Patents by Inventor Toshiyuki Sekiya

Toshiyuki Sekiya 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: 9418678
    Abstract: A sound processing device includes: a nonlinear processing unit that outputs a plurality of sound signals including sound sources existing in predetermined areas by performing a nonlinear process for a plurality of observed signals that are generated by a plurality of sound sources and are observed by a plurality of sensors; a signal selecting unit that selects a sound signal including a specific sound source from among the plurality of sound signals output by the nonlinear processing unit and the observed signal including the plurality of sound sources; and a sound separating unit that separates a sound signal including the specific sound source that is selected by the signal selecting unit from the observed signal selected by the signal selecting unit.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 14, 2010
    Date of Patent: August 16, 2016
    Assignee: SONY CORPORATION
    Inventors: Toshiyuki Sekiya, Mototsugu Abe
  • Patent number: 9113241
    Abstract: Disclosed herein is a noise removing apparatus, including: an object sound emphasis section adapted to carry out an object sound emphasis process for observation signals of first and second microphones to produce an object sound estimation signal; a noise estimation section adapted to carry out a noise estimation process for the observation signals to produce a noise estimation signal; a post filtering section adapted to remove noise components remaining in the object sound estimation signal using the noise estimation signal; a correction coefficient calculation section adapted to calculate, for each frequency, a correction coefficient for correcting the post filtering process based on the object sound estimation signal and the noise estimation signal; and a correction coefficient changing section adapted to change those of the correction coefficients which belong to a frequency band suffering from spatial aliasing such that a peak appearing at a particular frequency is suppressed.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 2, 2011
    Date of Patent: August 18, 2015
    Assignee: Sony Corporation
    Inventors: Keiichi Osako, Toshiyuki Sekiya, Ryuichi Namba, Mototsugu Abe
  • Publication number: 20150228266
    Abstract: There is provided an audio device including a control section configured to cause an audio signal to be output, the audio signal including a sound signal obtained through playback of content and a sound signal received from a communication partner device, and a sound processing section configured to generate an elimination signal obtained by eliminating a given sound signal from a microphone detection signal, which is the audio signal that is propagated and detected by a microphone. The control section causes the communication partner device to transmit the elimination signal.
    Type: Application
    Filed: February 3, 2015
    Publication date: August 13, 2015
    Inventors: Satoshi Higuchi, Kazuya Tateishi, Toshiyuki Sekiya, Yuki Fujikashi, Kazuya Katsuki, Koji Matsuura, Saki Yokoyama
  • Publication number: 20150125011
    Abstract: Provided is an audio signal processing device including frequency conversion units configured to generate a plurality of input audio spectra by performing frequency conversions on input audio signals input from a plurality of microphones provided in a housing, a first input selection unit configured to select input audio spectra corresponding to a first combination direction from among the input audio spectra based on an arrangement of the microphones for the housing, and a first combining unit configured to generate a combined audio spectrum having directivity of the first combination direction by calculating power spectra of the input audio spectra selected by the first input selection unit.
    Type: Application
    Filed: April 3, 2013
    Publication date: May 7, 2015
    Applicant: Sony Corporation
    Inventor: Toshiyuki Sekiya
  • Patent number: 8971549
    Abstract: The present disclosure provides a audio signal processing apparatus including, an amplitude detector configured to detect a noise start point of an audio signal including a noise signal by comparing an amplitude value of the audio signal with a threshold value, a frequency feature calculator configured to calculate a frequency feature representing at least a frequency characteristic of the audio signal after the noise start point, and a noise determiner configured to determine a leg continuously including high-frequency components equal to or higher than a reference frequency in the audio signal after the noise start point as a noise leg based on the frequency feature.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 11, 2011
    Date of Patent: March 3, 2015
    Assignee: Sony Corporation
    Inventor: Toshiyuki Sekiya
  • Patent number: 8913157
    Abstract: A mechanical noise suppression apparatus includes: a framing section adapted to divide an input signal into frames of a predetermined time length; a Fourier transform section adapted to transform framed signals obtained by the framing section into a frequency spectrum of a frequency domain; a mechanical noise reduction section adapted to correct the frequency spectrum of the input signal obtained by the Fourier transform section based on frequency spectrum information of mechanical noise to suppress the mechanical noise; an inverse Fourier transform section adapted to return the frequency spectrum corrected by the mechanical noise reduction section into framed signals of a time domain; and a frame synthesis section adapted to carry out frame synthesis of the framed signals of frames obtained by the inverse Fourier transform section to obtain an output signal in which the mechanical noise is suppressed.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 15, 2011
    Date of Patent: December 16, 2014
    Assignee: Sony Corporation
    Inventors: Keiichi Osako, Toshiyuki Sekiya, Toshiyuki Kumakura, Mototsugu Abe
  • Patent number: 8861746
