Patents by Inventor Akira Hirai

Akira Hirai 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).

  • Publication number: 20210341789
    Abstract: The present invention provides a liquid crystal display device including: a liquid crystal panel including a viewing surface side substrate, a liquid crystal layer, and a back surface side substrate; and a backlight including a reflector facing the back surface side substrate, wherein the liquid crystal panel in a plan view includes multiple pixel regions and a non-display region between the pixel regions, in the pixel regions, color filters are disposed, in the non-display region, a gate electrode layer, a source-drain electrode layer, and a semiconductor layer are disposed, the back surface side substrate includes a reflective surface facing the backlight in at least part of the non-display region, and the reflective surface is constituted by a metal material having a higher reflectance than a metal material contained in portions of the source-drain electrode layer that are connected to the semiconductor layer.
    Type: Application
    Filed: July 16, 2021
    Publication date: November 4, 2021
    Inventors: Akira HIRAI, Kiyoshi MINOURA, Yasuhiro HASEBA, Akira SAKAI
  • Publication number: 20210287616
    Abstract: A liquid crystal panel for display that displays an image by controlling transmission of the light emitted from the illumination device, in which the illumination device includes a light source, and a liquid crystal panel for dimming which is disposed closer to the liquid crystal panel for display than the light source, and the liquid crystal, panel for dimming includes a signal line, and a reflection layer that is disposed closer to the light source than the signal line in at least a part of a region overlapping the signal line in plan view, and has a higher average luminous reflectance in a visible wavelength region of 400 nm or more and 700 nm or less than the signal line.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 11, 2021
    Publication date: September 16, 2021
    Inventors: YUICHI KAWAHIRA, AKIRA HIRAI, AKIRA SAKAI, KIYOSHI MINOURA
  • Publication number: 20210161286
    Abstract: A silver-sterilizing sponge tooth brushing appliance, a silver-sterilizing toothbrush, and a method of manufacturing the same are provided. More particularly, a silver-sterilizing sponge tooth brushing appliance containing one or two or more particles selected from talc particles, ceramic particles, and inorganic mineral particles, which have an sintered silver-containing surface layer, a silver-sterilizing toothbrush, and a method of manufacturing the same. The silver-sterilizing sponge tooth brushing appliance and the silver-sterilizing toothbrush have an excellent sterilizing effect.
    Type: Application
    Filed: February 17, 2020
    Publication date: June 3, 2021
    Inventor: Akira HIRAI
  • Patent number: 11022853
    Abstract: The present invention relates to a display panel including on a viewing surface side thereof a thin film transistor substrate. The thin film transistor substrate includes a multilayer film in a region in a plan view including at least one electrode of thin film transistor electrodes including a gate electrode, a source electrode, and a drain electrode. The multilayer film includes a stack including, in the order from the viewing surface side, a first metal layer having a thickness of 40 nm or smaller, a first transparent insulating layer having a thickness of 10 nm or greater and 155 nm or smaller, and a second metal layer having a greater thickness than the first metal layer. The multilayer film includes a layer formed from a metal having a reflectance at a thickness of 200 nm of 50% or lower.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 7, 2019
    Date of Patent: June 1, 2021
    Assignee: SHARP KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventors: Akira Hirai, Kiyoshi Minoura, Hiromi Matsumoto, Akira Sakai, Yasuhiro Haseba
  • Patent number: 11005157
    Abstract: A liquid crystal cell including antenna units includes a TFT substrate, a slot substrate, an acidic group-containing orientation film, a liquid crystal layer, and a sealant. The TFT substrate includes a first dielectric substrate, TFTs supported by the first dielectric substrate, and patch electrodes electrically connected to the TFTs. The slot substrate includes a second dielectric substrate and a slot electrode supported by the second dielectric substrate and including slots. The acidic group-containing orientation film on a surface of one of the TFT substrate and the slot substrate contains a polymer having an acidic group. The liquid crystal layer is interposed between the TFT substrate and the slot substrate in which the patch electrodes and the slot electrode are opposed to each other to constitute the antenna units. The sealant surrounds the liquid crystal layer and is interposed between the TFT substrate and the slot substrate.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 19, 2019
