Patents by Inventor Hirokazu Kubo

Hirokazu Kubo 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).

  • Patent number: 11900574
    Abstract: The image processing system includes a scanner, a pixelated photon detector (PPD), and at least one processor. The at least one processor displays a setting screen on a display unit. The setting screen is a screen for setting an identification range that is a range of gradation to be identified. The at least one processor displays a second image obtained by converting a first image on the display unit. The second image is an image obtained by converting the first image based on at least the identification range. The first image is generated based on an intensity signal of light detected by a PPD and a scanning position by the scanner.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 5, 2022
    Date of Patent: February 13, 2024
    Assignee: Evident Corporation
    Inventors: Kanako Isono, Hirokazu Kubo
  • Publication number: 20220335582
    Abstract: The image processing system includes a scanner, a pixelated photon detector (PPD), and at least one processor. The at least one processor displays a setting screen on a display unit. The setting screen is a screen for setting an identification range that is a range of gradation to be identified. The at least one processor displays a second image obtained by converting a first image on the display unit. The second image is an image obtained by converting the first image based on at least the identification range. The first image is generated based on an intensity signal of light detected by a PPD and a scanning position by the scanner.
    Type: Application
    Filed: July 5, 2022
    Publication date: October 20, 2022
    Applicant: OLYMPUS CORPORATION
    Inventors: Kanako ISONO, Hirokazu KUBO
  • Patent number: 10379328
    Abstract: A confocal scanner into which light from a light source is introduced via a multimode optical fiber includes: a disk unit that includes a rotary disk; and an optical system that irradiates the rotary disk with light from an emission end face of the optical fiber. The optical system includes an element that changes a size in which the emission end face of the optical fiber is projected onto the rotary disk.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 16, 2016
    Date of Patent: August 13, 2019
    Assignee: OLYMPUS CORPORATION
    Inventor: Hirokazu Kubo
  • Patent number: 10338366
    Abstract: A confocal scanner into which light from a light source is introduced via a multimode optical fiber includes: a disk unit that includes a rotary disk; and an optical system that irradiates the rotary disk with light from an emission end face of the optical fiber. The optical system includes an element that changes a size in which the emission end face of the optical fiber is projected onto the rotary disk.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 16, 2016
    Date of Patent: July 2, 2019
    Assignee: OLYMPUS CORPORATION
    Inventor: Hirokazu Kubo
  • Patent number: 10209504
    Abstract: Provided is a light detecting device including: a light path branching unit that branches a single detection light path of fluorescence from a specimen, into a plurality of branched light paths; a plurality of light detectors that are provided to the respective branched light paths branched by the light path branching unit and that include an SSPD or Geiger mode APD to detect the fluorescence; and a signal adder that generates a single image signal in accordance with the detection signals outputted from the plurality of light detectors.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 27, 2018
    Date of Patent: February 19, 2019
    Assignees: OLYMPUS CORPORATION, NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATIONS TECHNOLOGY, OSAKA UNIVERSITY, NATIONAL UNIVERSITY CORPORATION HOKKAIDO UNIVERSITY
    Inventors: Hirokazu Kubo, Shigehito Miki, Hirotaka Terai, Taro Yamashita, Tokuko Haraguchi, Yasushi Hiraoka, Masataka Kinjo
  • Publication number: 20180284413
    Abstract: Provided is a light detecting device including: a light path branching unit that branches a single detection light path of fluorescence from a specimen, into a plurality of branched light paths; a plurality of light detectors that are provided to the respective branched light paths branched by the light path branching unit and that include an SSPD or Geiger mode APD to detect the fluorescence; and a signal adder that generates a single image signal in accordance with the detection signals outputted from the plurality of light detectors.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 27, 2018
    Publication date: October 4, 2018
    Applicants: OLYMPUS CORPORATION, NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATIONS TECHNOLOGY, OSAKA UNIVERSITY, NATIONAL UNIVERSITY CORPORATION HOKKAIDO UNIVERSITY
    Inventors: Hirokazu KUBO, Shigehito MIKI, Hirotaka TERAI, Taro YAMASHITA, Tokuko HARAGUCHI, Yasushi HIRAOKA, Masataka KINJO
  • Patent number: 10067329