    Abstract: A sound processing apparatus includes a target sound emphasizing unit configured to acquire a sound frequency component by emphasizing target sound in input sound in which the target sound and noise are included, a target sound suppressing unit configured to acquire a noise frequency component by suppressing the target sound in the input sound, a gain computing unit configured to compute a gain value to be multiplied by the sound frequency component using a gain function that provides a gain value and has a slope that are less than predetermined values when an energy ratio of the sound frequency component to the noise frequency component is less than or equal to a predetermined value, and a gain multiplier unit configured to multiply the sound frequency component by the gain value computed by the gain computing unit.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 7, 2011
    Date of Patent: October 14, 2014
    Assignee: Sony Corporation
    Inventors: Toshiyuki Sekiya, Keiichi Osako, Mototsugu Abe
  • Patent number: 8842198
    Abstract: An audio signal processing device includes a first microphone configured to pick up audio and output a first audio signal; a second microphone configured to pick up the audio and output a second audio signal; a first frequency converter configured to convert the first audio signal to a first audio spectrum signal; a second frequency converter configured to convert the second audio signal to a second audio spectrum signal; an operating sound estimating unit configured to estimate, based on the correlation between a sound emitting member that emits an operating sound and the first and second microphones, an operating sound spectrum signal indicating the operating sound, by calculating the first and second audio spectrum signals; and an operating sound reducing unit configured to reduce the estimated operating sound spectrum signal from the first and second audio spectrum signals.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 19, 2011
    Date of Patent: September 23, 2014
    Assignee: Sony Corporation
    Inventors: Toshiyuki Sekiya, Keiichi Osako, Mototsugu Abe
  • Publication number: 20140169581
    Abstract: There is provided an audio signal processing device including a feature amount extraction unit configured to extract, from an audio signal obtained by a sound collection unit, a feature amount that indicates a pulsed operation sound generated from a sound generation unit provided in a same housing as the sound collection unit, and a noise determination unit configured to determine whether or not the operation sound is included in the audio signal based on the feature amount.
    Type: Application
    Filed: May 29, 2012
    Publication date: June 19, 2014
    Applicant: Sony Corporation
    Inventors: Keiichi Osako, Toshiyuki Sekiya, Mototsugu Abe
  • Patent number: 8743256
    Abstract: The present invention relates to a solid-state image pickup element capable of transmitting pixel signals read from a pixel unit as optical signals at high speed, an optical apparatus, a signal processing apparatus, and a signal processing system. The solid-state image pickup element 1A includes a pixel unit 10A which converts light into electric signals, an A/D convertor 11A which converts the signals read from the pixel unit 10A into digital signals, an optical communication unit 12A which converts the signals digitalized by the A/D convertor 11A into optical signals and outputs the optical signals, a timing generator 13A which generates a driving clock used to synchronize processes of inputting/outputting signals performed by the pixel unit 10A, the A/D convertor 11A, and the optical communication unit 12A, and a controller 16A which controls reading of signals.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 9, 2009
    Date of Patent: June 3, 2014
    Assignee: Sony Corporation
    Inventors: Hidehiko Ogasawara, Toshiyuki Sekiya
  • Patent number: 8704923
    Abstract: A solid-state imager includes a pixel unit for converting incident light into an electrical signal, a substrate bearing the pixel unit formed thereon, an analog-to-digital converter, formed on the substrate, for converting a signal read from the pixel unit into a digital signal, an optical communication unit, arranged on the bottom surface of the substrate opposite the surface of the substrate bearing opposite the top surface of the substrate bearing the pixel unit receiving the incident light, for converting the digital signal converted by the analog-to-digital converter into a light signal and outputting the light signal, and a signal line for transferring the digital signal, converted by the analog-to-digital converter, to the optical communication unit arranged on the bottom surface of the substrate.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 2, 2009
    Date of Patent: April 22, 2014
    Assignee: Sony Corporation
    Inventors: Hidehiko Ogasawara, Toshiyuki Sekiya
  • Patent number: 8510108
    Abstract: A voice processing device includes a zone detection unit which detects a voice zone including a voice signal or a non-steady sound zone including a non-steady signal other than the voice signal from an input signal and a filter calculation unit that calculates a filter coefficient for maintaining the quality of the voice signal in the voice zone while suppressing the non-steady signal in the non-steady sound zone according to the detection result by the zone detection unit, in which the filter calculation unit calculates the filter coefficient by using a filter coefficient calculated in the non-steady sound zone for the voice zone and using a filter coefficient calculated in the voice zone for the non-steady sound zone. In one embodiment, a verification unit verifies a constraint condition of the filter coefficient based on whether the amount of suppression of the non-steady sound signal that would result from applying the filter to the sound signal is less than or equal to a threshold value.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 7, 2011
    Date of Patent: August 13, 2013
    Assignee: Sony Corporation
    Inventors: Toshiyuki Sekiya, Mototsugu Abe
  • Patent number: 8368767
    Abstract: A solid-state image pickup device includes a pixel unit configured to convert light into an electrical signal, an A/D converter configured to convert a signal read from the pixel unit into a digital signal, a light modulation unit configured to modulate an externally input light beam using the signal digitized by the A/D converter and output a signal light beam based on the signal read from the pixel unit, a timing generation unit configured to generate a synchronization signal used for synchronizing input and output of signals of the pixel unit, the A/D converter, and the light modulation unit, and a controller configured to control readout of the signal.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 2, 2009
