Patents Assigned to Sony
  • Patent number: 8399892
    Abstract: A display device includes, on a substrate, light emitting elements each formed by sequentially stacking a first electrode layer, an organic layer including a light emission layer, and a second electrode layer and arranged in first and second directions which cross each other, a drive circuit including drive elements that drive light emitting elements, and a wiring extending in the first direction, and an insulating layer disposed in a gap region sandwiched by the light emitting elements neighboring in the second direction and having a recess or a projection. The wiring is disposed in an overlap region overlapping with the recess or the projection in the insulating layer in a thickness direction, in the gap region, and the second electrode layers in the light emitting elements neighboring in the second direction are separated from each other by the recess or the projection in the insulating layer.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 14, 2011
    Date of Patent: March 19, 2013
    Assignee: Sony Corporation
    Inventor: Hiroshi Sagawa
  • Patent number: 8400392
    Abstract: Disclosed is a backlight control apparatus for controlling a backlight used in a liquid crystal display, the backlight having a lighting area that includes a plurality of blocks in each of which a backlight luminance is individually allowed to change. The apparatus includes a backlight control unit that calculates the backlight luminance of each block so that the absolute value of the difference between a backlight lighting ratio and 1 is at or below a first value, and controls the backlight so as to yield the calculated backlight luminances of the respective blocks, the backlight lighting ratio being the ratio between backlight set values of neighboring blocks.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 20, 2007
    Date of Patent: March 19, 2013
    Assignee: Sony Corporation
    Inventors: Kazuto Kimura, Masatake Hayashi, Tomio Aoki, Yoshihiro Katsu, Mitsuyasu Asano
  • Patent number: 8401596
    Abstract: A communication device is provided and includes: an electromagnetic-wave generating means for outputting an electromagnetic wave; and a transmitting/receiving means for transmitting data by modulating the electromagnetic wave in accordance with data as well as receiving data transmitted from the other device by demodulating the electromagnetic wave outputted by the electromagnetic-wave generating means or the electromagnetic wave outputted by the other device as the other party of communication, wherein the transmitting/receiving means transmits attribute information indicating communication ability of the device itself as well as receives attribute information indicating communication ability of the other device as the data, and the electromagnetic-wave generating means turns off the output of the electromagnetic wave for a given period of time after the transmission of the data based on the attribute information.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 24, 2009
    Date of Patent: March 19, 2013
    Assignee: Sony Corporation
    Inventor: Yoshihisa Takayama
  • Patent number: 8402332
    Abstract: Disclosed herein is a reception apparatus, including an acquisition section adapted to receive a signal which includes at least one of a first signal and a second signal which have different structures from each other except that the first and second signals have a preamble signal and acquire the preamble signal from the received signal; a detection section adapted to detect a value for correcting the signal using the signal; and a correction section adapted to correct, if it is decided based on the preamble signal acquired by the acquisition section that the signal is the first signal, the signal using the value detected by the detection section.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 7, 2010
    Date of Patent: March 19, 2013
    Assignee: Sony Corporation
    Inventors: Yuken Goto, Kenichi Kobayashi, Kentaro Nakahara
  • Patent number: 8401484
    Abstract: A wireless communication apparatus includes: a first wireless communication section performing wireless communication on the basis of a first communication mode; a second wireless communication section performing wireless communication on the basis of a second communication mode using a different frequency band from the first communication mode; a beam learning signal generation section generating a beam learning signal for specifying a beam pattern at the time of the communication based on the second communication mode and transmitting the beam learning signal from the second wireless communication section; a response information acquisition section acquiring response information responding to the transmitted beam learning signal; and a preliminary information generation section generating preliminary information so as not to cause interference among a plurality of wireless communications using the second communication mode on the basis of the response information and transmitting the preliminary information
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 24, 2010
    Date of Patent: March 19, 2013
    Assignee: Sony Corporation
    Inventors: Ryota Kimura, Ryo Sawai, Yuichi Morioka
  • Patent number: 8401365
    Abstract: Disclosed herein is a recording apparatus including: an input section configured to input or generate main data and added data thereof; and a recording control section configured such that when the main data and the added data input or generated by the input section have each reached a predetermined data amount, the recording control section temporarily stores the main data and the added data in units of the predetermined data amount, that when the sum of the temporarily stored data has reached a specific write data unit, the recording control section transfers the temporarily stored data to recording media for recording thereto, and that when the amount of the temporarily stored data is less than that of the specific write data unit upon elapse of a predetermined time period since the most recent recording, the recording control section transfers the temporarily stored data to the recording media for recording thereto.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 3, 2011
    Date of Patent: March 19, 2013
    Assignee: Sony Corporation
    Inventors: Masayuki Tamura, Tsutomu Shimosato, Masashi Kishikawa
  • Patent number: 8400056
    Abstract: A reflector capable of suppressing contrast reduction caused by retro-reflection, a display device having the same, and a method of manufacturing the same are provided. The reflector includes: a base having first and second surfaces which are opposed to each other, the second surface being provided with a reflective element; and a plurality of burying layers formed around the reflective element and including at least one light absorption burying layer.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 19, 2009