    Abstract: A microscope apparatus provided with: a disk unit obtained by integrally forming a pinhole array disk in which pinholes are arranged and a microlens array disk in which microlenses are arranged; a dichroic mirror focusing illumination light that has been transmitted through the microlenses of the disk unit, on the corresponding pinholes and splitting off fluorescence from a specimen that has passed through the pinholes in the reverse direction from the illumination light; an objective lens radiating the illumination light that has passed through the pinholes onto the specimen and focusing the fluorescence from the specimen on the pinholes; an illumination-light-axis adjustment mechanism adjusting the position and the angle of the optical axis of the illumination light; an installation-angle adjustment mechanism adjusting the installation angle of the disk unit; and a unit insertion/removal mechanism removably supporting the disk unit onto the optical axis of the illumination light.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 24, 2017
    Date of Patent: September 4, 2018
    Assignee: OLYMPUS CORPORATION
    Inventor: Hirokazu Kubo
  • Patent number: 10018822
    Abstract: By using a PPD as a detector, photon count loss is reduced to the utmost, and the incident light-intensity range in which light can be detected is widened. Provided is a laser microscope apparatus including an objective lens that collects return light from a specimen; a collimator lens that converts the return light collected by the objective lens into a substantially collimated beam, a PPD including a plurality of pixels that detect the return light converted to a substantially collimated beam by the collimator lens; and a controller that makes the beam diameter of the return light incident on the PPD substantially equal to an effective detection area of the PPD, formed by the plurality of pixels.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 27, 2015
    Date of Patent: July 10, 2018
    Assignee: OLYMPUS CORPORATION
    Inventor: Hirokazu Kubo
  • Publication number: 20180188518
    Abstract: A laser microscope apparatus including a light source that generates a laser light serving as excitation light; a mirror scanner that scans the laser light onto a specimen; an objective lens that radiates the laser light onto the specimen and that collects light from the specimen; a uniform-illumination element that causes the light from the specimen collected by the objective lens to have a substantially uniform intensity distribution; and a photodetector that detects the light uniformized by the uniform-illumination element in a Geiger mode and that has a detector including a plurality of detection elements, the detector outputting a sum of outputs from the plurality of detection elements as an intensity signal.
    Type: Application
    Filed: February 27, 2018
    Publication date: July 5, 2018
    Applicant: OLYMPUS CORPORATION
    Inventor: Hirokazu KUBO
  • Patent number: 10001632
    Abstract: A laser microscope apparatus including: a scanning unit that scans laser light on a sample; an objective lens that collects observation light from the sample; a photo-detection unit that has a light-receiving surface formed of an array of a plurality of detecting elements capable of detecting a single photon, that receives the observation light incident on the light-receiving surface, and that outputs intensity signals having intensities corresponding to the amounts of the received observation light; an image generating unit that generates an image on the basis of the intensities of the intensity signals and scanning positions of the laser light; a processor for notifying a user when the intensity signals used to generate the image include intensity signals having intensities equal to or larger than a predetermined threshold that is set according to the beam diameter of the observation light incident on the light-receiving surface.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 27, 2016
    Date of Patent: June 19, 2018
    Assignee: OLYMPUS CORPORATION
    Inventor: Hirokazu Kubo
  • Publication number: 20180113291
    Abstract: Provided is a laser microscope that includes a beam-scanning unit that scans a sample with a laser beam emitted from a laser light source; two or more photodetectors each formed of a superconducting nanowire single photon detector that detects a beam returning from the sample as a result of the scanning of the laser beam by the beam-scanning unit; and one cryocooler that cools the photodetectors. The photodetectors respectively detect beams that have passed through different channels.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 10, 2017
    Publication date: April 26, 2018
    Applicant: OLYMPUS CORPORATION
    Inventor: Hirokazu KUBO
  • Publication number: 20180012701
    Abstract: A method for producing an RFeB system sintered magnet according to the present invention includes: a process (S1) of preparing a lump of HDDR-treated raw material alloy that contains a polycrystalline substance including crystal grains having an average grain size of 1 ?m or less in terms of an equivalent circle diameter calculated from an electron micrograph image, by an HDDR treatment including steps of heating a lump of RFeB system alloy containing 26.5 to 29.5% by weight of the rare-earth element R, in a hydrogen atmosphere at a temperature between 700 and 1,000° C., and changing the atmosphere to vacuum while maintaining the temperature within a range from 750 to 900° C.; a process (S2) of preparing a lump of raw material alloy having a high rare-earth content by heating the lump of HDDR-treated raw material alloy at a temperature between 700 and 950° C.
