Patents by Inventor Tomohiro Nishi

Tomohiro Nishi 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: 8077172
    Abstract: In an image display system, when a sequence of frames ?, ?+1, ?+2, ?+3, . . . , with a frame rate of m is given as an input video signal S1, a controller controls a frame memory to output a sequence of frames ?, ?+2, . . . , as an output video signal S2 at a frame rate of m/2 and a sequence of frames ?+1, ?+3, . . . , as an output video signal S3 at a frame rate of m/2 such that the timing of outputting each of frames ?+1, ?+3, . . . , of the output video signal S3 is delayed by 1/m with respect of the timing of outputting each of frames ?, ?+2, . . . , of the output video signal S2. By displaying the output video signals S3 and S2 in the above-described manner, a resultant motion image formed by a combination of the output video signals S3 and S2 is refreshed at an effective frame rate of m.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 11, 2008
    Date of Patent: December 13, 2011
    Assignee: Sony Corporation
    Inventors: Yoshihiko Kuroki, Tomohiro Nishi
  • Publication number: 20110285762
    Abstract: A liquid crystal display includes: a light source section including emission subsections; a LCD panel including pixels each having sub-pixels for four colors of R, G, B, and Z, and modulating light from the emission subsections based on input image signals for three colors of R, G, and B; and a display control section including a partitioning-drive processing section, driving the emission subsections with an emission pattern signal, and driving the four sub-pixels with partitioning-drive image signals for the four colors.
    Type: Application
    Filed: April 27, 2011
    Publication date: November 24, 2011
    Applicant: Sony Corporation
    Inventors: Mitsuyasu ASANO, Tomohiro Nishi, Tomoya Yano, Ken Kikuchi
  • Publication number: 20110285611
    Abstract: A liquid crystal display includes: a light source section including emission subsections; a liquid crystal display panel performing image display through modulating light coming from each of the emission subsections; and a display control section having a partitioning-drive processing section which generates an emission-pattern signal and a partitioning-drive image signal and performs light-emission drive on each of the emission subsections, and performing display-drive on the liquid crystal display panel.
    Type: Application
    Filed: April 8, 2011
    Publication date: November 24, 2011
    Applicant: Sony Corporation
    Inventors: Mitsuyasu ASANO, Toshinori Ihara, Tomohiro Nishi
  • Publication number: 20110254873
    Abstract: A liquid crystal display includes: a light source section including light-emission subsections controlled separately from one another; a liquid crystal display panel modulating, based on an input picture signal, light emitted from each light-emission subsection to display pictures; and a display control section including a partitioning-drive processing section which generates a light-emission pattern signal representing a two-dimensional pattern formed from lighting light-emission subsections and a partitioning-drive picture signal based on the input picture signal, the display control section performing a light-emission drive on each light-emission subsection based on the light-emission pattern signal and performing a display-drive on the liquid crystal display panel based on the partitioning-drive picture signal.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 24, 2011
    Publication date: October 20, 2011
    Applicant: Sony Corporation
    Inventors: MITSUYASU ASANO, TOMOHIRO NISHI, TAKESHI HIRAMATSU, NAOKI IKAWA
  • Publication number: 20110249178
    Abstract: A liquid crystal display device including: a light source section including emission subsections; a LCD panel; and a display control section having a partitioning-drive processing section which generates an emission-pattern signal and a partitioning-drive image signal based on the input image signal. The display control section performs light-emission drive on each emission subsection based on the emission-pattern signal, and performs display-drive on the LCD panel based on the partitioning-drive image signal.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 29, 2011
    Publication date: October 13, 2011
    Applicant: Sony Corporation
    Inventors: Mitsuyasu ASANO, Hideo Morita, Tomohiro Nishi
  • Publication number: 20110234566
    Abstract: A liquid crystal display includes: a light source unit that includes a light-guiding plate with a light-exit plane partitioned into emission subsections, and one or plural sides, and light sources; a liquid-crystal-display panel that includes pixels, and modulates light emitted from the light source unit, thereby performing image display; and a display control unit that includes a partitioning-drive processing section generating each of a light-emission pattern signal and a partitioning-drive image signal, performs light-emission driving for each light source, and performs display driving for each pixel. The partitioning-drive processing section performs a gain correction of multiplying each pixel signal in the input image signal by a predetermined gain factor that is set so that a value increases as a pixel position of the pixel signal goes away from the light source, and generates the light-emission pattern signal and the partitioning-drive image signal, by using gain-corrected pixel signal.
