Patents by Inventor Shinichi Yoshizawa

Shinichi Yoshizawa 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: 20120039478
    Abstract: A sound recognition device includes: a frequency analysis unit which analyzes a frequency signal of a sound signal; a phase curve calculation unit which calculates a phase curve approximating temporal fluctuations of a phase of the frequency signal; an error calculation unit which calculates an error between the phase curve and the phase of the frequency signal; and a sound signal recognition unit which recognizes whether or not the sound signal is a signal of a periodic sound, based on the calculated error. The phase curve is expressed by a quadratic polynomial in which a value of the phase is a variable.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 27, 2011
    Publication date: February 16, 2012
    Inventors: Mototaka YOSHIOKA, Shinichi Yoshizawa
  • Publication number: 20110246126
    Abstract: An acceleration-deceleration determination device includes: a DFT analysis unit which calculate, from an engine sound, a frequency signal at a predetermined frequency for each of predetermined time periods; and an acceleration-deceleration determination unit which determines whether the number of engine revolutions is increasing or decreasing, by determining whether a phase of the frequency signal is increasing at an accelerating rate over time or decreasing at an accelerating rate over time.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 20, 2011
    Publication date: October 6, 2011
    Inventors: Mototaka Yoshioka, Shinichi Yoshizawa
  • Publication number: 20110175755
    Abstract: The vehicle location detection device includes: a sound source location specifying unit which calculates an attenuation amount of a sound pressure of a vehicle sound by subtracting a sound pressure detected by a sound pressure detecting unit from a sound pressure indicated by vehicle sound pressure information stored in a sound pressure information storage unit, and specifies a location where another vehicle emitting a vehicle sound is predicted to be present, by specifying a sound source location of a sound diffracted by an obstacle which is specified by a diffraction location specifying unit and serves as a diffraction point, based on the calculated attenuation amount, a rule indicating an attenuation amount dependent on a propagation distance of the sound, and a relationship indicated by diffraction information stored in a diffraction information storage unit; and a presentation unit which presents the specified location.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 30, 2011
    Publication date: July 21, 2011
    Inventors: Mototaka YOSHIOKA, Shinichi Yoshizawa
  • Patent number: 7974420
    Abstract: A mixed audio separation system (100) which separates a specific audio from among a mixed audio (S100) includes a local frequency information generation unit (105) which obtains pieces of local frequency information (S103) corresponding to local reference waveforms (S102), based on the local reference waveforms (S102) and an analysis waveform which is the waveform of the mixed audio (S100). Each of the local reference waveforms (S102) (i) constitutes a part of a reference waveform for analyzing a predetermined frequency, (ii) has a predetermined temporal/spatial resolution and (iii) includes at least one of an amplification spectrum and a phase spectrum in the predetermined frequency.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 11, 2006
    Date of Patent: July 5, 2011
    Assignee: Panasonic Corporation
    Inventors: Shinichi Yoshizawa, Tetsu Suzuki, Yoshihisa Nakatoh
  • Patent number: 7848927
    Abstract: A speech recognition device is provided which includes: a language model storage unit which stores a language model indicating appearance probabilities of words or word sequences; an acoustic feature amount extracting unit and a checking unit which extract a feature amount of an inputted speech signal, and identifies the word or word sequence corresponding to the speech signal by checking the extracted feature amount with the language model stored in the language model storage unit; an obtained word signal receiving/analyzing unit which obtains and analyzes the word; and a language model adjusting unit which identifies the appearance probability of the word based on the time elapsed after obtaining the word by the obtained word signal receiving/analyzing unit and which adjusts the language model by reflecting the identified appearance probability on the language model stored in the language model storage unit.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 1, 2005