    Type: Application
    Filed: January 8, 2016
    Publication date: January 11, 2018
    Applicant: INTERMETALLICS CO., LTD.
    Inventors: Masato SAGAWA, Yasuhiro UNE, Hirokazu KUBO, Satoshi SUGIMOTO, Masashi MATSUURA, Michihide NAKAMURA
  • Publication number: 20170336611
    Abstract: A microscope apparatus provided with: a disk unit obtained by integrally forming a pinhole array disk in which pinholes are arranged and a microlens array disk in which microlenses are arranged; a dichroic mirror focusing illumination light that has been transmitted through the microlenses of the disk unit, on the corresponding pinholes and splitting off fluorescence from a specimen that has passed through the pinholes in the reverse direction from the illumination light; an objective lens radiating the illumination light that has passed through the pinholes onto the specimen and focusing the fluorescence from the specimen on the pinholes; an illumination-light-axis adjustment mechanism adjusting the position and the angle of the optical axis of the illumination light; an installation-angle adjustment mechanism adjusting the installation angle of the disk unit; and a unit insertion/removal mechanism removably supporting the disk unit onto the optical axis of the illumination light.
    Type: Application
    Filed: April 24, 2017
    Publication date: November 23, 2017
    Applicant: OLYMPUS CORPORATION
    Inventor: Hirokazu KUBO
  • Publication number: 20170278604
    Abstract: An RFeB system sintered magnet which does not contain a heavy rare-earth element RH (Dy, Tb and Ho) in a practically effective amount and yet is suited for applications in which the magnet undergoes a temperature increase during its use. The RFeB system sintered magnet contains at least one element selected from the group consisting of Nd and Pr as a rare-earth element R in addition to Fe and B while containing none of Dy, Tb and Ho, the magnet having a temperature characteristic value t(100-23) which satisfies ?0.58<t(100-23)<0, where t(100-23) is defined by the following equation: t ( 100 - 23 ) = H cj ? ( 100 ) - H cj ? ( 23 ) ( 100 - 23 ) × H cj ? ( 23 ) × 100 using Hcj(23) which is the value of the coercivity at a temperature of 23° C. and Hcj(100) which is the value of the coercivity at a temperature of 100° C.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 18, 2015
    Publication date: September 28, 2017
    Applicant: INTERMETALLICS CO., LTD.
    Inventors: Yasuhiro UNE, Hirokazu KUBO, Masato SAGAWA, Satoshi SUGIMOTO, Masashi MATSUURA, Michihide NAKAMURA
  • Publication number: 20170153433
    Abstract: A confocal scanner into which light from a light source is introduced via a multimode optical fiber includes: a disk unit that includes a rotary disk; and an optical system that irradiates the rotary disk with light from an emission end face of the optical fiber. The optical system includes an element that changes a size in which the emission end face of the optical fiber is projected onto the rotary disk.
    Type: Application
    Filed: November 16, 2016
    Publication date: June 1, 2017
    Applicant: OLYMPUS CORPORATION
    Inventor: Hirokazu KUBO
  • Publication number: 20160231547
    Abstract: A laser microscope apparatus including: a scanning unit that scans laser light on a sample; an objective lens that collects observation light from the sample; a photo-detection unit that has a light-receiving surface formed of an array of a plurality of detecting elements capable of detecting a single photon, that receives the observation light incident on the light-receiving surface, and that outputs intensity signals having intensities corresponding to the amounts of the received observation light; an image generating unit that generates an image on the basis of the intensities of the intensity signals and scanning positions of the laser light; a processor for notifying a user when the intensity signals used to generate the image include intensity signals having intensities equal to or larger than a predetermined threshold that is set according to the beam diameter of the observation light incident on the light-receiving surface.
