Patents by Inventor Shunji Okada

Shunji 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).

  • Patent number: 8126321
    Abstract: Imaging equipment includes: a position acquisition unit that acquires a current position; a memory unit in which a plurality of pieces of setting information representing photographic settings suitable for photography at positions and being associated in advance with the positions is stored; a control unit that reads setting information, which represents a photographic setting suitable for photography at the current position acquired by the position acquisition unit, from the memory unit, and determines a photographic setting according to the setting information; and an imaging unit that images a subject according to the photographic setting determined by the control unit.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 9, 2010
    Date of Patent: February 28, 2012
    Assignee: Sony Corporation
    Inventors: Kenichiro Nagao, Shunji Okada, Takashi Kuwabara
  • Publication number: 20110261160
    Abstract: The present invention relates to an image information processing apparatus, an image capture apparatus, an image information processing method, and a program that allow a depth value to smoothly transition in a scene change of stereoscopic content. In a case where a rapid change occurs between a depth value 711 in an end portion of a chapter #i and a depth value 714 in a start portion of a chapter #(i+1), entire depth values are temporarily corrected to zero (infinity) on the occasion of the change between the chapters #i and #(i+1). On this occasion, a depth value is allowed to transition for a period of time of, for example, 0.5 seconds or longer. An original depth value 721 in the end portion of the chapter #i is allowed to sequentially transition so that a depth value 722 of the end frame becomes zero. Similarly, a depth value 723 of the start frame in the chapter #(i+1) is set to zero, and is allowed to sequentially transition to an original depth value 724 in the start portion.
    Type: Application
    Filed: April 22, 2010
    Publication date: October 27, 2011
    Applicant: Sony Corporation
    Inventors: Eiji Tadokoro, Shunji Okada
  • Publication number: 20110007135
    Abstract: An image processing apparatus includes: an imaging unit configured to generate an imaged image by imaging a subject; a depth information generating unit configured to generate depth information relating to the imaged image; an image processing unit configured to extract, from the imaged image, an image of an object region including a particular subject out of subjects included in the imaged image and a surrounding region of the subject, based on the depth information, and generate a difference image to display a stereoscopic image in which the subjects included in the imaged image are viewed stereoscopically based on the extracted image; and a recording control unit configured to generate a data stream in which data corresponding to the imaged image and data corresponding to the difference image are correlated, and record the data stream as a moving image file.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 11, 2010
    Publication date: January 13, 2011
    Applicant: Sony Corporation
    Inventors: Shunji Okada, Yukio Isobe, Naoki Morimoto, Atsushi Mae, Eiji Tadokoro, Hideo Obata
  • Publication number: 20110007131
    Abstract: An information processing apparatus includes a depth-information detecting section, a comparison/detection section, and a control unit. The depth-information detecting section is provided for detecting a peak position of an object in a depth direction, at which the object is displayed at the front in an additional information display area. The comparison/detection section is provided for making a comparison between depth information of the additional information and the peak value of the stereoscopic video data to detect a positional relationship between the stereoscopic data and the display position of the additional information in the depth direction. The control unit is provided for controlling the stereoscopic video data and the display position of the additional information in response to the positional relationship between the stereoscopic video data and the display position of the additional information.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 29, 2010
    Publication date: January 13, 2011
    Applicant: Sony Corporation
    Inventors: Shunji Okada, Takashi Kuwabara, Kazuya Yokoyama, Kenichiro Aridome, Atsushi Mae, Kenichiro Nagao, Shinya Kano
  • Publication number: 20110001800
    Abstract: An image capturing apparatus includes a plurality of image capturing units that photograph images from a plurality of viewpoints, a recording controller that performs a process of recording a plurality of subject distances, which are measured by each of the plurality of image capturing units, on a recording unit as attribute information of the photographed images, and an image selection controller that performs a highlight scene extraction process by using subject distance information included in the attribute information. The image selection controller performs a process of determining whether a subject is located at a center area of an image frame by using the plurality of subject distances, which correspond to each of the plurality of image capturing units and are included in the attribute information, and selecting an image, for which the subject is determined to be located at the center area, as a highlight scene.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 7, 2010
    Publication date: January 6, 2011
    Applicant: Sony Corporation
    Inventors: Kenichiro Nagao, Atsushi Mae, Shunji Okada
  • Publication number: 20100266269
    Abstract: Imaging equipment includes: a position acquisition unit that acquires a current position; a memory unit in which a plurality of pieces of setting information representing photographic settings suitable for photography at positions and being associated in advance with the positions is stored; a control unit that reads setting information, which represents a photographic setting suitable for photography at the current position acquired by the position acquisition unit, from the memory unit, and determines a photographic setting according to the setting information; and an imaging unit that images a subject according to the photographic setting determined by the control unit.