    Date of Patent: February 5, 2013
    Assignee: Sony Corporation
    Inventors: Hidehiko Ogasawara, Toshiyuki Sekiya
  • Patent number: 8355049
    Abstract: A solid-state imaging device includes: a pixel section formed on a substrate and having an effective pixel area that converts incident light into an electric signal, and an optical black area placed around the effective pixel area; an optical communication section placed near a predetermined optical black area of the optical black area, and converts a signal read from the pixel section into an optical signal for output; a dark current level supplying section that generates an estimated dark current level varying with a pixel position from which a signal is read, on the basis of a dark current level acquired from the predetermined optical black area, and outputs the estimated dark current level in synchronization with a signal read timing from the effective pixel area; and a noise compensation section that subtracts the estimated dark current level from a signal read from the effective pixel area.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 4, 2009
    Date of Patent: January 15, 2013
    Assignee: Sony Corporation
    Inventors: Hidehiko Ogasawara, Toshiyuki Sekiya
  • Patent number: 8346034
    Abstract: An optical selector includes: an optical waveguide which includes a first light guide section having a first refractive index, a second light guide section having a second refractive index provided to the side of and along the entire circumference of the first light guide section, and a reflector provided at opposing positions on both surfaces of each of the first and second light guide sections while exposing the outer circumferential surface of the second light guide section; a single or plurality of LDs that are placed on the outer circumference of the optical waveguide, and emit light toward the first light guide section; and a single or plurality of photodetectors that are placed on the outer circumference of the optical waveguide, and receive light emitted from the outer circumference of the optical waveguide.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 27, 2008
    Date of Patent: January 1, 2013
    Assignee: Sony Corporation
    Inventors: Ken Hayakawa, Kazuo Haraoka, Masaaki Hattori, Naoki Kaneko, Tetsujiro Kondo, Hidehiko Sekizawa, Nozomu Ozaki, Seiji Wada, Toshiyuki Sekiya, Shinji Sangawa
  • Patent number: 8335408
    Abstract: In the sending and receiving of a signal through an optical waveguide, an unknown substrate connected to the optical waveguide can be recognized.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 7, 2008
    Date of Patent: December 18, 2012
    Assignee: Sony Corporation
    Inventors: Toshiyuki Sekiya, Ken Hayakawa, Kazuo Haraoka, Masaaki Hattori, Naoki Kaneko, Tetsujiro Kondo
  • Publication number: 20120238908
    Abstract: An information processing apparatus and method provide logic for processing information. In one implementation, an information processing apparatus may include a receiving unit configured to receive an audio signal associated with a motion of a human mandible over a time period. The information processing apparatus may also include a determination unit configured to determine whether the motion of the human mandible corresponds to mastication, based on at least a power of the received audio signal during the time period.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 9, 2012
    Publication date: September 20, 2012
    Inventors: Keiichi Osako, Toshiyuki Sekiya, Mototsugu Abe
  • Patent number: 8212887
    Abstract: A solid-state image pickup device includes a pixel unit configured to convert light into an electrical signal; a substrate having a first side on which the pixel unit is formed and a second side opposite the first side; an optical communication unit disposed on the first side of the substrate, and configured to convert a signal read out from the pixel unit into an optical signal and output the optical signal; and a cooling unit disposed on the second side of the substrate and below at least a forming area of the optical communication unit, the forming area being an area where the optical communication unit is formed, and configured to cool or dissipate heat generated in the optical communication unit and transferred through the substrate.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 23, 2009
    Date of Patent: July 3, 2012
    Assignee: Sony Corporation
    Inventors: Hidehiko Ogasawara, Toshiyuki Sekiya
  • Publication number: 20120162471
    Abstract: An audio signal processing device includes a first microphone configured to pick up audio and output a first audio signal; a second microphone configured to pick up the audio and output a second audio signal; a first frequency converter configured to convert the first audio signal to a first audio spectrum signal; a second frequency converter configured to convert the second audio signal to a second audio spectrum signal; an operating sound estimating unit configured to estimate, based on the correlation between a sound emitting member that emits an operating sound and the first and second microphones, an operating sound spectrum signal indicating the operating sound, by calculating the first and second audio spectrum signals; and an operating sound reducing unit configured to reduce the estimated operating sound spectrum signal from the first and second audio spectrum signals.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 19, 2011
    Publication date: June 28, 2012
    Inventors: Toshiyuki SEKIYA, Keiichi Osako, Mototsugu Abe
  • Patent number: 8174597
    Abstract: A solid-state imaging device includes: a pixel portion configured to convert light into an electric signal; a substrate where the pixel portion is formed; an optical communication unit configured to convert a signal read out from the pixel portion into an optical signal, and outputs the optical signal, which is disposed in one surface where the pixel portion is formed of the substrate; and a light shielding portion configured to shield, of signal light to be output from the optical communication unit, light that directs to the pixel portion, and light to be leaked from the optical communication unit, which is disposed around the optical communication unit.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 2, 2009
    Date of Patent: May 8, 2012
    Assignee: Sony Corporation
    Inventors: Hidehiko Ogasawara, Toshiyuki Sekiya