    Date of Patent: December 7, 2010
    Assignee: Panasonic Corporation
    Inventors: Yoshio Ohno, Makoto Nishizaki, Shinichi Yoshizawa, Tetsu Suzuki
  • Publication number: 20100303254
    Abstract: A sound source direction detector comprises FFT analysis sections (103(1) to 103(3)) for generating a frequency spectrum in at least one frequency band of acoustic signals for each of the acoustic signals collected by two or more microphones arranged apart from one another, detection sound identifying sections (104(1) to 104(3)) for identifying a time portion of the frequency spectrum of a detection sound which obtains a sound source direction from the frequency spectrum in the frequency band, and a direction detecting section (105) for obtaining the difference between the times at which the detection sound reaches the microphones, obtaining the sound source direction from the time difference, the distance between the microphones, and the sound velocity, and outputting it depending on the degree of coincidence between the microphones of the frequency spectrum in the time portion identified by the detection sound identifying sections (104(1) to 104(3)) in a time interval which is the time unit to detect the so
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 10, 2008
    Publication date: December 2, 2010
    Inventors: Shinichi Yoshizawa, Yoshihisa Nakatoh
  • Patent number: 7809499
    Abstract: 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: Grant
    Filed: April 13, 2007
    Date of Patent: October 5, 2010
    Assignee: Panasonic Corporation
    Inventors: Hidetsugu Maekawa, Yoshifumi Hirose, Shinichi Yoshizawa, Kenji Mizutani, Yumi Wakita
  • Publication number: 20100215191
    Abstract: A noise removal device includes: an FFT analysis unit which receives a mixed sound including to-be-extracted sounds and noises, and determines frequency signals at time points in a time width; and a to-be-extracted sound determination unit which determines, for each to-be-extracted sound, frequency signals at the time points, satisfying conditions of (i) being equal to or greater than a first threshold value in number and (ii) having a phase distance between the frequency signals that is equal to or smaller than a second threshold value, wherein the phase distance is a distance between phases ??(t) of the condition-satisfying frequency signals when a phase of a frequency signal at a current time point t is ?(t) (radian) and the phase ??(t) is mod 2?(?(t)?2?ft), f denoting a reference frequency, and the predetermined time width is within 2 to 4 times the time window widths of the window functions.
    Type: Application
    Filed: May 4, 2010
    Publication date: August 26, 2010
    Inventors: Shinichi YOSHIZAWA, Yoshihisa Nakatoh
  • Publication number: 20100214086
    Abstract: Provided is a vehicle-in-blind-spot detecting apparatus which can detect a vehicle positioned in a blind spot by simply mounting the apparatus on an operator's vehicle. The vehicle-in-blind-spot includes: a presenting unit which presents information; at least one microphone which detects a sound a vehicle sound extracting unit which extracts a vehicle sound from the sound detected by the microphone; a sound source direction detecting unit which detects a sound source direction of the vehicle sound extracted by the vehicle sound extracting unit; and a vehicle-in-blind-spot determining unit which causes the presenting unit to present the information indicating that a vehicle is found in a blind spot in the case where the sound source direction of the vehicle sound detected by the sound source direction detecting unit is a first direction representing above the vehicle-in-blind-spot detecting apparatus with respect to a ground.
    Type: Application
    Filed: May 5, 2010
    Publication date: August 26, 2010
    Inventors: Shinichi YOSHIZAWA, Yoshihisa Nakatoh
  • Publication number: 20100208902
    Abstract: The noise removal device includes plural microphones, a time axis adjustment unit, an FFT analysis unit, and a noise removal processing unit, and determines frequency signals of a to-be-extracted sound by performing a threshold judgment on each of the phase distances, of the mixed sounds each received through a corresponding one of the microphones, in the case where the phases are expressed by the expression ??(t)=mod 2?(?(t)?2?ft) (f denotes a reference frequency).