    Type: Application
    Filed: April 9, 2010
    Publication date: October 21, 2010
    Applicant: Sony Corporation
    Inventors: Kenichiro Nagao, Shunji Okada, Takashi Kuwabara
  • Publication number: 20100183277
    Abstract: A lateral shake prevention when a video picked up by a digital camera is reproduced is realized, and viewing on a large screen television set is made comfortable. At the time of the image pickup recording, face detection position center coordinate data is recorded in an attribute information unit of a stream as ARI data for each VOBU (GOP) in units of 0.5 seconds. At the time of the reproduction, the ARI data of GOP stream is collectively read ahead in units of RUV at the time of the reproduction of the video included in detection data of the face center position coordinate to read a large number of VOBUs in advance, an interpolation of missing times in units of GOP with respect to the face center position coordinate is performed, and a screen shift amount is subjected to a time axis smoothing computation through a time moving average computation in a frame unit.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 20, 2008
    Publication date: July 22, 2010
    Applicant: Sony Corporation
    Inventors: Shunji Okada, Kenichiro Aridome, Yukio Isobe
  • Publication number: 20100014841
    Abstract: A video recording apparatus optimally records partial images made up of a partial area from an original image and containing a feature point such as person's face. An imaging unit acquires the original image by imaging at a resolution higher than the pixel count used for video recording. A feature point detector detects one or more feature points from the original image. A partial image clipper clips, from the original image, a partial image containing a feature point selected by the user. An encoder encodes the clipped partial image. A recording unit then records the encoded partial image to a recording medium. In so doing, the user is able to select a recording subject from a summary of detected feature points before or during video recording, and thus record a desired face.
    Type: Application
    Filed: July 7, 2009
    Publication date: January 21, 2010
    Applicant: SONY CORPORATION
    Inventors: Shinya KANO, Shunji Okada
  • Publication number: 20090279874
    Abstract: A recording device including: a medium drive section configured to rotation-drive a disk recording medium, and write data to the disk recording medium through a head section; a determining section configured to determine whether the recording device is in a falling state when the medium drive section is in an idle state in which state the disk recording medium is rotation-driven and the head section is off a track; and a controlling section configured to make determination as to the falling state by the determining section when the determining section determines that the recording device is in the falling state, and when the determining section determines that the recording device is not in the falling state, controlling the medium drive section so as to set the medium drive section in an active state in which state the disk recording medium is rotation-driven to be in an accessible state and the head section is on track.
