Patents by Inventor Akira Sakai

Akira Sakai 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: 20110199561
    Abstract: The present invention provides a liquid crystal display device which can ensure visibility and decrease coloring regardless of the direction of the screen, even if the screen is viewed through an optical member having a polarization function, such as polarized sunglasses. In at least one embodiment, a liquid crystal display device includes: a liquid crystal cell; and a first polarizing element disposed at an observation surface side of the liquid crystal cell, and the liquid crystal display device further includes a second polarizing element disposed at the observation surface side of the first polarizing element. It is preferable that the liquid crystal display device further includes a protective plate disposed between the first polarizing element and the second polarizing element.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 21, 2010
    Publication date: August 18, 2011
    Applicant: SHARP KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventors: Masahiro Hasegawa, Akira Sakai
  • Patent number: 7999893
    Abstract: The present invention provides a complex birefringent medium, which has the so-called inverse wavelength dispersibility, that is, a wavelength dispersibility capable of giving an optimum phase difference to a light of a wide visible wavelength range, has a wide viewing angle, can be produced by a convenient method and is excellent in a degree of adjusting freedom of inverse wavelength dispersibility and in mass productivity, a polarizing plate and a liquid crystal display device.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 1, 2007
    Date of Patent: August 16, 2011
    Assignee: Sharp Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Akira Sakai, Takayuki Natsume, Masahiro Hasegawa, Kazuhiko Tsuda, Nobuaki Yamada
  • Publication number: 20110181814
    Abstract: The present invention provides a liquid crystal display device that has a higher contrast ratio in a wide viewing angle and that can be easily produced at low cost.
    Type: Application
    Filed: April 1, 2011
    Publication date: July 28, 2011
    Applicant: Sharp Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventor: Akira Sakai
  • Publication number: 20110170041
    Abstract: The present invention provides a liquid crystal display device that can be easily produced and has a high contrast ratio in a wide viewing angle range.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 2, 2010
    Publication date: July 14, 2011
    Inventor: Akira Sakai
  • Patent number: 7961283
    Abstract: In order to improve the state of image irregularities of a liquid crystal panel, a plasma treatment is performed for an alignment film using a treatment gas such as hydrogen and/or deuterium, or a surface treatment is performed in which an alignment film is immersed in deuterium oxide. As a result, moisture contained in the alignment film is removed, and re-adsorption of moisture is also suppressed, thereby reducing image irregularities.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 14, 2010
    Date of Patent: June 14, 2011
    Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Akira Sakai, Nobuo Kawase
  • Patent number: 7950749
    Abstract: In a vehicle control apparatus, a hybrid ECU automatically stops and starts an engine if a predetermined condition is met while the vehicle is stopped. A brake ECU controls the braking force applied to wheels. A hybrid ECU controls the brake ECU so that braking force is applied to the wheels at the time of startup of the engine if while the vehicle is stopped, the vehicle run position is not selected as a shift position of the transmission. This restrains vibration of the vehicle at the time of startup of the engine.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 22, 2007
    Date of Patent: May 31, 2011
    Assignee: Toyota Jidosha Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventor: Akira Sakai
  • Patent number: 7948591
    Abstract: To provide a retardation film in which the retardation condition is adjusted to achieve a liquid crystal display without coloration over a wide viewing angle range and having a high contrast ratio, and a method of designing the same, as well as a polarizing film and a liquid crystal display using the same. A liquid crystal display comprising a liquid crystal cell and polarizing films in a Cross-Nicol relationship with each other on both sides of the liquid crystal cell; wherein at least one polarizing film includes a retardation film having reverse wavelength dispersion property; and the liquid crystal display further includes a retardation film having a wavelength dispersion property substantially the same as a liquid crystal layer configuring the liquid crystal cell.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 28, 2005
    Date of Patent: May 24, 2011
    Assignee: Sharp Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventor: Akira Sakai
  • Publication number: 20110109850
    Abstract: The present invention provides a liquid crystal display that can have both sufficient front contrast ratio and front white brightness. The present invention is a liquid crystal display including: a front polarizing plate; a liquid crystal cell; a back polarizing plate; and an optical element providing a polarizing effect, the components being arranged in the stated order, wherein the back polarizing plate has a higher transmittance than the front polarizing plate, the back polarizing plate has a lower contrast than the front polarizing plate, and the optical element providing a polarizing effect has a principal transmittance k1 of 80 to 86%, and a principal transmittance k2 of 2 to 8%.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 8, 2009
    Publication date: May 12, 2011
    Inventors: Masahiro Hasegawa, Akira Sakai, Ikuo Ninomiya
  • Publication number: 20110105710
    Abstract: An optical resin comprises a copolymer of 4-methyl-1-pentene and at least one monomer selected from the group consisting of 3-methyl-1-pentene, 3-methyl-1-butene and 4,4-dimethyl-1-pentene. The content of a constituent unit (a) derived from 4-methyl-1-pentene is equal to or more than 60 mol % and equal to or less than 99 mol %, and the total content of a constituent unit (b) derived from at least one monomer selected from the group consisting of 3-methyl-1-pentene, 3-methyl-1-butene and 4,4-dimethyl-1-pentene is equal to or more than 1 mol % and equal to or less than 40 mol %.
