Patents by Inventor Hirokazu SHIRADO

Hirokazu SHIRADO 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: 10105843
    Abstract: There is provided a robot device including a behavior plan unit that detects a current status of the robot device or an external environment and that decides one behavior plan of a plurality of behavior plan candidates as a future behavior plan, based on the current status, and a display control unit that decides one display pattern of a plurality of previously prepared display pattern candidates as display content to be displayed on a remote control device that remotely controls the robot device based on the decided behavior plan and that cause the remote control device to display the display pattern decided by the behavior plan unit.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 18, 2011
    Date of Patent: October 23, 2018
    Assignee: SONY CORPORATION
    Inventors: Hirokazu Shirado, Yasuhiro Suto, Takashi Kito, Akichika Tanaka, Kenichiro Nagasaka
  • Publication number: 20180286271
    Abstract: Described herein are embodiments of a method of influencing humans who interact in a network towards accomplishing a goal. The method may include configuring at least one computerized agent to interact with the humans in the network. Configuring the at least one computerized agent may include selecting a value associated with at least one parameter with which to configure the at least one computerized agent, wherein the value associated with the at least one parameter comprises a probability that affects how the at least one computerized agent acts at a time to influence the humans towards accomplishing the goal, wherein the probability affects how the at least one computerized agent acts by impacting whether the at least one agent at the time directly assists with performance of the goal at the time or at the time indirectly assists with the performance of the goal at the time.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 30, 2018
    Publication date: October 4, 2018
    Applicant: Yale University
    Inventors: Nicholas A. Christakis, Hirokazu Shirado
  • Patent number: 9044856
    Abstract: A robot apparatus includes a plurality of arm sections; a grasping-easiness calculation section configured to calculate an index value of grasping easiness quantitatively evaluating easiness of assuming a grasping posture for grasping an object or assuming a transition posture leading to the grasping posture for each of the plurality of arm sections; and an arm-section selection section configured to select an arm section to be used for actually grasping the object on the basis of the index value of the grasping easiness calculated for each of the arm sections.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 19, 2012
    Date of Patent: June 2, 2015
    Assignee: SONY CORPORATION
    Inventors: Kenichiro Nagasaka, Takashi Kito, Hirokazu Shirado, Atsushi Miyamoto
  • Patent number: 8972054
    Abstract: A robot apparatus, method and computer program storage device use a memory that stores cueing point information and user information to assist a user in an external environment. The cueing points are distributed within an environmental map held by the robot apparatus, and when the user is detected by the robot apparatus as approaching a predetermined region within the external environment classified as a cueing point, the robot apparatus reacts by providing a cue to the user. The cue may user-specific, or optionally provided based on a level of care required by the user.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 23, 2011
    Date of Patent: March 3, 2015
    Assignee: Sony Corporation
    Inventors: Hirokazu Shirado, Masakuni Nagano, Wataru Kokubo, Yoshiaki Iwai, Satoru Shimizu
  • Publication number: 20150046878
    Abstract: There is provided an information processing apparatus including a content information acquisition part configured to acquire pieces of content information extracted based on an extraction condition, and a display controller configured to cause content icons corresponding to the pieces of content information, respectively, to be displayed on a track placed around a region. In a first display stage, the display controller causes the content icons to be displayed sequentially on a first track in a manner that the content icons appear at a first point on the first track and disappear at a second point on the first track, the second point being different from the first point, and, in a second display stage, the display controller causes a predetermined number of the content icons corresponding to the pieces of content information, respectively, to be displayed on a second track.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 8, 2013
    Publication date: February 12, 2015
    Applicants: SONY ELECTRONICS INC., SONY CORPORATION
    Inventors: Yasuhiro SUTOU, Hiroaki KITANO, Hirokazu SHIRADO, Steven FRIEDLANDER, David YOUNG, Koichi OSHIMA, Yasuo SAKUMA
  • Publication number: 20140032281
    Abstract: A service through remote control of a robot operated in an everyday living space is suitably provided. A server of a service provider matches up a user and an operator on the basis of subjective evaluations on services received from the user and operational skill parameters received from the robot. The server selects operators to be assigned to the user for subsequent remote control services and performs scheduling of the operators to realize team building among the operators. The service provider also pays remuneration or reward to the operators.