    Type: Application
    Filed: April 3, 2009
    Publication date: November 12, 2009
    Applicant: Sony Corporation
    Inventors: Shunji Okada, Ryogo Ito, Kenichiro Aridome
  • Patent number: 7349021
    Abstract: In order to prevent an erroneous operation from occurring due to erroneously operating an operation button during adjustment of the angle of a display panel, various operation buttons are provided on a display panel, which is provided on a side surface of a main unit of an imaging apparatus. In this way an angle, at which the display panel is disposed, is suitably adjusted by a tilting mechanism. Moving images and still images are recorded and reproduced by operating this operation button, and a buffer is provided for temporarily storing data between an imaging section and a recording/reproducing section, so that data is processed through this buffer. A displacement detection unit detects displacement of the display panel and erroneous operation is detected if there is displacement of the display panel within a time lapse after operating the operation button, the operation is canceled, and the display panel is returned to an original status.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 8, 2004
    Date of Patent: March 25, 2008
    Assignee: Sony Corporation
    Inventor: Shunji Okada
  • Publication number: 20080069522
    Abstract: An information processing apparatus for recording data in a file by first unit on a recording medium in accordance with a predetermined file system, which may include a recording control unit performing a recording control operation to record a predetermined file on the recording medium, the recording control operation including data recording control for recording successively the data on the recording medium by first unit and management information updating control for updating management information of the predetermined file system on the recording medium, a generating unit successively generating difference information of the management information by second unit during the recording control operation of the recording control unit, the second unit being an integer multiple of the least common multiple of the first unit and a minimum unit of the predetermined file system, and a backup storage unit storing as backup information the difference information generated by the generating unit.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 31, 2007
    Publication date: March 20, 2008
    Applicant: Sony Corporation
    Inventors: Shunji Okada, Ryogo Ito
  • Publication number: 20070174545
    Abstract: A data management device manages a recording medium, on which a partition table having information regarding a partition is recorded and on which a plurality of drives are assigned using partition description, by referring to the partition table. The plurality of drives include a recording drive on which a basic playback unit included in a file is recorded and a management drive on which a property file having access information for the basic playback unit is recorded. The data management device includes an accessing section for accessing the basic playback unit included in the file recorded on the recording drive by referring to the property file recorded on the management drive.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 11, 2006
    Publication date: July 26, 2007
    Applicant: Sony Corporation
    Inventors: Shunji Okada, Ryogo Ito
  • Publication number: 20070162688
    Abstract: The present invention efficiently executes a transfer process from a flash memory to an optical disc. A recording control apparatus includes a UDF file system section that configures a UDF file system on the flash file system of a flash memory and an application format section that converts video and audio data into a file group conforming to the DVD application format and manages it on the UDF file system. When copying the data recorded in the flash memory to a DVD, a management information switching section of the apparatus converts the logical addresses of the flash memory into the logical addresses of the DVD. A DVD buffer control section converts the data recorded in an array of 64 Kbytes that is the recording unit of the flash memory into an array of 32 Kbytes that is the recording unit of the DVD and transfers them to the DVD drive.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 30, 2006
    Publication date: July 12, 2007
    Applicant: Sony Corporation
    Inventors: Shunji Okada, Katsumi Matsuno
  • Publication number: 20060198249
    Abstract: A DVD drive reads various information items that include a read-in area of an inserted DVD and that are provided on the inner-periphery side with respect to the read-in area, and it is determined whether the inserted DVD is for red data or a blue laser based on the information items. According to the determination result and the detection result, a system-control unit of an information-processing unit controls a video/audio-I/F unit so that the determination result is displayed on an LCD. When the inserted DVD is a red-laser DVD, the determination result is displayed by the color display corresponding to a red-wavelength region, and when the inserted DVD is a blue-laser DVD, the determination result is displayed by the color display corresponding to a blue-wavelength region. The operation allows using laser lights with different wavelengths, as required, according to an optical-recording medium to be used and notifies a user of various information about the inserted optical-recording medium.
    Type: Application
    Filed: January 23, 2004
    Publication date: September 7, 2006
    Applicant: SONY CORPORATION
    Inventor: Shunji Okada
  • Publication number: 20050052407
    Abstract: In order to prevent an erroneous operation from occurring due to erroneously operating an operation button during adjustment of the angle of a display panel, various operation buttons are provided on a display panel, which is provided on a side surface of a main unit of an imaging apparatus. In this way an angle, at which the display panel is disposed, is suitably adjusted by a tilting mechanism. Moving images and still images are recorded and reproduced by operating this operation button, and a buffer is provided for temporarily storing data between an imaging section and a recording/reproducing section, so that data is processed through this buffer. A displacement detection unit detects displacement of the display panel and erroneous operation is detected if there is displacement of the display panel within a time lapse after operating the operation button, the operation is canceled, and the display panel is returned to an original status.
