Patents Assigned to Sony Mobile Communications Japan, Inc.
  • Patent number: 8332779
    Abstract: There is provided a novel menu selection method in a mobile phone. Also provided is a cursor displaying method with which a user can intuitively recognize a moving direction and moving speed. In addition, a novel scrollbar with which the user can recognize, in a case of displaying menus beyond a display screen, a range currently displayed on a display screen among all the menus and a current cursor position within the menus displayed on the current display screen.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 17, 2007
    Date of Patent: December 11, 2012
    Assignees: Sony Corporation, Sony Mobile Communications Japan, Inc.
    Inventors: Tatsuya Hama, Tetsuya Kohno, Satomi Yonezawa, Ikuo Terado, Takamoto Tsuda, Katsunori Miura, Kazuhiro Kondo, Yukako Morimoto
  • Publication number: 20120304104
    Abstract: Disclosed herein is a character input apparatus including: a display section having a screen capable of displaying at least characters; an operation section configured to allow a user to input at least the characters; a first character input processing section configured to perform a first character input process of causing a character string to be displayed on the screen in accordance with a predetermined notation rule; a second character input processing section configured to perform a second character input process of causing a character string to be displayed on the screen not in accordance with the predetermined notation rule; a scene determination section configured to determine a character input scene; and an input process switch control section configured to switch between the first character input process and the second character input process in accordance with the character input scene.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 6, 2012
    Publication date: November 29, 2012
    Applicant: SONY MOBILE COMMUNICATIONS JAPAN, INC.
    Inventors: Takashi HASEGAWA, Michihito Nakagawa
  • Patent number: 8319375
    Abstract: A power supply system is disclosed, including a first plurality of power supply units configured to supply working voltages from a battery to a second plurality of loads, a large-capacitance capacitor configured to charge electric charges from the battery, a third plurality of switching means for connecting the large-capacitance capacitor to the second plurality of loads selectively, control means for switching the third plurality of switching means corresponding to the load presently driven, and discharge means, in a case where the output voltage of the large-capacitance capacitor is higher than the operating voltage of the second load when the capacitor is switched from a first load to a second load, for discharging the charges stored in the capacitor according to the monitoring result by a voltage monitoring means so that the voltage of the capacitor decreases to the operating voltage.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 1, 2009
    Date of Patent: November 27, 2012
    Assignee: Sony Mobile Communications Japan, Inc.
    Inventor: Hirotada Taniuchi
  • Publication number: 20120294583
    Abstract: An image processing apparatus including an input terminal that receives a plurality of image units that are temporally or spatially continuous; an image processing unit that performs image processing on the plurality of image units by iteratively performing the image processing on subsets of the plurality of image units; and a display image generating unit that controls a display to display the plurality of image units when the image processing unit begins performing the image processing; display, at a time of a completion of intermediate processing of a subset of the plurality of image units by the image processing unit, an intermediate processed image including the processed subset of the plurality of image data units; and display, after completion of the processing of the plurality of image units by the image processing unit, a complete processed image including the processed plurality of image data units.
    Type: Application
    Filed: April 19, 2012
    Publication date: November 22, 2012
    Applicants: Sony Corporation, Sony Mobile Communications Japan, Inc.
    Inventors: Junichi KOSAKA, Hideshi YAMADA
  • Patent number: 8311595
    Abstract: A portable wireless communication device includes a case having a waterproof structure and floating on water, an operation portion arranged in a front face of the case; and a wireless communication processing portion arranged inside the case, wherein a position of the center of gravity in the case is shifted to a rear face side opposite to the front face with respect to a center of the case, in a state where all components including the wireless communication processing portion are housed.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 26, 2010
    Date of Patent: November 13, 2012
    Assignee: Sony Mobile Communications Japan, Inc.
    Inventors: Susumu Takatsuka, Hiroyuki Taniguchi, Shin Takanashi, Tetsuya Naruse
  • Patent number: 8311598
    Abstract: A mobile terminal apparatus includes a first cabinet; a second cabinet; a slide holding mechanism for holding a first cabinet and a second cabinet slidable during a shift from an closed state to an open state; a keyboard held within the second cabinet, the keyboard being disposed movable in slide directions of the first cabinet and the second cabinet; a hook disposed at a retraction side end; a keyboard lock member including a projection and a notch engaged with the hook; and a sliding groove that is disposed in the first cabinet in the slide direction of the first cabinet to slide the projection. The keyboard is held within the second cabinet when the first cabinet and the second cabinet are placed in the closed state or the keyboard ejects from the second cabinet when the first cabinet and the second cabinet are placed in the open state.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 30, 2010
    Date of Patent: November 13, 2012
    Assignee: Sony Mobile Communications Japan, Inc.
    Inventors: Isao Endo, Kazuhiro Kato
  • Patent number: 8290550
    Abstract: An electromagnetic field strength reducing device includes a high-frequency wave eliminator that eliminates a high frequency component from an electrical signal input from a signal source. An electrical signal line is disposed between the high-frequency wave eliminator and the electrical member so as to convey the electrical signal with the high frequency component eliminated to an electrical member. The device also includes a resonant-frequency regulator connected between the electrical signal line and ground to cause the electrical signal line to be resonant at a frequency used for radio communication. The electromagnetic field strength reducing device may be employed in a portable electronic device with a HAC standard radio frequency communication compliance requirement, and use a corresponding method to eliminate the high frequency component.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 22, 2011
    Date of Patent: October 16, 2012
    Assignee: Sony Mobile Communications Japan, Inc.