    Date of Patent: March 19, 2013
    Assignee: Sony Corporation
    Inventor: Eisaku Kato
  • Patent number: 8401062
    Abstract: A method, and corresponding modem, of transmitting data. The method including: modulating the data onto a plurality of carriers with different carrier frequencies, resulting in a transmission signal; notching predetermined frequency bands of the transmission signal, which predetermined frequency bands would otherwise disturb external transmissions; and boosting carriers that are adjacent to the predetermined frequency bands and that would be attenuated because of the notching.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 5, 2007
    Date of Patent: March 19, 2013
    Assignee: SONY Deutschland GmbH
    Inventors: Andreas Schwager, Dietmar Schill, Lothar Stadelmeier
  • Patent number: 8400382
    Abstract: A digital-to-analog converter circuit is configured to convert an m-bit digital signal into an analog signal. The circuit includes a bit voltage generator convert each bit of segmented n-bit units of the digital signal into a first voltage or a second voltage, first capacitors each configured to store the voltage for each bit output from the bit voltage generator, switches connected to the first capacitors, a second capacitor connected to the switches, an output unit configured to output the voltage stored in the second capacitor as an analog signal, and a control unit configured to control the switches, connect in parallel the first capacitors with the second capacitor, and adjust the voltage stored in the second capacitor.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 26, 2007
    Date of Patent: March 19, 2013
    Assignee: Sony Corporation
    Inventor: Fumio Meno
  • Patent number: 8400413
    Abstract: Disclosed herein is a display apparatus including: a display panel having a plurality of picture elements configured to execute display by driving a liquid crystal layer; a backlight configured to illuminate a display surface of the display panel from a backside; a photodetector arranged on the plurality of picture elements and configured to receive a light entered from the side of the display surface of the display panel; and a detection block configured to execute image recognition in the proximity of the display surface from a difference between a photodetection amount in the photodetector in a state where an illuminating light from the backlight is radiated from the display surface and a photodetection amount in the photodetector in a state where the illuminating light is blocked before the display surface.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 22, 2009
    Date of Patent: March 19, 2013
    Assignee: Sony Corporation
    Inventors: Natsuki Otani, Takayuki Nakanishi, Daisuke Takama
  • Patent number: 8401935
    Abstract: A contract manufacturer (CM) makes a consumer electronics (CE) device under the auspices of a brand name manufacturer (BNM) associated with the CE device, paying royalties immediately on licensable components in the CE device that are activated for sale and not paying royalties on licensable components in the CE device that are deactivated for sale. Should a purchaser subsequently activate an originally deactivated licensable component, the CM receives this information and pays royalties accordingly on the now-activated licensable component.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 28, 2011
    Date of Patent: March 19, 2013
    Assignee: Sony Corporation
    Inventors: Peter Shintani, Ludovic Etienne Douillet, Aran London Sadja
  • Patent number: 8400578
    Abstract: An optical film capable of improving luminance of a display unit, in which a viewing angle in the horizontal direction of emitted light of the display unit is wider than a viewing angle in the vertical direction and the emitted light of the display unit has a polarization component in the vertical direction viewable by polarized sunglasses, an illumination system including the same, and a display unit including the same are provided. The optical film includes a plurality of three-dimensional structures extending in one direction and arranged sequentially in a direction crossing the one direction. The three-dimensional structures contain a liquid crystalline polymer having orientation, and have refractive index anisotropy in which refractive index in the extending direction of the three-dimensional structures is smaller than refractive index in the direction crossing the extending direction of the three-dimensional structures.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 4, 2009
    Date of Patent: March 19, 2013
    Assignee: Sony Corporation
    Inventors: Kei Obata, Mitsunari Hoshi, Jun Shimizu
  • Patent number: 8399914
    Abstract: A solid-state imaging device includes a photoelectric conversion unit that includes a first region of a first conductivity type and a second region of a second conductivity type between which a pn junction is formed, the first region and the second region being formed in a signal-readout surface of a semiconductor substrate, the second region being located at a position deeper than the first region; and a transfer transistor configured to transfer signal charges accumulated in the photoelectric conversion unit to a readout drain through a channel region that lies under a surface of the first region and horizontally adjacent to the photoelectric conversion unit, the transfer transistor being formed in the signal-readout surface. The transfer transistor includes a transfer gate electrode that extends from above the channel region with a gate insulating film therebetween to above the first region so as to extend across a step.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 11, 2010
    Date of Patent: March 19, 2013
    Assignee: Sony Corporation
    Inventor: Keiji Mabuchi
  • Patent number: 8401071
    Abstract: An apparatus and method of performing YUV (or YCrCb) video compression prior to storage within a memory and decompression upon retrieval of the blocks from memory. Compression is performed utilizing a quantizer to compress video data to a desired overall compression ratio R, even though the luma and chroma contributions to compression can differ for each subblock, each preferably selected in response to texture estimation. Selections are made for each subblock to perform either linear or non-linear quantization during compression. Compression is performed without utilizing data from blocks outside of the block being compressed, wherein video blocks can be retrieved and decompressed in any desired order. In one implementation, an encoder non-sequentially selects blocks from memory which are then decompressed and encoded. The compression may be beneficially utilized in a number of different video transmission and storage applications without departing from the invention.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 15, 2008
    Date of Patent: March 19, 2013
    Assignees: Sony Corporation, Sony Electronics Inc.