    Type: Application
    Filed: February 20, 2012
    Publication date: January 30, 2014
    Applicant: SONY CORPORATION
    Inventors: Hirokazu Shirado, Akichika Tanaka, Toshimitsu Tsuboi, Yoshiaki Iwai
  • Publication number: 20120310411
    Abstract: Provided is a robot apparatus including actuators for driving joint shafts and measuring at least one of a joint angle and a joint angle speed of each of the joint shafts, and a central control part for controlling each of the actuators, wherein the central control part performs a periodic communication at predetermined control periods and the periodic communication includes transmitting a desired control value from the central control part to each of the actuators and transmitting a measured value from each of the actuators to the central control part, the central control part stops the periodic communication in response to an occurrence of an actuator that has failed to receive the measured value during a given period of time, and each of the actuators performs a safety stop in response to an event where the actuator has not received the desired control value during a given period of time.
    Type: Application
    Filed: May 8, 2012
    Publication date: December 6, 2012
    Applicant: Sony Corporation
    Inventors: Toshimitsu TSUBOI, Akichika Tanaka, Hirokazu Shirado, Yoshiaki Iwai, Atsushi Miyamoto
  • Publication number: 20110238211
    Abstract: There is provided a robot device including a behavior plan unit that detects a current status of the robot device or an external environment and that decides one behavior plan of a plurality of behavior plan candidates as a future behavior plan, based on the current status, and a display control unit that decides one display pattern of a plurality of previously prepared display pattern candidates as display content to be displayed on a remote control device that remotely controls the robot device based on the decided behavior plan and that cause the remote control device to display the display pattern decided by the behavior plan unit.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 18, 2011
    Publication date: September 29, 2011
    Applicant: Sony Corporation
    Inventors: Hirokazu Shirado, Yasuhiro Suto, Takashi Kito, Akichika Tanaka, Kenichiro Nagasaka
  • Publication number: 20110238212
    Abstract: A robot apparatus, method and computer program storage device use a memory that stores cueing point information and user information to assist a user in an external environment. The cueing points are distributed within an environmental map held by the robot apparatus, and when the user is detected by the robot apparatus as approaching a predetermined region within the external environment classified as a cueing point, the robot apparatus reacts by providing a cue to the user. The cue may user-specific, or optionally provided based on a level of care required by the user.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 23, 2011
    Publication date: September 29, 2011
    Applicant: Sony Corporation
    Inventors: Hirokazu SHIRADO, Masakuni NAGANO, Wataru KOKUBO, Yoshiaki IWAI, Satoru SHIMIZU
  • Publication number: 20110131064
    Abstract: There is provided an insurance company terminal which includes a communication unit that performs communication with a sales company terminal, a storage unit that stores an amount of insurance money settled when a user dies, a user information update unit that acquires a price of an article or service purchased by the user as a purchase price from the sales company terminal via the communication unit and causes the storage unit to store the purchase price, and a settlement processing unit that subtracts the purchase price from the amount of the insurance money stored by the storage unit.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 29, 2010
    Publication date: June 2, 2011
    Inventors: Hirokazu SHIRADO, Masaki FUKUCHI, Kunihito SAWAI
  • Publication number: 20100117978
    Abstract: A touching behavior recognition apparatus includes a contact point acquiring unit configured to acquire pressure information items and position information items in a plurality of contact points, a clustering unit configured to perform clustering on the contact points on the basis of information regarding pressure deviations and position deviations of the contact points based on the information items acquired by the contact point acquiring unit to form contact point groups each including contact points associated with each other as a touching behavior, and a touching behavior identifying unit configured to identify a touching behavior for each contact point group.
    Type: Application
    Filed: November 9, 2009
    Publication date: May 13, 2010
    Inventor: Hirokazu SHIRADO