape of each of the second protrusion parts along the second direction has a base angle between 1 degree and 3 degrees, inclusive.
    Type: Application
    Filed: April 26, 2023
    Publication date: August 24, 2023
    Inventors: Masafumi OKADA, Nobuyuki SUZUKI, Makoto HASEGAWA
  • Publication number: 20230258304
    Abstract: The purpose of the present invention is to realize a lighting device of small light distribution angle and less leakage light and further to realize a lighting device in which the light beam is easy to control. The following is an example of the structure to meet the above purpose. A lighting device including: a light guide; LEDs set at a side surface of the light guide; a prism sheet set on a major surface of the light guide, in which a first louver which extends in a first direction and, a second louver which extends in an orthogonal direction to the first direction are superposed on the prism sheet.
    Type: Application
    Filed: April 20, 2023
    Publication date: August 17, 2023
    Applicant: Japan Display Inc.
    Inventors: Makoto HASEGAWA, Takeo KOITO, Nobuyuki SUZUKI, Masafumi OKADA
  • Publication number: 20230235863
    Abstract: A lighting device including a first unit and a second unit, the first unit including: a first funnel shaped reflector having a first neck, a first opening, a first reflecting surface and a first light axis, a first LED emitting a first color disposed on the first neck, a first liquid crystal lens disposed at the first opening, a second unit including: a second funnel shaped reflector having a second neck, a second opening, a second reflecting surface and a second light axis, a second LED emitting a second color disposed on the second neck, a second liquid crystal lens disposed at the second opening; a length h1 of the first funnel shaped reflector is same as a length of the second funnel shaped reflector, and a diameter d1 of the first opening is same as a diameter of the second opening, and h1/d1 is two or more.
    Type: Application
    Filed: January 20, 2023
    Publication date: July 27, 2023
    Inventors: Takashi OTA, Nobuyuki SUZUKI, Makoto HASEGAWA, Masafumi OKADA
  • Patent number: 11703710
    Abstract: The purpose of the present invention is to realize a lighting device of thin, low power consumption and high emitting efficiency. A concrete structure of the inventions is as follows. A lighting device including a first light guide and a second light guide stacked on the first light guide, a reflecting sheet disposed under the first light guide, and a prism sheet disposed on the first light guide, in which a concentric first prism array is formed on the prism sheet, a plurality of first LEDs are disposed along a circumferential direction of a side wall of a first hole of the first light guide, a plurality of second LEDs are disposed along a circumferential direction of a side wall of a second hole of the second light guide, and the plurality of the first LEDs and the plurality of the second LEDs are displaced in azimuth direction.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 28, 2022
    Date of Patent: July 18, 2023
    Assignee: JAPAN DISPLAY INC.
    Inventors: Makoto Hasegawa, Nobuyuki Suzuki, Masafumi Okada
  • Patent number: 11668976
    Abstract: According to one embodiment, a light emitting device includes a light guide plate with a plurality of first protrusion parts arranged along a first direction and extending along a second direction which crosses the first direction, and a prism sheet, wherein a cross-sectional shape of each of the first protrusion parts along the first direction has an apex angle between 55 degrees and 65 degrees, inclusive, the light guide plate includes a plurality of second protrusion parts which extend along the first direction and are arranged along the second direction, and a cross-sectional shape of each of the second protrusion parts along the second direction has a base angle between 1 degree and 3 degrees, inclusive.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 1, 2022
    Date of Patent: June 6, 2023
    Assignee: Japan Display Inc.
    Inventors: Masafumi Okada, Nobuyuki Suzuki, Makoto Hasegawa