    Type: Application
    Filed: January 27, 2016
    Publication date: August 11, 2016
    Applicant: OLYMPUS CORPORATION
    Inventor: Hirokazu KUBO
  • Patent number: 9356413
    Abstract: Provided is a laser source apparatus including a single laser source that emits an ultrashort-pulse laser beam; a wavelength conversion mechanism that generates a plurality of pulsed laser beams having different wavelengths by converting at least a part of wavelength of the ultrashort-pulse laser beam; a dispersion adjusting section that adjusts the amount of frequency dispersion for each of the pulsed laser beams; and an introducing optics that emits the plurality of pulsed laser beams whose frequency dispersion amounts are adjusted by the dispersion adjusting section. The dispersion adjusting section adjusts the amount of frequency dispersion for each of the pulsed laser beams so that each of the pulsed laser beams introduced to the irradiation optics of the optical apparatus from the introducing optics to excite a specimen is close to a substantially Fourier-transform-limited pulse.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 24, 2012
    Date of Patent: May 31, 2016
    Assignee: OLYMPUS CORPORATION
    Inventor: Hirokazu Kubo
  • Publication number: 20160027564
    Abstract: A method for producing an RFeB system sintered magnet with the main phase grains having a grain size of 1 ?m or less with a considerably equal grain size, including: preparing a shaped body oriented by a magnetic field and sintering the shaped body, wherein the shaped body is prepared using an alloy powder of an RFeB material having a particle size distribution with an average value of 1 ?m or less in terms of a circle-equivalent diameter determined from a microscope image, the alloy powder obtained by pulverizing coarse particles having fine crystal grain, each coarse particle having grains of the RFeB material formed inside, the crystal grains having a crystal grain size distribution with an average value of 1 ?m or less in terms of the circle-equivalent diameter determined from a microscope image, and 90% by area or more of the crystal grains being separated from each other.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 12, 2014
    Publication date: January 28, 2016
    Applicant: INTERMETALLICS CO., LTD.
    Inventors: Yasuhiro UNE, Hirokazu KUBO, Masato SAGAWA, Satoshi SUGIMOTO, Masashi MATSUURA, Michihide NAKAMURA
  • Publication number: 20150362715
    Abstract: By using a PPD as a detector, photon count loss is reduced to the utmost, and the incident light-intensity range in which light can be detected is widened. Provided is a laser microscope apparatus including an objective lens that collects return light from a specimen; a collimator lens that converts the return light collected by the objective lens into a substantially collimated beam, a PPD including a plurality of pixels that detect the return light converted to a substantially collimated beam by the collimator lens; and a controller that makes the beam diameter of the return light incident on the PPD substantially equal to an effective detection area of the PPD, formed by the plurality of pixels.
    Type: Application
    Filed: May 27, 2015
    Publication date: December 17, 2015
    Applicant: OLYMPUS CORPORATION
    Inventor: Hirokazu KUBO
  • Patent number: 8294985
    Abstract: Observation is performed using bright, clear multiphoton fluorescence images produced by efficiently generating a multiphoton excitation effect, without the need for a complex interference film structure. The invention employs a laser microscope apparatus including a first dichroic mirror that reflects visible laser light guided via a first light path and that transmits IR pulsed laser light guided via a second light path to combine the first light path and the second light path; an XY galvanometer mirror that scans the laser light from the first dichroic mirror on a specimen; an objective lens that irradiates the specimen with the scanned laser light and that collects fluorescence produced in the specimen; a second dichroic mirror that reflects the visible laser light and transmits the fluorescence from the specimen; and a detection unit that detects the fluorescence transmitted through the second dichroic mirror.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 29, 2009
    Date of Patent: October 23, 2012
    Assignee: Olympus Corporation
    Inventors: Hiroshi Sasaki, Hirokazu Kubo