Patents by Inventor Hirokazu Takenaka

Hirokazu Takenaka 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: 11914039
    Abstract: A range finding device includes a light-emitting unit including light-emitting regions; an optical element to guide light emitted from the light-emitting unit; a light-receiving unit including light receiving regions to receive light reflected from an object; and circuitry to control light emission amount of the light-emitting regions; measure an amount of light received at the light receiving regions; measure a distance to the object by measuring a time difference between a start time when the light is emitted from the light-emitting unit and a time when the light reflected from the object is received by the light receiving regions; cause the light-emitting regions to emit the same light amount as a preliminary light emission stage; control the light emission amount of the light-emitting regions for a main light emission stage based on the amount of light measured at the preliminary light emission stage; and measure the distance to the object.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 16, 2020
    Date of Patent: February 27, 2024
    Assignee: RICOH COMPANY, LTD.
    Inventors: Norikatsu Niinami, Hirokazu Takenaka
  • Patent number: 11703592
    Abstract: A distance measurement apparatus includes: a light projector; a sensor to receive light projected from the light projector and reflected from a target object, photoelectrically convert the received light to an electrical signal, and obtain a plurality of phase signals from the electrical signal; and an interface to output distance data indicating a distance to the target object, the distance data being obtained based on the plurality of phase signals. The light projector includes: a plurality of light emitters that are arranged two-dimensionally; and circuitry configured to cause the plurality of light emitters to emit light a plurality of times while shifting positions of the plurality of light emitters.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 3, 2020
    Date of Patent: July 18, 2023
    Assignee: Ricoh Company, Ltd.
    Inventor: Hirokazu Takenaka
  • Publication number: 20230048328
    Abstract: A distance-measuring apparatus includes a light emitter to emit light with modulated frequency to an object, a light receiver to receive the light that is emitted from the light emitter and returns as reflected by the object, and a controller to measure, based on radiation intensity of received light by the light receiver, a length of time between a time at which the light is emitted by the light emitter and a time at which the light is received by the light receiver to obtain a distance to the object. The controller performs a first measurement in which the light emitter emits the light at a first modulation frequency to measure the length of time by the time at which the light is received by the light receiver a first plurality of times.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 9, 2021
    Publication date: February 16, 2023
    Inventor: Hirokazu TAKENAKA
  • Patent number: 11390007
    Abstract: A front panel for on-board liquid crystal displays has a high hardness resin composition (B) on at least one side of a layer containing a resin (A) having a polycarbonate resin (a1). The front panel satisfies the following conditions (i) to (iv): (i) the thickness of the layer containing a high hardness resin composition (B) is 10 to 250 ?m, and the total thickness of the layer containing a resin (A) comprising a polycarbonate resin (a1) and the layer containing a high hardness resin composition (B) is 100 to 3,000 ?m; (ii) the high hardness resin composition (B) consists of any one of specific resin compositions (B1) to (B3); (iii) the retardation of the front panel is 3,000 nm or more; and (iv) the standard deviation of the second derivative of the irregular shape of the hard coat layer having irregularities is 0.1 or more.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 14, 2020
    Date of Patent: July 19, 2022
    Assignees: MITSUBISHI GAS CHEMICAL COMPANY, INC., MGC FILSHEET CO., LTD.
    Inventors: Hirokazu Takenaka, Yasuo Oose, Takuya Goto
  • Patent number: 11281087
    Abstract: An imaging device (1a, 1b, 1c, 1d, 1e, 1f) includes at least one imager (Cam0, Cam1, Cam2, Cam3, Cam4, Cam5, Cam6, Cam7) including an imaging element (210, 212) configured to receive light incident through a lens (240); and a casing (10a, 10b, 10c 10d 10e, 10f) at which at least four of the imagers are arranged, the casing being configured such that each one of the imagers and another one of the imagers have optical axes substantially parallel to each other and have opposite incident directions of light on the optical axes, and each one of the imagers is arranged outside imagable ranges of the other imagers.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 6, 2019
    Date of Patent: March 22, 2022
    Assignee: RICOH COMPANY, LTD.
