Patents Assigned to Sharp
  • Publication number: 20150068409
    Abstract: A heating cooker includes a container for containing an object to be heated, a stirrer for stirring the object inside the container, and a stirring controller for controlling a stirring operation of the stirrer. In cooking the object under stirring by the stirrer, the stirring controller determines a state of the object from at least one of a cooking menu to be executed and a heating time, and controls at least one of a stirring speed, a stirring-operation timing and a stirring direction of the stirrer in accordance with the state of the object. Thus, the heating cooker can perform proper stirring suited to a mixed state and/or viscosity of ingredients during the cooking process.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 15, 2013
    Publication date: March 12, 2015
    Applicant: Sharp Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Motoki Tanaka, Mao Yamada, Noriko Kurihara, Yuko Nakajima, Setsuko Kobashi
  • Publication number: 20150070592
    Abstract: A housing of a backlight unit is reinforced by a reinforcement frame installed so as to communicate an upper edge and a lower edge of the back face, and a window hole is formed at an upper edge of the housing at the vicinity of the reinforcement frame. An LED substrate as a light source is accommodated inside the housing and connected to a harness through the window hole. A harness is wired inside the reinforcement frame, and the harness is connected to a substrate such as a main substrate and a power supply substrate installed on the back face of the housing. It is possible to prevent exposure of the harness at the back face of the housing with a minimum use of a harness cover and to prevent generation of malfunction such as damage to the harness and disconnection.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 29, 2013
    Publication date: March 12, 2015
    Applicant: SHARP KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventor: Masaaki Ishiguro
  • Publication number: 20150070376
    Abstract: Areas of a video signal that represent light emission are detected, the luminance levels at which said light emission areas are displayed are enhanced, emphasizing said areas, and said luminance stretching is controlled in accordance with the brightness of the surrounding environment, thereby increasing the resulting sense of brightness and improving the appearance of the video. A light emission detecting portion (12) counts pixels in order to generate a histogram of a prescribed feature quantity of an input video signal and identifies areas that fall within a prescribed range at the upper end of said histogram as being light emission areas. On the basis of a brightness-related index computed from the input video signal on the basis of prescribed conditions, an area-active-control/luminance-stretching portion (14) performs luminance stretching, increasing the luminance of a backlight portion (16) and reducing the luminance of non-light emission areas of the video signal, i.e.
    Type: Application
    Filed: July 5, 2012
    Publication date: March 12, 2015
    Applicant: SHARP KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventors: Toshiyuki Fujine, Yoji Shiraya
  • Publication number: 20150074603
    Abstract: A focus frame (500) (i) is provided on a menu screen (410) on which a number of menu items to be selected (121a, 121b, 121c, 122a, and 122b) and the like are displayed and (ii) is located around a specific menu item to be selected (121a). A mark, such as an arrow, indicating a direction in which a menu item is selectable is put close to each of an upper side, a lower side, a right side, and a left side of the focus frame (500) so that a viewer can easily select a target menu item in accordance with an instruction indicated by the mark.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 27, 2013
    Publication date: March 12, 2015
    Applicant: Sharp Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Hiroki Abe, Hironori Inoue, Masao Kurino, Yosuke Iga, Takamasa Shimizu
  • Patent number: 8975618
    Abstract: A resonant tunneling device includes a first semiconductor material with an energy difference between valence and conduction bands of Eg1, and a second semiconductor material with an energy difference between valence and conduction bands of Eg2, wherein Eg1 and Eg2 are different from one another. The device further includes an energy selectively transmissive interface connecting the first and second semiconductor materials.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 30, 2011
    Date of Patent: March 10, 2015
    Assignee: Sharp Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: James Andrew Robert Dimmock, Stephen Day, Matthias Kauer, Jonathan Heffernan
  • Patent number: 8976204
    Abstract: Disclosed is a liquid crystal display device (1) provided with a backlight part (3) that has a light-emitting diode (light source), and a liquid crystal panel (display part) (2) that includes a plurality of pixels (P) and displays information using illumination light from the backlight part (3). A video generating device (control part) (9) decides, in a frame in which a gray-scale transition occurs, at least a length of either an OFF period of the light-emitting diode in a first half of the frame or an ON period of the light-emitting diode in a latter half of the frame, based on the time information from the time information generating part (26), and outputs an instruction signal to a light source driving part (14) in accordance with the decided OFF or ON period for driving the light-emitting diode.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 7, 2011
    Date of Patent: March 10, 2015
    Assignee: Sharp Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Hirofumi Murakami, Kohji Fujiwara
  • Patent number: 8976946