    Type: Application
    Filed: February 18, 2011
    Publication date: September 29, 2011
    Applicant: Sony Corporation
    Inventors: Mitsuyasu Asano, Tomohiro Nishi, Yoshihiro Katsu
  • Publication number: 20110234478
    Abstract: A liquid crystal display device includes: a light source section so configured that independently-controllable emission subsections are formed on a light-exit plane of a light-guide plate; a liquid crystal display panel modulating, based on an input picture signal, light exited from each of the emission subsections in the light source section; and a display controlling section having a partitioning-drive processing section generating, based on the input picture signal, an emission pattern signal representing a light emission pattern of the emission subsections in the light source section, and a partitioning-drive picture signal. The display controlling section performs, based on the partitioning-drive picture signal, display-drive on each pixel in the liquid crystal display panel, and performs, based on the emission pattern signal, light-emission drive through allowing one or more of first light sources and one or more of second light sources to emit concurrently so as to form the emission subsections.
    Type: Application
    Filed: February 14, 2011
    Publication date: September 29, 2011
    Applicant: Sony Corporation
    Inventors: Mitsuyasu Asano, Tomohiro Nishi
  • Publication number: 20110225956
    Abstract: Provided is an exhaust purification apparatus for an internal combustion engine capable of reducing the quantity of a catalytic noble metal used in a catalytic converter without reducing the purification performance. A catalytic converter unit (3) contains an OSC material in addition to a catalytic noble metal, and includes an upstream catalytic converter (31) and a downstream catalytic converter (32) provided on the downstream side of the upstream catalytic converter (31). The upstream catalytic converter 31 contains more OSC material than the downstream catalytic converter (32), and the downstream catalytic converter contains more catalytic noble metal than the upstream catalytic converter (31).
    Type: Application
    Filed: November 24, 2009
    Publication date: September 22, 2011
    Inventors: Tomohiro Nishi, Kei Kuroki
  • Publication number: 20110221788
    Abstract: A liquid crystal display includes: a light source section including light emission subsections; a liquid crystal display panel modulating, based on an input picture signal, light emitted from each light emission subsection to display pictures through switching of picture streams from one to another in order; and a display control section including a divisional-drive processing section generating a light emission pattern signal for the light emission subsections and a divisional-drive picture signal based on the input picture signal. The display control section performs a light emission drive on the light emission subsection with use of the light emission pattern signal and performs a display drive on the liquid crystal display panel with use of the divisional-drive picture signal. The divisional-drive processing section determines a logical-OR picture of the picture streams, and generates the light emission pattern signal and the divisional-drive picture signal with use of the logical-OR picture.
    Type: Application
    Filed: January 28, 2011
    Publication date: September 15, 2011
    Inventors: Mitsuyasu ASANO, Tomohiro Nishi
  • Publication number: 20100156926
    Abstract: An image display device is provided, with less color breaking in the field sequential method. A color component image with a relatively high luminance level is extracted as a fundamental image from an input image. A differential image is obtained by subtracting color component of the fundamental image from an input image, and is decomposed into a plurality of color components. The differential image for each color component is divided into two. The fundamental image is displayed at a middle timing of a frame period. The half-divided differential images are displayed at timings before and after the middle timing for the fundamental image so that the half-divided differential image with higher luminance level with consideration for visibility characteristic is displayed at a timing closer to the middle timing for the fundamental image.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 10, 2009
    Publication date: June 24, 2010
    Inventors: Norimasa FURUKAWA, Yoshihiko Kuroki, Ichiro Murakami, Mitsuyasu Asano, Tomohiro Nishi
  • Publication number: 20090324125
    Abstract: An image processing apparatus includes: a difference-value calculation mechanism calculating a difference value between the first accumulated value produced by accumulating luminance values of a plurality of pixels in a first image and the second accumulated value produced by accumulating luminance values of a plurality of pixels in a second image having a difference in time with the first image; a threshold-value creation mechanism for creating a plurality of threshold values on the difference value in accordance with the first accumulated value, corresponding to the luminance change levels in order to grade a luminance change between the first image and the second image by a luminance change level indicating a degree of the luminance change; and a luminance-change-level determination mechanism for determining the luminance change level corresponding to the difference value on the basis of the plurality of threshold values.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 23, 2009