    Date of Patent: May 11, 2021
    Assignee: SHARP KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventor: Akira Hirai
  • Patent number: 10940664
    Abstract: Disclosed is an antibacterial product including at least one antibacterial part, wherein the antibacterial part includes a surface layer containing silver sintered under a nitrogen atmosphere or silver oxide sintered under an oxygen atmosphere. The antibacterial product prevents the proliferation of bacteria arising due to use thereof, kills bacteria, sterilizes and purifies contaminated water, and exhibits an antibacterial effect against harmful bacteria within at most 6 hr, and preferably an early antibacterial effect within 3 hr, especially 2 hr.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 13, 2019
    Date of Patent: March 9, 2021
    Inventors: Akiko Hirai, Akira Hirai
  • Patent number: 10936332
    Abstract: A non-transitory storage medium storing a program that causes a computer to execute a process, the process includes detecting connection relationship between a server and a communication device that belong to a system to generate physical connection information indicating the connection relationship; referring to design information related to connection of the server and the communication device to compare the physical connection information and the design information to determine presence or absence of an error in the connection relationship; determining whether a predetermined setting corresponding to the design information is applicable to a port of the communication device corresponding to the connection relationship determined as erroneous; applying the predetermined setting to the port of the communication device to which the predetermined setting has been determined as applicable; and changing the design information related to the communication device to which the predetermined setting has been applied
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 27, 2019
    Date of Patent: March 2, 2021
    Assignee: FUJITSU LIMITED
    Inventor: Akira Hirai
  • Publication number: 20200375894
    Abstract: The present invention relates to an anti-bacterial food additive and anti-bacterial food including the same, and more particularly, to an anti-bacterial food additive which includes a sintered silver-containing surface layer disposed on a base for a food additive, wherein the sintered silver includes silver sintered in a nitrogen atmosphere or silver oxide sintered in an oxygen atmosphere. In addition, anti-bacterial food including the anti-bacterial food additive has an excellent anti-bacterial effect.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 22, 2019
    Publication date: December 3, 2020
    Inventor: Akira Hirai
  • Publication number: 20200379282
    Abstract: A photo-aligning exposure device that performs a photo-aligning process by performing scanning exposure on an irradiated plane in one direction includes: a light source that emits scattering light toward the irradiated plane; an optical filter that selectively emits an ultraviolet ray out of the light emitted from the light source; and an irradiation angle restriction member that selectively emits light with which irradiation is diagonally performed with respect to the scanning direction out of the light emitted from the optical filter. The irradiation angle restriction member has a plurality of flat-plate-shaped light direction restriction plates slanted at a certain angle with respect to the irradiated plane and arrayed in parallel along the scanning direction at a predetermined distance.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 6, 2018
    Publication date: December 3, 2020
    Applicants: V TECHNOLOGY CO., LTD., SHARP KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventors: Yuji Yoshida, Satoshi Ikeda, Toshinari Arai, Isamu Miyake, Takashi Katayama, Akira Hirai
  • Patent number: 10770486
    Abstract: A method of producing a liquid crystal cell includes: a thin-film forming step of forming, on a surface of one electrode-attached substrates including a TFT substrate and a slot substrate, the TFT substrate including a first dielectric substrate, TFTs, and patch electrodes electrically connected to the TFTs, the slot substrate including a second dielectric substrate and a slot electrode supported on the second dielectric substrate and having slots, a thin film so as to cover the patch electrodes and/or the slot electrode; and a light irradiating step of irradiating the thin film with light including p-polarized light to provide the thin film with alignment-regulating capability of aligning liquid crystal molecules to thereby obtain an alignment film. The thin film includes a polymer including a photoreactive functional group and exhibiting the alignment-regulating capability of the thin film in a direction orthogonal to a polarization axis of the p-polarized light.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 2, 2017