    Inventor: Hirokazu Takenaka
  • Patent number: 11049215
    Abstract: An image capturing apparatus includes a tilt detection unit that detects a tilt in the vertical direction, conversion data used for transforming plane coordinates into spherical coordinates, a correction unit that corrects the conversion data according to the tilt, a plurality of image capturing units, a coordinate transformation unit that transforms plane coordinates of a plurality of pixels included in images captured by the image capturing units into spherical coordinates according to the conversion data corrected by the correction unit, and a combining unit that combines the images including the pixels transformed into spherical coordinates by the coordinate transformation unit.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 6, 2017
    Date of Patent: June 29, 2021
    Assignee: RICOH COMPANY, LTD.
    Inventors: Hirokazu Takenaka, Yoshiaki Irino, Tomonori Tanaka, Nozomi Imae, Hideaki Yamamoto, Kensuke Masuda, Yoichi Ito, Satoshi Sawaguchi, Daisuke Bessho, Hiroyuki Satoh, Makoto Shohara, Noriyuki Terao, Toru Harada
  • Patent number: 11039120
    Abstract: An imaging apparatus includes a plurality of imaging bodies and an imaging control unit. Each of the imaging bodies includes a first optical element capable of imaging a range including a hemisphere that is centered at an optical axis and oriented in a first direction of the optical axis, and a second optical element capable of imaging a range including a hemisphere that is centered at the optical axis and oriented in a second direction opposite to the first direction. The imaging bodies are arrayed in a direction perpendicular to the optical axis. The imaging control unit causes the plurality of imaging bodies to perform imaging in a synchronous manner, and acquires a captured image from each of the imaging bodies.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 31, 2018
    Date of Patent: June 15, 2021
    Assignee: Ricoh Company, Ltd.
    Inventors: Soichiro Yokota, Hirokazu Takenaka, Tamon Sadasue
  • Patent number: 10992879
    Abstract: An imaging system includes a plurality of imaging bodies, a moving part, and an imaging control unit. Each of the imaging bodies includes a first optical element that images a range containing a hemisphere that is centered at an optical axis and oriented in a first direction of the optical axis, and a second optical element that images a range containing a hemisphere that is centered at the optical axis and oriented in a second direction opposite to the first direction. The imaging bodies is arranged in a direction orthogonal to the optical axis. The moving part moves the imaging bodies on a straight line. The imaging control unit is configured to cause the imaging bodies to perform imaging in synchronization with each other, and acquire a taken image from each of the imaging bodies.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 16, 2018
    Date of Patent: April 27, 2021
    Assignee: Ricoh Company, Ltd.
    Inventors: Soichiro Yokota, Hirokazu Takenaka, Tamon Sadasue, Keita Katagiri
  • Publication number: 20210041780
    Abstract: An imaging device (1a, 1b, 1c, 1d, 1e, 1f) includes at least one imager (Cam0, Cam1, Cam2, Cam3, Cam4, Cam5, Cam6, Cam7) including an imaging element (210, 212) configured to receive light incident through a lens (240); and a casing (10a, 10b, 10c 10d 10e, 10f) at which at least four of the imagers are arranged, the casing being configured such that each one of the imagers and another one of the imagers have optical axes substantially parallel to each other and have opposite incident directions of light on the optical axes, and each one of the imagers is arranged outside imagable ranges of the other imagers.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 6, 2019
    Publication date: February 11, 2021
    Inventor: Hirokazu TAKENAKA
  • Publication number: 20210016485
    Abstract: A front panel for on-board liquid crystal displays has a high hardness resin composition (B) on at least one side of a layer containing a resin (A) having a polycarbonate resin (a1). The front panel satisfies the following conditions (i) to (iv): (i) the thickness of the layer containing a high hardness resin composition (B) is 10 to 250 ?m, and the total thickness of the layer containing a resin (A) comprising a polycarbonate resin (a1) and the layer containing a high hardness resin composition (B) is 100 to 3,000 ?m; (ii) the high hardness resin composition (B) consists of any one of specific resin compositions (B1) to (B3); (iii) the retardation of the front panel is 3,000 nm or more; and (iv) the standard deviation of the second derivative of the irregular shape of the hard coat layer having irregularities is 0.1 or more.