    Publication date: December 31, 2009
    Inventors: Shintaro OKADA, Kazuhiko Nishibori, Tomohiro Nishi, Toshinori Ihara
  • Publication number: 20090324102
    Abstract: An image processing apparatus includes a difference calculation unit that obtains a luminance difference between images of two successive frames; an average calculation unit that calculates the average of luminance differences obtained for a predetermined number of successive frames; a change determination unit that determines, for each frame of the predetermined number of the successive frames, whether images of two successive frames including the frame are the same by comparing the luminance difference obtained for the frame with the average; and a display pattern determination unit that determines a temporal display pattern of images of the predetermined number of the successive frames from among a plurality of display patterns including a display pattern in which groups each having a certain number of successive frames in which the same image is displayed are regularly repeated, using a determination result obtained by the change determination unit.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 26, 2009
    Publication date: December 31, 2009
    Inventors: Shintaro OKADA, Kazuhiko NISHIBORI, Tomohiro NISHI, Toshinori IHARA
  • Publication number: 20090310876
    Abstract: An image processing apparatus includes a motion vector detection unit configured to detect a motion vector at a predetermined space position of a frame at a predetermined time from an input image of a plurality of temporally different frames and obtain a reliability of the motion vector; a motion vector evaluation unit configured to obtain, at each space position, an evaluation value of the motion vector at the space position that is within a predetermined range including a subject space position that is a space position of interest, on the basis of the reliability at the space position and a distance from the subject space position; and a motion vector correction unit configured to correct the motion vector at the subject space position on the basis of the evaluation value and the motion vector at the space position of the predetermined range.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 17, 2009
    Publication date: December 17, 2009
    Inventors: Tomohiro NISHI, Kazuhiko Nishibori, Shintaro Okada, Toshinori Ihara
  • Publication number: 20090295839
    Abstract: A display device includes: a light source section having multiple light sources to emit light in illumination colors including three primary colors of light; a display section for displaying an image in monochrome color by modulating the light emitted from the light source section; and a display control section for driving the light source section and the display section in a field sequential system. The display control section includes a determining section for determining a degree of white or a degree of complementary color of the light sources on the basis of an amount of lighting of each of the illumination colors of the light sources, a setting section for setting white components or complementary-color components of a color determined by a mixing ratio of the illumination colors, and an allocating section for allocating the set white components or the complementary-color components to the fields.
    Type: Application
    Filed: May 13, 2009
    Publication date: December 3, 2009
    Applicant: Sony Corporation
    Inventors: Norimasa Furukawa, Mitsuyasu Asano, Tomohiro Nishi
  • Patent number: 7554603
    Abstract: A video-signal-processing device configured to externally transmit at least one brightness signal and at least one color-difference signal is provided. A single frame of the color-difference signal is assigned to a plurality of frames of the brightness signal so that a first frame frequency of the color-difference signal is lower than a second frame frequency of the brightness signal, where the first frame frequency is 24 Hz or higher. The brightness signal and the color-difference signal are transmitted so that a first center value on a first time base generated by the single frame of the color-difference signal becomes closest to a second center value on a second time base generated by the plurality of frames of the brightness signal corresponding to the color-difference signal.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 5, 2005
    Date of Patent: June 30, 2009
    Assignee: Sony Corporation
    Inventor: Tomohiro Nishi
  • Patent number: 7516730