    Type: Application
    Filed: July 13, 2009
    Publication date: May 5, 2011
    Applicants: MITSUI CHEMICALS, INC., Sharp Corporation
    Inventors: Satoshi Kawamoto, Kouichi Kizu, Sunil Krzystof Moorthi, Akira Sakai
  • Patent number: 7933672
    Abstract: A shape detailing device includes a storage unit that stores therein an identifier of each structure in an electrical computer-aided design (CAD) system and an identifier of the structure in a mechanical CAD system associated with each other, and a converting unit that converts shape information of the structure created by the electrical CAD system into shape information for the mechanical CAD system based on the relation between the identifiers.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 29, 2007
    Date of Patent: April 26, 2011
    Assignee: Fujitsu Limited
    Inventors: Tsukasa Tenma, Yuichi Arita, Akira Sakai
  • Publication number: 20110090433
    Abstract: A TN liquid crystal display device (1) includes a polarizing plate (4a), a liquid crystal panel (100), and a polarizing plate (4b) in an order from a viewer side, in which absorption axes (4? and 4?) of the polarizing plates (4a and 4b) are set to be at an angle of approximately 45 degrees to respective rubbing directions (6a and 6b) of a first substrate (2a) and a second substrate (2b), and the absorption axes (4? and 4?) are arranged so as to be perpendicular to each other. Further, for example, a biaxial phase plate (5a) is provided at least between the substrate (2a) and the polarizing plate (4a) so that an in-plane slow axis (5?) is set to be at an angle of approximately 90 degrees to the absorption axis (4?) of the polarizing plate (4a). This configuration makes it possible to realize, at a low cost, a technique to concurrently improve (i) a viewing angle display characteristic and (ii) use efficiency of material members of the TN display liquid crystal display device.
    Type: Application
    Filed: April 7, 2009
    Publication date: April 21, 2011
    Inventors: Kazuyoshi Sakuragi, Nobuaki Yamada, Kazuhiko Tsuda, Akira Sakai
  • Publication number: 20110051062
    Abstract: The present invention provides a method for easily producing at low cost a liquid crystal display device which can achieve a higher contrast ratio in a wide viewing angle range, and a liquid crystal display device. The present invention relates to a method for producing a liquid crystal display device including a first polarizer, a first birefringent layer, a liquid crystal cell, a second birefringent layer, and a second polarizer in this order. The production method comprises at least one of the following first and second steps. The first step includes: laterally stretching a raw film for the first birefringent layer including a material with positive intrinsic birefringence to produce the first birefringent layer; and bonding the first polarizer and the first birefringent layer by roll-to-roll processing.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 30, 2008
    Publication date: March 3, 2011
    Inventor: Akira Sakai
  • Publication number: 20110051061
    Abstract: The present invention provides a transflective liquid crystal display device which is produced by a simple process with minimum increase in the production cost and which achieves both high-quality reflective display and transmissive display. The present invention relates to a vertical alignment transflective liquid crystal display device for transmissive display and reflective display. The display device includes: a back-side polarizer; a liquid crystal cell; a viewing-side polarizer; a first retardation layer; and a second retardation layer. The liquid crystal cell includes a pair of substrates and a liquid crystal layer disposed between the pair of substrates. The viewing-side polarizer has an absorption axis orthogonal to an absorption axis of the back-side polarizer. The first retardation layer is disposed between the liquid crystal layer and the viewing-side polarizer at a transmissive display region and a reflective display region, satisfies 1.5?Nz?9.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 25, 2008
    Publication date: March 3, 2011
    Inventors: Akira Sakai, Kazuhiko Tsuda
  • Publication number: 20110025966
    Abstract: The present invention provides a liquid crystal display device that has a higher contrast ratio in a wide viewing angle and that can be easily produced at low cost.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 9, 2009
    Publication date: February 3, 2011
    Inventor: Akira Sakai
  • Publication number: 20110006593
    Abstract: In a brake control apparatus (20) that controls braking forces which are applied to wheels based on the pressure of a brake fluid, when a hydraulic pressure actuator (40) controls the hydraulic pressure that is transferred to wheel cylinders (23) using the hydraulic pressure of the brake fluid in a power hydraulic pressure source (30), a brake ECU (70) closes a simulator cut valve (68) if the pressure of the brake fluid in the power hydraulic pressure source (30) falls below a predetermined value (Pssc) or if it is determined that the number of times the brake operation member (24) is operated within a predetermined value. In addition, the ECU (70) may change the timing for closing the simulator cut valve (68) based on the road surface condition estimated at the time of antilock control start. Thus, a driver is less likely to feel unusual brake feel when a braking control mode is changed.