    Date of Patent: September 8, 2020
    Assignee: SHARP KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventors: Takashi Katayama, Isamu Miyake, Akira Hirai, Kei Shinada
  • Publication number: 20200064683
    Abstract: The present invention relates to a display panel including on a viewing surface side thereof a thin film transistor substrate. The thin film transistor substrate includes a multilayer film in a region in a plan view including at least one electrode of thin film transistor electrodes including a gate electrode, a source electrode, and a drain electrode. The multilayer film includes a stack including, in the order from the viewing surface side, a first metal layer having a thickness of 40 nm or smaller, a first transparent insulating layer having a thickness of 10 nm or greater and 155 nm or smaller, and a second metal layer having a greater thickness than the first metal layer. The multilayer film includes a layer formed from a metal having a reflectance at a thickness of 200 nm of 50% or lower.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 7, 2019
    Publication date: February 27, 2020
    Inventors: Akira HIRAI, Kiyoshi MINOURA, Hiromi MATSUMOTO, Akira SAKAI, Yasuhiro HASEBA
  • Publication number: 20200064692
    Abstract: The present invention provides a liquid crystal display device including: a liquid crystal panel including a viewing surface side substrate, a liquid crystal layer, and a back surface side substrate; and a backlight including a reflector facing the back surface side substrate, wherein the liquid crystal panel in a plan view includes multiple pixel regions and a non-display region between the pixel regions, in the pixel regions, color filters are disposed, in the non-display region, a gate electrode layer, a source-drain electrode layer, and a semiconductor layer are disposed, the back surface side substrate includes a reflective surface facing the backlight in at least part of the non-display region, and the reflective surface is constituted by a metal material having a higher reflectance than a metal material contained in portions of the source-drain electrode layer that are connected to the semiconductor layer.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 21, 2019
    Publication date: February 27, 2020
    Inventors: Akira HIRAI, Kiyoshi MINOURA, Yasuhiro HASEBA, Akira SAKAI
  • Publication number: 20200043957
    Abstract: A method of producing a liquid crystal cell includes: a thin-film forming step of forming, on a surface of electrode-attached substrates including a TFT substrate and a slot substrate, the TFT substrate including a first dielectric substrate, TFTs, and patch electrodes electrically connected to the TFTs, the slot substrate including a second dielectric substrate and a slot electrode supported on the second dielectric substrate and having slots, a thin film so as to cover the patch electrodes and/or the slot electrode; and a light irradiating step of irradiating the thin film with light including p-polarized light to provide the thin film with alignment-regulating capability of aligning liquid crystal molecules to thereby obtain an alignment film. The thin film includes a polymer including a photoreactive functional group and exhibiting the alignment-regulating capability of the thin film in a direction orthogonal to a polarization axis of the p-polarized light.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 2, 2017
    Publication date: February 6, 2020
    Inventors: Takashi KATAYAMA, Isamu MIYAKE, Akira HIRAI, Kei SHINADA
  • Publication number: 20200044307
    Abstract: A liquid crystal cell including antenna units includes a TFT substrate, a slot substrate, an acidic group-containing orientation film, a liquid crystal layer, and a sealant. The TFT substrate includes a first dielectric substrate, TFTs supported by the first dielectric substrate, and patch electrodes electrically connected to the TFTs. The slot substrate includes a second dielectric substrate and a slot electrode supported by the second dielectric substrate and including slots. The acidic group-containing orientation film on a surface of one of the TFT substrate and the slot substrate contains a polymer having an acidic group. The liquid crystal layer is interposed between the TFT substrate and the slot substrate in which the patch electrodes and the slot electrode are opposed to each other to constitute the antenna units. The sealant surrounds the liquid crystal layer and is interposed between the TFT substrate and the slot substrate.