    Type: Application
    Filed: July 8, 2004
    Publication date: March 10, 2005
    Inventor: Shunji Okada
  • Patent number: 6684026
    Abstract: In an information recording device, variable-speed reproduction by software control is to be enabled. To this end, the information recording device has an HDD for recording an audio/visual digital data stream with a logical sector as an accessing unit, and an AV micro-computer system 10. This AV micro-computer system 10 has, as a recording data unit, a fixed length of the audio/visual digital data stream corresponding to an integer number multiple of a frame length. The AV micro-computer system 10 allocates the recording data unit to a minimum number of the logical sectors that can record the recording data unit in its entirety, while stuffing dummy data in the remaining portion of a logical sector of the digital data stream.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 8, 1998
    Date of Patent: January 27, 2004
    Assignee: Sony Corporation
    Inventors: Keiji Kanota, Shunji Okada, Shinichi Suenaga, Nobuko Fujii
  • Patent number: 6411457
    Abstract: In a recording/reproduction apparatus, when a rotational-speed-mode setting instruction is received from an I/F unit, a CPU reads out a control procedure from a storage device, controlling other components in accordance with the procedure. As a result, a node switch driving circuit controls field windings of a pulse motor to a switching sequence, driving the pulse motor to rotation at a predetermined rotational speed. Since the control is feedback control, the pulse motor rotates at the predetermined rotational speed specified by an instruction setting a rotational-speed mode with a high degree of reliability. Data can thus be recorded into and reproduced from a magnetic disk at a variable speed.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 5, 2001
    Date of Patent: June 25, 2002
    Assignee: Sony Corporation
    Inventors: Keitaro Yamashita, Kanzo Okada, Shunji Okada, Masayuki Nakayama, Minoru Watanabe
  • Publication number: 20020071655
    Abstract: In an information recording device, variable-speed reproduction by software control is to be enabled. To this end, the information recording device has an HDD for recording an audio/visual digital data stream with a logical sector as an accessing unit, and an AV micro-computer system 10. This AV micro-computer system 10 has, as a recording data unit, a fixed length of the audio/visual digital data stream corresponding to an integer number multiple of a frame length. The AV micro-computer system 10 allocates the recording data unit to a minimum number of the logical sectors that can record the recording data unit in its entirety, while stuffing dummy data in the remaining portion of a logical sector of the digital data stream.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 8, 1998
    Publication date: June 13, 2002
    Inventors: KEIJI KANOTA, SHUNJI OKADA, SHINICHI SUENAGA, NOBUKO FUJII
  • Patent number: 6363211
    Abstract: Video data and audio data inputted respectively from a camera system and a microphone are compressed and encoded in a video compressor/expander-encoder/decoder and an audio compressor/expander-encoder/decoder respectively, and then are multiplexed in a multiplexer. Subsequently the multiplexed data are supplied to a hard disk drive via an AV interface, a host bus, an interface adaptor and an interface. Information representing the kind of the data is written in a register. The data supplied to the hard disk drive are recorded in a disk, on the basis of such information, by a method conforming with the data. And in a reproduction mode, the data are reproduced, on the basis of such information, by a method conforming with the data. Thus, the data can be recorded or reproduced efficiently by the relevant method conforming with the kind of the data.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 15, 1998
    Date of Patent: March 26, 2002
    Assignee: Sony Corporation
    Inventors: Keiji Kanota, Shunji Okada, Nobuko Fujii
  • Patent number: RE40044
    Abstract: Video data and audio data inputted respectively from a camera system and a microphone are compressed and encoded in a video compressor/expander-encoder/decoder and an audio compressor/expander-encoder/decoder respectively, and then are multiplexed in a multiplexer. Subsequently the multiplexed data are supplied to a hard disk drive via an AV interface, a host bus, an interface adaptor and an interface. Information representing the kind of the data is written in a register. The data supplied to the hard disk drive are recorded in a disk, on the basis of such information, by a method conforming with the data. And in a reproduction mode, the data are reproduced, on the basis of such information, by a method conforming with the data. Thus, the data can be recorded or reproduced efficiently by the relevant method conforming with the kind of the data.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 25, 2004
    Date of Patent: February 5, 2008
    Assignee: Sony Corporation
    Inventors: Keiji Kanota, Shunji Okada, Nobuko Fujii