    Abstract: A communication apparatus includes a communication portion for communicating with an external device, a transmitter information acquiring portion for acquiring predetermined transmitter information for identifying the transmitter at a time of an incoming call of communication, a storage portion for storing a registered name in association with the transmitter information in advance, a registered name retrieval portion for, retrieving the registered name stored in the storage portion so as to be associated with the acquired transmitter information, a common part extraction portion for, in a case where a plurality of registered names are retrieved with respect to the acquired transmitter information when the registered name is retrieved by the registered name retrieval portion, extracting a common part among the plurality of registered names, and an output portion for outputting the common part of the registered names which is extracted by the common part extraction portion, in a predetermined system.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 31, 2014
    Date of Patent: March 10, 2015
    Assignee: Sharp Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Sho Kobayashi, Hirotoshi Ohkubo
  • Patent number: 8975786
    Abstract: When portable electronic equipment drops, CPU stops power supply to a prescribed unit. A prescribed unit is a unit that is not necessary for the continuous operation of the portable electronic equipment. When the portable electronic equipment collides with the floor or the ground, the battery terminal may be momentarily detached from the connector. In this case, instantaneous voltage drop or momentary power failure may occur. Power supply to a prescribed unit is stopped while power supply to CPU and RAM is continued. Therefore, power supply to CPU and RAM can be continued with electric charge stored in a capacitor inside the portable electronic equipment.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 20, 2011
    Date of Patent: March 10, 2015
    Assignee: Sharp Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventor: Nobuyuki Fujii
  • Patent number: 8975638
    Abstract: The active matrix substrate is provided with: first and second scan lines (20a, 20b) that extend in a first direction; first and second signal lines (30a, 30b) that extend in a second direction; first and second pixels (10a, 10b) that are arranged adjacent to each other along the second direction; an auxiliary capacitor line (40); first and second pixel electrodes (60a, 60b); a first TFT (50a); a second TFT (50b); an auxiliary capacitor electrode (42) that is connected to the auxiliary capacitor line (40) and extends below the first and second pixel electrodes (60a, 60b); a first auxiliary capacitor counter electrode (62a) that is connected to the first pixel electrode (60a); and a second auxiliary capacitor counter electrode (62b) that is connected to the second pixel electrode (60b).
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 22, 2011
    Date of Patent: March 10, 2015
    Assignee: Sharp Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Kazuyori Mitsumoto, Masahiro Yoshida, Satoshi Horiuchi
  • Patent number: 8976107
    Abstract: A display element (10) includes an upper substrate (first substrate) (2), a lower substrate (second substrate) (3), and a conductive liquid (16) that is sealed in a display space (S) formed between the upper substrate (2) and the lower substrate (3) so as to be moved toward an effective display region (P1) or a non-effective display region (P2). The conductive liquid (16) is colored black. The non-effective display (P2) is defined by a black matrix (light-shielding layer) (11s) provided on the upper substrate (2), and the effective display region (P1) is defined by a color filter (aperture) (11r) formed in the black matrix (11s). The size of the black matrix (11s) is determined based on the size of each of ribs (14a, 14b) and a gap size (H) between the upper substrate (2) and the lower substrate (3).
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 24, 2010
    Date of Patent: March 10, 2015
    Assignee: Sharp Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Takuma Tomotoshi, Kohzoh Nakamura, Shun Ueki, Toshiki Matsuoka
  • Patent number: 8976401
    Abstract: In an image forming apparatus provided with an image output portion, paper supply portions, a display image generating portion, a display panel, and an operation unit including an operation unit side control portion having a preview display function, a specified display image generating function and a paper display image generating function are included as the display image generating portion and a specified paper supply portion displaying function and an output state displaying function are included as the operation unit side control portion, for displaying a preview of a situation of a paper supply portion and sheets of paper on the display panel.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 3, 2014
    Date of Patent: March 10, 2015
    Assignee: Sharp Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventor: Hisashi Kawahara
  • Patent number: 8976414
    Abstract: An image processing apparatus includes: a line noise detection section for detecting line noise pixels included in input image data; a segmentation process section for determining a pixel in a text region; and a line noise removal process section for (i) determining a replacement-target line noise pixel by excepting, from the line noise pixels, the pixel in the text region and a pixel within a first distance from the pixel in the text region and (ii) replacing the replacement-target line noise pixel with another pixel other than the line noise pixels, which another pixel is included in the input image data.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 21, 2012
    Date of Patent: March 10, 2015
    Assignee: Sharp Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventor: Masakazu Ohira
  • Patent number: 8974089