    Type: Application
    Filed: April 30, 2010
    Publication date: August 19, 2010
    Inventors: Shinichi Yoshizawa, Yoshihisa Nakatoh
  • Patent number: 7711560
    Abstract: A speech recognition apparatus equipped with the garbage acoustic model storage unit storing the garbage acoustic model which learned the collection of unnecessary words. A feature value calculation unit calculates the feature parameter necessary for recognition by acoustically analyzing the unidentified input speech including the non-language speech per frame which is a unit for speech analysis. A garbage acoustic score calculation unit calculates the garbage acoustic score by comparing the feature parameter and the garbage acoustic model, and a garbage acoustic score correction unit corrects the garbage acoustic score calculated by the garbage acoustic score calculation unit so as to raise it in the frame where the non-language speech is inputted.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 4, 2004
    Date of Patent: May 4, 2010
    Assignee: Panasonic Corporation
    Inventors: Maki Yamada, Makoto Nishizaki, Yoshihisa Nakatoh, Shinichi Yoshizawa
  • Publication number: 20100030562
    Abstract: A sound determination device (100) includes: an FFT unit (2402) which receives a mixed sound including a to-be-extracted sound and a noise, and obtains a frequency signal of the mixed sound for each of a plurality of times included in a predetermined duration; and a to-be-extracted sound determination unit (101 (j)) which determines, when the number of the frequency signals at the plurality of times included in the predetermined duration is equal to or larger than a first threshold value and a phase distance between the frequency signals out of the frequency signals at the plurality of times is equal to or smaller than a second threshold value, each of the frequency signals with the phase distance as a frequency signal of the to-be-extracted sound. The phase distance is a distance between phases of the frequency signals when a phase of a frequency signal at a time t is ?(t) (radian) and the phase is represented by ??(t)=mod 2?(?(t)?2?ft) (where f is an analysis-target frequency).
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 25, 2008
    Publication date: February 4, 2010
    Inventors: Shinichi Yoshizawa, Yoshihisa Nakatoh
  • Publication number: 20100030461
    Abstract: 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: Application
    Filed: April 13, 2007
    Publication date: February 4, 2010
    Applicant: Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Hidetsugu Maekawa, Yoshifumi Hirose, Shinichi Yoshizawa, Kenji Mizutani, Yumi Wakita
  • Publication number: 20090285409
    Abstract: Provided is a sound source localization device which can detect a source location of an extraction sound, including at least two microphones; an analysis unit (103) which (i) analyze frequencies of the mixed sound including the noise and received by each microphone, and (ii) generates frequency signals; and an extraction unit (105) which, for each source location candidate, (a) adjusts time axes of the frequency signals corresponding to the microphones, so that there is no time difference between when the mixed sound reaches one microphone from the source location candidate and when the mixed sound reaches another microphone from the source location candidate, and (b) determines frequency signals having a difference distance equal to or smaller than a threshold value, from among the frequency signals corresponding to the microphones with the time axis having been adjusted, the difference distance representing a degree of a difference in the frequency signals between the microphones, and (c) extracts the sourc
    Type: Application
    Filed: November 6, 2007
    Publication date: November 19, 2009
    Inventors: Shinichi Yoshizawa, Yoshihisa Nakatoh
  • Patent number: 7616128
    Abstract: An audio identifying device which can transmit with certainty audio information which is important for a user, according to an importance level of input audio information which varies depending on the action of the user includes: a checking unit 104 which judges a type of inputted audio; a user action obtainment unit 108 which detects an action of the user; an output mode determination unit 106 which determines an output mode of an audio identification result regarding the input audio by checking, with output mode definition information stored in the output mode definition information storage unit 107, the result judged by the checking unit 104 and the result detected by the user action obtainment unit 108; and the audio identification result output processing unit 110 which outputs the audio identification result on which processing according to the output mode determined by the audio identification result has been performed by checking the judgment result determined by the output mode determination unit 106
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 13, 2005
    Date of Patent: November 10, 2009
    Assignee: Panasonic Corporation
    Inventors: Yoshio Ohno, Shinichi Yoshizawa, Tetsu Suzuki
  • Publication number: 20090271201
    Abstract: A standard model creating apparatus which provides a high-precision standard model used for pattern recognition such as speech recognition, character recognition, or image recognition using a probability model based on a hidden Markov model, Bayesian theory, or linear discrimination analysis; intention interpretation using a probability model such as a Bayesian net; data-mining performed using a probability model; and so forth. The standard model creating apparatus includes a reference model preparing unit that prepares at least one reference model; a reference model storing unit that stores the reference model prepared by the reference model preparing unit (; and a standard model creating unit that creates a standard model by calculating statistics of the standard model so as to maximize or locally maximize the probability or likelihood with respect to the reference model stored in the reference model storing unit.