    Type: Application
    Filed: July 19, 2019
    Publication date: February 6, 2020
    Inventor: AKIRA HIRAI
  • Publication number: 20200002196
    Abstract: Disclosed is an antibacterial product including at least one antibacterial part, wherein the antibacterial part includes a surface layer containing silver sintered under a nitrogen atmosphere or silver oxide sintered under an oxygen atmosphere. The antibacterial product prevents the proliferation of bacteria arising due to use thereof, kills bacteria, sterilizes and purifies contaminated water, and exhibits an antibacterial effect against harmful bacteria within at most 6 hr, and preferably an early antibacterial effect within 3 hr, especially 2 hr.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 13, 2019
    Publication date: January 2, 2020
    Inventors: Akiko HIRAI, Akira HIRAI
  • Patent number: 10425031
    Abstract: In a motor driver of the present invention, voltage and current values measured by a voltage and current detector and a voltage value measured by a voltage detector are determined as first measurement results, in the state of turning on semiconductor switching elements connected between a positive terminal of a capacitor and motor coils. Voltage and current values measured by the voltage and current detector and a voltage value measured by the voltage detector are determined as second measurement results, in the state of, as to a group A, turning on a semiconductor switching element connected between the positive terminal of the capacitor and the motor coil, and as to a group B, turning on semiconductor switching elements connected between a negative terminal of the capacitor and the motor coil. The insulation resistance values are calculated between the motor coils of each group A or B and a ground.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 26, 2017
    Date of Patent: September 24, 2019
    Assignee: FANUC CORPORATION
    Inventors: Hiroyasu Satou, Masaya Tateda, Youichirou Ooi, Akira Hirai, Kiichi Inaba
  • Publication number: 20190196844
    Abstract: A non-transitory storage medium storing a program that causes a computer to execute a process, the process includes detecting connection relationship between a server and a communication device that belong to a system to generate physical connection information indicating the connection relationship; referring to design information related to connection of the server and the communication device to compare the physical connection information and the design information to determine presence or absence of an error in the connection relationship; determining whether a predetermined setting corresponding to the design information is applicable to a port of the communication device corresponding to the connection relationship determined as erroneous; applying the predetermined setting to the port of the communication device to which the predetermined setting has been determined as applicable; and changing the design information related to the communication device to which the predetermined setting has been applied
    Type: Application
    Filed: February 27, 2019
    Publication date: June 27, 2019
    Applicant: FUJITSU LIMITED
    Inventor: Akira Hirai
  • Publication number: 20190113812
    Abstract: A method for producing a liquid crystal panel of the present invention is a method for producing a liquid crystal panel including paired substrates, a liquid crystal layer between the substrates, and a horizontal photo-alignment film between at least one of the substrates and the liquid crystal layer, the method including the steps of: forming a film containing a polymer having a specific structure on a surface of at least one of the substrates; and irradiating the film with S-polarized light from a direction oblique to the normal to the substrate surface to perform an alignment treatment on the film and thereby form a horizontal photo-alignment film, wherein the horizontal photo-alignment, film aligns liquid crystal molecules perpendicularly to the polarization direction of light applied from the substrate normal.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 23, 2017
    Publication date: April 18, 2019
    Inventors: ISAMU MIYAKE, AKIRA HIRAI
  • Patent number: 10218910
    Abstract: An apparatus includes: an element that receives subject light from a subject to generate image data; a section that generates a recording image to be recorded on a recording medium from the image data when a first mode is set; a section that generates a second display image, which allows display of a live-view image, from the image data when a second mode is set, and that generates a first display image, which allows display of an image identical to the recording image, from the image data when the first mode is set; a section that sequentially displays the first display image or the second display image; a section that detects a specific state of the apparatus that obstructs recording of an imaging object onto the recording image; and a section that controls switching between the first mode and the second mode on the basis of the detection results.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 3, 2014
    Date of Patent: February 26, 2019
    Assignee: SONY CORPORATION
    Inventors: Akira Hirai, Akira Fukuda, Takuya Higuchi, Satoshi Takada, Tsuyoshi Harata
  • Patent number: 9996205
    Abstract: In a flexible touch screen panel, sensing patterns as a touch sensor are formed on the first surface of a flexible thin film substrate and a coated polarizer layer is formed on the second surface of the thin film substrate to secure the flexible characteristic, to reduce the thickness of the touch screen panel, and to improve the visibility of an image. Particularly, the flexible touch screen panel includes a flexible substrate comprising an active region and a non-active region positioned outside the active region, sensing patterns formed over the active region of a first surface of the substrate, conductive lines formed over the non-active region of the first surface of the substrate and connected to the sensing patterns, and a coated polarizer layer formed over a second surface of the substrate.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 18, 2016
    Date of Patent: June 12, 2018
    Assignee: Samsung Display Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Sung-Ku Kang, Tae-Hyeog Jung, Hak-Sun Kim, Akira Hirai