    Inventor: Kenichiro Kodama
  • Patent number: 8283887
    Abstract: A portable device includes a case configuring the body of the portable device and a fuel cell system included in the case and having air inlets formed in the surface of the case, and also has a solar cell disposed on a portion on the surface of the case, in which the air inlets are provided. The solar cell has holes corresponding to the air inlets.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 21, 2009
    Date of Patent: October 9, 2012
    Assignees: Sony Corporation, Sony Mobile Communications Japan, Inc.
    Inventors: Katsuya Suzuki, Kuniharu Suzuki, Hiroshi Kato, Manabu Yamazaki, Mikio Takenaka, Yuto Takagi
  • Publication number: 20120240208
    Abstract: A mobile terminal apparatus checks if a user is a proper user based on the operation of the user and, if the result of authentication is negative, uploads predetermined data, which is part of data stored in a memory, to a predetermined server. After the transmission is completed, the mobile terminal apparatus erases the uploaded data from the memory. It is also possible to instruct the mobile terminal apparatus to upload and erase data from an external source using an electronic mail or a telephone tone signal sequence. This may protect data contained in mobile terminal apparatus that has been lost, from a person who improperly attempts to access the data.
    Type: Application
    Filed: April 27, 2012
    Publication date: September 20, 2012
    Applicant: Sony Mobile Communications Japan, Inc.
    Inventor: Takeshi Kokubo
  • Patent number: 8269875
    Abstract: A portable information terminal and an image management program are provided. A portable information terminal includes: a display part which has a screen capable of displaying at least an image; an in-focus value computing part which computes an in-focus value from an original image; an image cutting part which cuts a thumbnail image from the original image based on the in-focus value computed at the in-focus value computing part; a data storage part which stores data of the thumbnail image cut at the image cutting part; and a control part which reads the data of the thumbnail image stored in the data storage part as necessary and displays it on a screen of the display part.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 21, 2010
    Date of Patent: September 18, 2012
    Assignee: Sony Mobile Communications Japan, Inc.
    Inventor: Shunta Sato
  • Patent number: 8264463
    Abstract: An input device inputs information by a slide operation depending on an operation body. The device contains a housing having an operation surface, a detection unit that is provided in the housing and includes an electrostatic capacitance sheet member which detects a slide position of the operation body to output a position detection signal, and an operation unit that covers an entire surface of the detection unit and is slide-operated along the operation surface of the housing. The operation unit has a convex shape which becomes thicker along a sliding direction from one direction of the operation surface of the housing and also which becomes thinner toward the other direction of the operation surface thereof. The electrostatic capacitance sheet member includes a switch portion that is switched by a press-in operation of the operation body to the operation unit.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 19, 2008
    Date of Patent: September 11, 2012
    Assignees: Sony Corporation, Sony Mobile Communications Japan, Inc.
    Inventors: Kouichiro Takashima, Seiji Muramatsu, Tsutomu Takahashi, Shun Kayama, Yukiko Shimizu, Takashi Sawada, Satoshi Kushima, Shinji Kanada, Minoru Tomita
  • Patent number: 8260200
    Abstract: A non-contact wireless communication apparatus and a mobile terminal apparatus are provided.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 14, 2008
    Date of Patent: September 4, 2012
    Assignee: Sony Mobile Communications Japan, Inc.
    Inventors: Kanjiro Shimizu, Toshiyuki Takahashi
  • Patent number: 8254339
    Abstract: In a receiver apparatus of HSDPA (High Speed Downlink Packet Access) data transmission scheme, it is achieved to minimize the occurrence of the system performance degradation and problems caused by TSN flash execution. In the receiver apparatus, each of a plurality of reordering buffers that temporarily store received traffic data is ranked on the basis of QoS information of the traffic data. When it is determined that memory release of the reordering buffers is necessary, the memory release is performed from the lowest ranked reordering buffer.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 7, 2005
    Date of Patent: August 28, 2012
    Assignee: Sony Mobile Communications Japan, Inc.
    Inventor: Isman Bazar
  • Patent number: 8255204
    Abstract: Disclosed herein is a character input apparatus including: a display section having a screen capable of displaying at least characters; an operation section configured to allow a user to input at least the characters; a first character input processing section configured to perform a first character input process of causing a character string to be displayed on the screen in accordance with a predetermined notation rule; a second character input processing section configured to perform a second character input process of causing a character string to be displayed on the screen not in accordance with the predetermined notation rule; a scene determination section configured to determine a character input scene; and an input process switch control section configured to switch between the first character input process and the second character input process in accordance with the character input scene.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 24, 2009
    Date of Patent: August 28, 2012
    Assignee: Sony Mobile Communications Japan, Inc.