    Abstract: In a fuel pump control system for an internal combustion engine whose operation is switched between cut-off-cylinder operating mode during which some of the cylinders are non-operative and full-cylinder operating mode during which all of the cylinders are operative and having a fuel injector connected to the fuel supply line and supplied with fuel pressurized by the fuel pump, it is discriminated whether the operation of the engine is in the full-cylinder operating mode or in the cut-off-cylinder operating mode, the operation of the fuel pump is controlled based on the discriminated operating mode of the engine, i.e., is controlled such that the delivery flow rate of the fuel pump when the engine is discriminated to be in the cut-off-cylinder operating mode, is reduced relative to that when the engine is discriminated to be in the full-cylinder operating mode, thereby reducing the power consumption and operating noise of the fuel pump.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 21, 2007
    Date of Patent: April 14, 2009
    Assignee: Honda Motor Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Asao Ukai, Toshitaka Hachiro, Tomohiro Nishi, Takahiro Yonekura
  • Publication number: 20090059084
    Abstract: An image processing apparatus includes a unit configured to calculate a sum of absolute differences between pixel values of pixels in a block of interest and pixel values of pixels in a reference block, a unit configured to compare sums of absolute differences calculated and to determine a minimum sum of absolute differences thereamong, a unit configured to estimate a motion vector for the pixel of interest using the reference pixel having the minimum sum of absolute differences and the pixel of interest, a unit configured to generate a motion-compensated image by using pixel values of the pixels as pixel values of corresponding pixels in the motion-compensated image, a unit configured to cumulatively add sums of absolute differences, and a unit configured to generate an interpolation image by mixing the pixels and corresponding pixels in the motion-compensated image according to an obtained cumulative-sum result.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 26, 2008
    Publication date: March 5, 2009
    Inventors: Shintaro OKADA, Kazuhiko Nishibori, Tomohiro Nishi, Toshinori Ihara, Masuyoshi Kurokawa
  • Publication number: 20080150931
    Abstract: In an image display system, when a sequence of frames ?, ?+1, ?+2, ?+3, . . . , with a frame rate of m is given as an input video signal S1, a controller controls a frame memory to output a sequence of frames ?, ?+2, . . . , as an output video signal S2 at a frame rate of m/2 and a sequence of frames ?+1, ?+3, . . . , as an output video signal S3 at a frame rate of m/2 such that the timing of outputting each of frames ?+1, ?+3, . . . , of the output video signal S3 is delayed by 1/m with respect of the timing of outputting each of frames ?, ?+2, . . . , of the output video signal S2. By displaying the output video signals S3 and S2 in the above-described manner, a resultant motion image formed by a combination of the output video signals S3 and S2 is refreshed at an effective frame rate of m.
    Type: Application
    Filed: February 11, 2008
    Publication date: June 26, 2008
    Applicant: Sony Corporation
    Inventors: Yoshihiko Kuroki, Tomohiro Nishi
  • Patent number: 7330181
    Abstract: In an image display system, when a sequence of frames ?, ?+1, ?+2, ?+3, . . . , with a frame rate of m is given as an input video signal S1, a controller controls a frame memory to output a sequence of frames ?, ?+2, . . . , as an output video signal S2 at a frame rate of m/2 and a sequence of frames ?+1, ?+3, . . . , as an output video signal S3 at a frame rate of m/2 such that the timing of outputting each of frames ?+1, ?+3, . . . , of the output video signal S3 is delayed by 1/m with respect of the timing of outputting each of frames ?, ?+2, . . . , of the output video signal S2. By displaying the output video signals S3 and S2 in the above-described manner, a resultant motion image formed by a combination of the output video signals S3 and S2 is refreshed at an effective frame rate of m.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 1, 2004
    Date of Patent: February 12, 2008
    Assignee: Sony Corporation
    Inventors: Yoshihiko Kuroki, Tomohiro Nishi
  • Publication number: 20070186909
    Abstract: In a fuel pump control system for an internal combustion engine whose operation is switched between cut-off-cylinder operating mode during which some of the cylinders are non-operative and full-cylinder operating mode during which all of the cylinders are operative and having a fuel injector connected to the fuel supply line and supplied with fuel pressurized by the fuel pump, it is discriminated whether the operation of the engine is in the full-cylinder operating mode or in the cut-off-cylinder operating mode, the operation of the fuel pump is controlled based on the discriminated operating mode of the engine, i.e., is controlled such that the delivery flow rate of the fuel pump when the engine is discriminated to be in the cut-off-cylinder operating mode, is reduced relative to that when the engine is discriminated to be in the full-cylinder operating mode, thereby reducing the power consumption and operating noise of the fuel pump.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 21, 2007
    Publication date: August 16, 2007
    Inventors: Asao Ukai, Toshitaka Hachiro, Tomohiro Nishi, Takahiro Yonekura