    Inventors: Jeongnam Youn, Yuji Wada
  • Patent number: 8401245
    Abstract: An authentication apparatus includes a time-information storage unit configured to store a reference time used for authentication; a biometric-information storage unit configured to store biometric information used for authentication; a biometric-information obtaining unit configured to obtain biometric information of a person; a matching-score calculating unit configured to calculate a matching score representing a degree of similarity between the biometric information stored in the biometric-information storage unit and the obtained biometric information; a current-time obtaining unit configured to obtain a current time; a threshold setting unit configured to set a threshold used for authentication, on the basis of the obtained current time and the reference time stored in the time-information storage unit; and an authentication-result determining unit configured to determine success or failure of authentication regarding the obtained biometric information, on the basis of the calculated matching score and
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 17, 2008
    Date of Patent: March 19, 2013
    Assignee: Sony Corporation
    Inventor: Yasunari Hashimoto
  • Patent number: 8401090
    Abstract: A method of synchronizing the phase of a local image synchronization signal generator of a local video data processor in communication with an asynchronous switched packet network to the phase of a reference image synchronization signal generator of a reference video data processor also coupled to the network, the local and reference processors having respective clocks, the reference and local image synchronization signal generators generating periodic image synchronization signals in synchronism with the reference and local clocks respectively including: frequency synchronizing the local and reference clocks; sending an image timing packet providing reference image synchronization data indicating the difference in timing, measured with respect to the reference processor's clock, between the time at which the image timing packet is launched onto the network and the time of production of a reference image synchronization signal; and controlling the timing of the production of the local image synchronization si
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 29, 2011
    Date of Patent: March 19, 2013
    Assignee: Sony United Kingdom Limited
    Inventors: Matthew Compton, Clive Henry Gillard
  • Patent number: 8400460
    Abstract: The present invention is applied to a coding device and a decoding device for moving image data in compliance with, for example, an MPEG-4AVC/ITU-T H. 264 system, in which address data is issued to specify an area that is a plurality of read units in a horizontal direction and a vertical direction, respectively, and reference image data is stored in a cache memory.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 20, 2007
    Date of Patent: March 19, 2013
    Assignee: Sony Corporation
    Inventors: Hirofumi Morimoto, Tetsuo Kaneko
  • Patent number: 8402240
    Abstract: A device and method is provided for commonly and securely allowing, as access control on a memory card, a plurality of information processing apparatuses to lock/unlock the memory. On the basis of a lock command input from an information processing apparatus serving as a host, such as a PC, an information storage device, such as a memory card, determines whether (a) a standard lock key set serving as a key set prohibiting output or (b) an export lock key set serving as a key set permitting output is detected and stores corresponding key set information. Only when the export lock key set is detected, output is permitted provided that predetermined verification succeeds.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 5, 2009
    Date of Patent: March 19, 2013
    Assignee: Sony Corporation
    Inventors: Takumi Okaue, Kenichi Nakanishi, Jun Tashiro, Hideaki Okubo
  • Patent number: 8402489
    Abstract: To make it possible for a user to smoothly find content which satisfies the user's current taste without the need to carry out a troublesome input operation. Each of the content reproduction devices reproduces a content selected from among one or more reproduction object contents according to designation by the user. The content presentation assistance server analyzes, for every user attribute, relevance of one or more symbols relevant to each of the contents reproduced according to the designation of the user having that user attribute, and sends an analyzed result to the content reproduction used by the user having user attribute relevant to that analyzed result. Each of the content reproduction devices acquires, for the content, one or more relevant symbols, and displays content relevance information which describes the relevance of the reproduction object contents based on the symbols and the analyzed result.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 8, 2006
    Date of Patent: March 19, 2013
    Assignees: Sony Corporation, Sony Computer Entertainment, Inc.
    Inventors: Takayuki Ishida, Hirotoshi Maegawa
  • Patent number: D678229
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 31, 2011
    Date of Patent: March 19, 2013
    Assignee: Sony Corporation
    Inventor: Kentaro Shibukawa