    Inventors: Takashi Hasegawa, Michihito Nakagawa
  • Patent number: 8238978
    Abstract: A portable apparatus includes a first case portion including a full keyboard, a second case portion superposed on the first case portion, a slide connection member connecting the first case portion to the second case portion in such a manner that the first case portion is slidable in a direction perpendicular to a length direction of the full keyboard, and a display screen unit directly or indirectly disposed on a front surface of the second case portion, wherein the first and second case portions have a hiding mechanism with which a part of the slide connection member is prevented from being exposed to the outside when the first case portion is maximally slid out with respect to the second case portion.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 14, 2009
    Date of Patent: August 7, 2012
    Assignee: Sony Mobile Communications Japan, Inc.
    Inventors: Hiroyuki Taniguchi, Takashi Arai
  • Patent number: 8228303
    Abstract: An information communication apparatus includes: an electrostatic panel unit that is at least provided with an electrostatically chargeable panel surface; a capacitance detection unit that detects a capacitance variation of the panel surface to detect a location at which an object substantially contacts the panel surface; an electric field communication unit that uses the panel surface as an electrostatic field antenna to carry out electrostatic field communication; a connection switching unit that selectively connects any one of the capacitance detection unit and the electric field communication unit to the electrostatic panel unit; and a control unit that controls the connection switching unit to connect the electrostatic panel unit to the capacitance detection unit at the time of detecting a location at which an object contacts the panel surface and to connect the electrostatic panel unit to the electric field communication unit at the time of the electrostatic field communication.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 25, 2009
    Date of Patent: July 24, 2012
    Assignee: Sony Mobile Communications Japan, Inc.
    Inventor: Tetsuya Naruse
  • Patent number: 8228361
    Abstract: An information processing device includes a communication unit conducting a videophone call, a memory storing a telephone directory which registers at least each individual telephone number and which is capable of registering a portrait image associated with each individual telephone number, a portrait image registration determination unit determining whether or not a portrait image of a calling party is registered in the telephone directory by referring to the telephone directory based on the telephone number of the calling party when sending and receiving data according to the videophone call, a portrait image capturing unit capturing a portrait image received from the calling party as a calling party portrait image if the portrait image registration determination unit determines that the portrait image of the calling party is not registered in the telephone directory, and a portrait image automatic registration unit registering automatically the portrait image captured in the portrait image capturing unit
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 1, 2007
    Date of Patent: July 24, 2012
    Assignee: Sony Mobile Communications Japan, Inc.
    Inventors: Yoshimitsu Funabashi, Keiko Hiraoka, Mayu Irimajiri, Atsushi Imai, Takamoto Tsuda, Takeshi Matsuzawa, Takeshi Tanigawa, Tomoharu Okamoto, Akihiko Adachi, Tatsuhiko Nishimura
  • Patent number: 8219071
    Abstract: An information acquisition section acquires application halfway information, user preference, updated date and time, real-timeness, usage frequency, usage history, radio wave state, remaining battery level, billing information or other information. A controller calculates recommendation values indicating recommended degrees to recommend the use to a user for each of a plurality of applications and for each of the contents of each of the applications, using the information that the information acquisition section acquired. Then, for example, when a specific button is pressed, the controller gives priorities to the plurality of applications and contents based on the recommendation values, causing the applications and contents to be displayed on a display of a display section 15 in the order of priority. Thus, of the various applications and contents, it makes it possible to select one that is more matched to the user preference and suitable for the terminal usage pattern.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 4, 2006
    Date of Patent: July 10, 2012
    Assignee: Sony Mobile Communications Japan, Inc.
    Inventors: Takeshi Kokubo, Naoki Kokubo, legal representative
  • Patent number: 8214564
    Abstract: A content transfer system composed of a content reproduction terminal and an information processing apparatus is disclosed. A storage section stores information representing a file format and a bit rate of content reproducible by the reproduction terminal. A transmission section transmits the information stored in the storage section to the information processing apparatus. An obtainment section obtains the information representing the file format and the bit rate of the content reproducible by the reproduction terminal therefrom. A conversion section converts content having a predetermined file format and a predetermined bit rate as a transfer target into content having the file format and the bit rate represented by the information obtained by the obtainment section. A transfer section transfers the content converted by the conversion section to the reproduction terminal.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 17, 2007
    Date of Patent: July 3, 2012
    Assignees: Sony Corporation, Sony Mobile Communications Japan, Inc.
    Inventors: Hidetaka Nasu, Toshihiro Morita
  • Patent number: 8208901
    Abstract: A mobile terminal apparatus checks if a user is a proper user based on the operation of the user and, if the result of authentication is negative, uploads predetermined data, which is part of data stored in a memory, to a predetermined server. After the transmission is completed, the mobile terminal apparatus erases the uploaded data from the memory. It is also possible to instruct the mobile terminal apparatus to upload and erase data from an external source using an electronic mail or a telephone tone signal sequence. This may protect data contained in mobile terminal apparatus that has been lost, from a person who improperly attempts to access the data.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 28, 2009
    Date of Patent: June 26, 2012
    Assignee: Sony Mobile Communications Japan, Inc.
    Inventor: Takeshi Kokubo