    Type: Application
    Filed: February 26, 2009
    Publication date: January 13, 2011
    Applicant: Toyota Jidosha Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Akira Sakai, Shiro Monzaki, Mitsuo Fukuda, Eiji Nakamura
  • Publication number: 20110001912
    Abstract: A display device of at least one embodiment of the present invention includes a display panel; an optical plate placed on a viewer side of the display panel with the intervention of an air layer; and an antireflection layer placed on a viewer side of the optical plate, the antireflection layer having a motheye structure over its surface. The optical plate includes a plastic layer configured to transmit visible light, a quarter-wave layer placed on a viewer side of the plastic layer, and a polarizing layer placed on a viewer side of the quarter-wave layer, the polarizing layer being configured to transmit a linear polarization. The display device is more suitable to mobile applications than the conventional devices.
    Type: Application
    Filed: February 20, 2009
    Publication date: January 6, 2011
    Applicant: SHARP KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventors: Ikuo Ninomiya, Nobuaki Yamada, Kazuhiko Tsuda, Akira Sakai
  • Publication number: 20100318949
    Abstract: A non-transitory computer-readable recording medium stores therein a design support program that causes a computer capable of accessing a database, which stores therein respective starting point and ending point coordinates of line segments included in a wiring path of a circuit-under-test, to execute a process that includes dividing a layout area of the circuit-under-test, by a predetermined width, into a grid pattern to divide the layout area into plural mesh areas, using a predetermined coordinate within the layout area as an origin coordinate; determining whether a line segment selected from among the line segments in the database passes through a vertex of a mesh area obtained at the dividing; and outputting a determination result obtained at the determining.
    Type: Application
    Filed: May 31, 2010
    Publication date: December 16, 2010
    Applicant: FUJITSU LIMITED
    Inventors: Akio SAKAMOTO, Akira Sakai
  • Publication number: 20100296037
    Abstract: The present invention provides a liquid crystal display device having a high contrast ratio and no coloring during black display, over a wide viewing angle range. The liquid crystal display device of the present invention includes a reverse wavelength dispersion-type biaxial retardation film having R0(B)/R0(G) and Rth(B)/Rth(G) not greater than 0.965 and R0(R)/R0(G) and Rth(R)/Rth(G) not smaller than 1.015; and a vertical alignment liquid crystal cell that has a blue, a green, and a red color filter layer and that satisfies Rth_LC(B)/Rth_LC(G)?1.000 and Rth_LC(R)/Rth_LC(G)?1.000. R0(B), R0(G) and R0(R) denote the in-plane retardations of the retardation film at wavelengths 450 nm, 550 nm and 650 nm. Rth(B), Rth(G) and Rth(R), and Rth_LC(B), Rth_LC(G) and Rth_LC(R) respectively denote the thickness-direction retardations of the retardation film and the liquid crystal cell at wavelengths 450 nm, 550 nm and 650 nm.
    Type: Application
    Filed: November 19, 2008
    Publication date: November 25, 2010
    Inventors: Akira Sakai, Massahiro Hasegawa, Ikuo Ninomiya
  • Publication number: 20100289988
    Abstract: The present invention provides an LCD device that has a higher contrast ratio in a wide viewing angle and that can be easily produced at low cost. The present invention is a liquid crystal display device, including in the following order: a first polarizer; a first birefringent layer; a first quarter-wave plate; a liquid crystal cell; a second quarter-wave plate; a second birefringent layer; and a second polarizer having an absorption axis orthogonal to an absorption axis of the first polarizer, wherein the first birefringent layer satisfies Nz>0.
    Type: Application
    Filed: November 28, 2008
    Publication date: November 18, 2010
    Inventors: Akira Sakai, Kazuyoshi Sakuragi
  • Publication number: 20100271573
    Abstract: The present invention provides a liquid crystal display device comprising: a first polarizer; a second polarizer; a liquid crystal cell; a first birefringent layer; and a second birefringent layer, the second polarizer having an absorption axis orthogonal to an absorption axis of the first polarizer, the liquid crystal cell being disposed between the first polarizer and the second polarizer, the first birefringent layer being disposed between the first polarizer and the liquid crystal cell, satisfying 0.6?Nz(550)?6, and having an in-plane slow axis orthogonal to the absorption axis of the first polarizer, the second birefringent layer being disposed between the liquid crystal cell and the second polarizer, satisfying ?5?Nz(550)?0.4, and having an in-plane slow axis parallel to the absorption axis of the second polarizer, and at least one of the first and second birefringent layers satisfying |Rxy(450)|?|Rxy(550)|?|Rxy(650)|.
    Type: Application
    Filed: November 6, 2008
    Publication date: October 28, 2010
    Inventor: Akira Sakai