    Type: Application
    Filed: July 8, 2009
    Publication date: October 29, 2009
    Inventor: Shinichi YOSHIZAWA
  • Patent number: 7603276
    Abstract: A standard model creating apparatus which provides a high-precision standard model used for pattern recognition such as speech recognition, character recognition, or image recognition using a probability model based on a hidden Markov model, Bayesian theory, or linear discrimination analysis; intention interpretation using a probability model such as a Bayesian net; data-mining performed using a probability model; and so forth. The standard model creating apparatus includes a reference model preparing unit that prepares at least one reference model; a reference model storing unit that stores the reference model prepared by the reference model preparing unit; and a standard model creating unit that creates a standard model by calculating statistics of the standard model so as to maximize or locally maximize the probability or likelihood with respect to the reference model stored in the reference storing unit.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 18, 2003
    Date of Patent: October 13, 2009
    Assignee: Panasonic Corporation
    Inventor: Shinichi Yoshizawa
  • Patent number: 7536303
    Abstract: An audio restoration apparatus is provided which restores an audio to be restored having a missing audio part and being included in a mixed audio. The audio restoration apparatus includes: a mixed audio separation unit which extracts the audio to be restored included in the mixed audio; an audio structure analysis unit which generates at least one of a phoneme sequence, a character sequence and a musical note sequence of the missing audio part; an unchanged audio characteristic domain analysis unit which segments the extracted audio to be restored into time domains in each of which an audio characteristic remains unchanged; an audio characteristic extraction unit which identifies a time domain where the missing audio part is located, and extracts audio characteristics of the identified time domain in the audio to be restored; and an audio restoration unit which restores the missing audio part in the audio to be restored.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 11, 2006
    Date of Patent: May 19, 2009
    Assignee: Panasonic Corporation
    Inventors: Shinichi Yoshizawa, Tetsu Suzuki, Yoshihisa Nakatoh
  • Publication number: 20090067647
    Abstract: A mixed audio separation system (100) which separates a specific audio from among a mixed audio (S100) includes a local frequency information generation unit (105) which obtains pieces of local frequency information (S103) corresponding to local reference waveforms (S102), based on the local reference waveforms (S102) and an analysis waveform which is the waveform of the mixed audio (S100). Each of the local reference waveforms (S102) (i) constitutes a part of a reference waveform for analyzing a predetermined frequency, (ii) has a predetermined temporal/spatial resolution and (iii) includes at least one of an amplification spectrum and a phase spectrum in the predetermined frequency.
    Type: Application
    Filed: April 11, 2006
    Publication date: March 12, 2009
    Inventors: Shinichi Yoshizawa, Tetsu Suzuki, Yoshihisa Nakatoh
  • Patent number: 7473838
    Abstract: A sound identification apparatus which reduces the chance of a drop in the identification rate, including: a frame sound feature extraction unit which extracts a sound feature per frame of an inputted audio signal; a frame likelihood calculation unit which calculates a frame likelihood of the sound feature in each frame, for each of a plurality of sound models; a confidence measure judgment unit which judges a confidence measure based on the frame likelihood; a cumulative likelihood output unit time determination unit which determines a cumulative likelihood output unit time based on the confidence measure; a cumulative likelihood calculation unit which calculates a cumulative likelihood in which the frame likelihoods of the frames included in the cumulative likelihood output unit time are cumulated, for each sound model; a sound type candidate judgment unit which determines, for each cumulative likelihood output unit time, a sound type corresponding to the sound model that has a maximum cumulative likelihood
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 9, 2007
    Date of Patent: January 6, 2009
    Assignee: Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Tetsu Suzuki, Yoshihisa Nakatoh, Shinichi Yoshizawa