    Abstract: An illumination device 1 which is a light emitting device capable of emitting white light, includes: a laser element 2 for emitting a blue laser beam; a light emitting section 4 for generating fluorescence by be being irradiated with the blue laser beam emitted from the laser element 2; and a parabolic mirror 5 for reflecting the fluorescence generated from the light emitting section 4, the parabolic mirror 5 being disposed on an irradiated surface side which irradiated surface is a surface of the light emitting section 4 which surface is irradiated with the blue laser beam. This allows the illumination device 1 to efficiently project the white illumination light.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 28, 2012
    Date of Patent: March 10, 2015
    Assignee: Sharp Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Yoshiyuki Takahira, Yosuke Maemura, Yasuo Fukai, Koji Takahashi
  • Patent number: 8976316
    Abstract: A lighting device configured to produce light in a substantially uniform overall color includes a plurality of light source boards and a plurality of point light sources. The point light sources are mounted on the light source boards. An average color of the point light sources is in an equivalent color range. The equivalent color range is defined by a square with two sides that are opposed sides each having an X-axis coordinate length of 0.015 and two sides that are opposed sides each having a Y-axis coordinate length of 0.015 in the CIE 1931 color space chromaticity diagram.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 4, 2010
    Date of Patent: March 10, 2015
    Assignee: Sharp Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventor: Hirokazu Mouri
  • Patent number: 8976372
    Abstract: On a touch-panel display of an image forming apparatus, pieces of information are displayed divided into five areas, that is, a system area , a function selecting area, a preview area, an action panel area and a task trigger area, of which arrangement is kept unchanged even when operational modes are switched. With such an arrangement, the same or similar pieces of information are displayed on an area arranged at the same position even in different operational modes.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 8, 2011
    Date of Patent: March 10, 2015
    Assignee: Sharp Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Shinsaku Tohki, Takaya Nakatani
  • Patent number: 8976736
    Abstract: A mobile station apparatus (1) determines an uplink carrier component to which a physical downlink control channel instructing to start random access procedure corresponds.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 24, 2013
    Date of Patent: March 10, 2015
    Assignee: Sharp Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Shoichi Suzuki, Yasuyuki Kato, Shohei Yamada
  • Patent number: 8976099
    Abstract: A charge storage circuit for a pixel comprises a charge storage node. First and second series-connected transistors (8,10) are provided for selectively isolating the charge storage node from a first voltage input (9,SL) for supplying a data voltage. The circuit is provided with a voltage follower circuit for replicating a voltage at the charge storage node (12) at another node in the circuit thereby to reduce the drain-source voltage across the second transistor (10). The first transistor forms part of the voltage follower circuit.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 2, 2011
    Date of Patent: March 10, 2015
    Assignee: Sharp Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Sunay Shah, Patrick Zebedee, Benjamin James Hadwen, Michael James Brownlow
  • Patent number: 8976109
    Abstract: Based on captured images obtained when an image capture device takes images in an image capture range, a change in the moving speed of one passerby or each of a plurality of passerby contained in the captured images is calculated. When there is a passerby whose moving speed is decreased in the image capture range, the passerby is paying attention to the content, and therefore content to be outputted by a content output device is switched from ordinary content to specific content. On the other hand, when only passerby who are moving at constant speed are present in the image capture range, the passerby are not paying attention to the content, and hence the content output device continues to output the ordinary content.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 7, 2011
    Date of Patent: March 10, 2015
    Assignee: Sharp Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventor: Hirotaka Kubota
  • Patent number: 8976209
    Abstract: Disclosed is a liquid crystal panel including a scan signal line (16x), a data signal line (15x), and a transistor (12a) that is connected to the scan signal line (16x) and the data signal line (15x). A pixel (101) is provided with pixel electrodes (17a and 17b). The pixel electrode (17a) is connected to the data signal line (15x) through the transistor (12a). The liquid crystal panel further includes capacitance electrodes (37a and 38a) that are formed in the same layer as the scan signal line (16x). The capacitance electrodes (37a and 38a) are electrically connected to the pixel electrode (17a), and form a capacitance with the pixel electrode (17b). Consequently, the yield of a capacitance coupling type pixel division system active matrix substrate can be improved.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 30, 2009
    Date of Patent: March 10, 2015
    Assignee: Sharp Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventor: Toshihide Tsubata
  • Patent number: 8975296
    Abstract: The instant invention relates to pharmaceutical compositions containing cathespin K inhibitors. Also disclosed are processes for making said pharmaceutical compositions.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 20, 2013
    Date of Patent: March 10, 2015
    Assignee: Merck Sharp & Dohme Corp.
    Inventors: Haihong Fan, Majid Mahjour, Justin Moser, Bhagwant Rege