Patents by Inventor Mitsuteru Kokubun

Mitsuteru Kokubun 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: 8451141
    Abstract: An intersection visibility determination device includes an ECU that determines visibility at an intersection. When a host vehicle approaches an intersection with a stop sign, the ECU calculates conflict points at which a trajectory vector of the host vehicle intersects with virtual trajectory vectors of intersecting objects, which are presumed to come from the right side and the left side of the intersection, respectively. The conflict points are calculated based on information on types and traveling positions of the intersecting objects. The ECU sets visibility determination areas at the intersection as viewed from the host vehicle based on the positions of the conflict points, the right-side and the left-side visibility target distances, and the current location of the host vehicle, and calculates, based on the visibility determination areas, visibility distances that are used as visibility parameters indicating whether the visibility at the intersection is good or poor.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 27, 2009
    Date of Patent: May 28, 2013
    Assignee: Toyota Jidosha Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Masaaki Uechi, Kazuya Sasaki, Masumi Kobana, Kazunori Higuchi, Mitsuteru Kokubun
  • Patent number: 8073576
    Abstract: The present invention provides an acceleration sensation evaluating device that evaluates a sensory acceleration of a driver with respect to an expectation value of acceleration, and a vehicle controller that controls a vehicle according to the evaluation results. The evaluation device detects an amount of operation of the vehicle by the driver of when the vehicle is accelerated, detects an amount of vehicle behavior, computes a physical quantity of an expectation value indicating the expectation value of an acceleration performance which the driver expects based on the detected values, computes a sensory physical quantity indicating a sensation of the acceleration which the driver senses, and computes an evaluation value of the acceleration sensation based on difference or ratio between the physical quantity of the expectation value and the sensory physical quantity.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 4, 2006
    Date of Patent: December 6, 2011
    Assignee: Toyota Jidosha Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Akio Matsunaga, Yusuke Nozaki, Masanori Shimada, Eiichi Yasuda, Masahiko Mizuno, Kazukata Takei, Eiichi Ono, Noriyoshi Terazawa, Mitsuteru Kokubun
  • Publication number: 20110025529
    Abstract: An intersection visibility determination device includes an ECU that determines visibility at an intersection. When a host vehicle approaches an intersection with a stop sign, the ECU calculates conflict points at which a trajectory vector of the host vehicle intersects with virtual trajectory vectors of intersecting objects, which are presumed to come from the right side and the left side of the intersection, respectively. The conflict points are calculated based on information on types and traveling positions of the intersecting objects. The ECU sets visibility determination areas at the intersection as viewed from the host vehicle based on the positions of the conflict points, the right-side and the left-side visibility target distances, and the current location of the host vehicle, and calculates, based on the visibility determination areas, visibility distances that are used as visibility parameters indicating whether the visibility at the intersection is good or poor.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 27, 2009
    Publication date: February 3, 2011
    Applicant: TOYOTA JIDOSHA KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventors: Masaaki Uechi, Kazuya Sasaki, Masumi Kobana, Kazunori Higuchi, Mitsuteru Kokubun
  • Publication number: 20090043428
    Abstract: The present invention provides an acceleration sensation evaluating device that evaluates a sensory acceleration of a driver with respect to an expectation value of acceleration, and a vehicle controller that controls a vehicle according to the evaluation results. The evaluation device detects an amount of operation of the vehicle by the driver of when the vehicle is accelerated, detects an amount of vehicle behavior, computes a physical quantity of an expectation value indicating the expectation value of an acceleration performance which the driver expects based on the detected values, computes a sensory physical quantity indicating a sensation of the acceleration which the driver senses, and computes an evaluation value of the acceleration sensation based on difference or ratio between the physical quantity of the expectation value and the sensory physical quantity.
    Type: Application
    Filed: July 4, 2006
    Publication date: February 12, 2009
    Applicant: TOYOTA JIDOSHA KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventors: Akio Matsunaga, Yusuke Nozaki, Masanori Shimada, Eiichi Yasuda, Masahiko Mizuno, Kazukata Takei, Eiichi Ono, Noriyoshi Terazawa, Mitsuteru Kokubun