    Type: Application
    Filed: July 14, 2020
    Publication date: January 21, 2021
    Applicants: MITSUBISHI GAS CHEMICAL COMPANY, INC., MGC FILSHEET CO., LTD.
    Inventors: Hirokazu TAKENAKA, Yasuo OOSE, Takuya GOTO
  • Patent number: 10855919
    Abstract: An imaging system includes an imaging body having an optical system and an imaging element, a power supplier configured to supply power to the imaging element, and a housing configured to hold the imaging body and the power supplier, wherein the optical system includes at least one optical element projecting from the housing, and a distance AP between a gravity center A of a portion including the optical system and a gravity center P of the entire imaging system and a distance BP between a gravity center B of the power supplier and the gravity center P of the entire imaging system satisfy the following condition.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 12, 2019
    Date of Patent: December 1, 2020
    Assignee: RICOH COMPANY, LTD.
    Inventors: Kensuke Masuda, Noriyuki Terao, Yoshiaki Irino, Tomonori Tanaka, Nozomi Imae, Toru Harada, Hirokazu Takenaka, Hideaki Yamamoto, Satoshi Sawaguchi, Daisuke Bessho, Hiroyuki Satoh, Makoto Shohara
  • Patent number: 10834316
    Abstract: An image processing apparatus detecting a plurality of joint positions between a plurality of input images includes a target image generation unit configured to generate a plurality of target images to be searched in a second input image among the input images from a first input image among the input images; a characteristic amount calculation unit configured to calculate a characteristic amount for each of the target images generated by the target image generation unit; and a joint position determination unit configured to determine the joint position for a target image of interest among the target images having the characteristic amounts calculated by the characteristic amount calculation unit depending on the characteristic amount.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 19, 2019
    Date of Patent: November 10, 2020
    Assignee: RICOH COMPANY, LTD.
    Inventors: Hirokazu Takenaka, Kazuhiro Yoshida, Keiichi Kawaguchi
  • Patent number: 10816778
    Abstract: An image capture system including two imaging systems of the same structure each having a wide-angle lens, which includes a front group, a reflection surface, and a rear group arranged in order from an object side, has a field angle larger than 180 degrees, and bends an optical axis of the front group toward the rear group by the reflection surface, and an imaging sensor, obtains an image in a solid angle of 4? radian by combining images imaged by the imaging systems. Each of the two wide-angle lenses includes the reflection surface between the front group and the rear group, the reflection surfaces are made to be common to the two imaging systems. This reduces an interval between lenses nearest to the object side in the front groups of the two wide-angle lenses, thereby reducing a distance between maximum field angles of the two wide-angle lenses.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 16, 2018
    Date of Patent: October 27, 2020
    Assignee: RICOH COMPANY, LTD.
    Inventors: Hiroyuki Satoh, Noriyuki Terao, Yoshiaki Irino, Tomonori Tanaka, Nozomi Imae, Toru Harada, Hirokazu Takenaka, Hideaki Yamamoto, Kensuke Masuda, Satoshi Sawaguchi, Daisuke Bessho, Makoto Shohara, Yoichi Ito, Shusaku Takasu
  • Patent number: 10788652
    Abstract: An imaging device includes two imaging optical systems each of the imaging optical systems including a wide-angle lens having an angle of view wider than 180 degrees, and an imaging sensor configured to image an image by the wide-angle lens, so as to obtain an image in a solid angle of 4? radian by synthesizing the images by the respective imaging optical systems, wherein the wide-angle lens of each of the imaging optical systems includes, in order from an object side to an image side, a front group having a negative power, a reflection surface and a back group having a positive power, and is configured to bend an optical axis of the front group by the reflection surface at 90 degrees toward the back group.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 15, 2019
    Date of Patent: September 29, 2020
    Assignee: RICOH COMPANY, LTD.
    Inventors: Kensuke Masuda, Noriyuki Terao, Yoshiaki Irino, Tomonori Tanaka, Nozomi Imae, Toru Harada, Hirokazu Takenaka, Hideaki Yamamoto, Satoshi Sawaguchi, Daisuke Bessho, Hiroyuki Satoh, Makoto Shohara
  • Publication number: 20200301010
    Abstract: A distance measurement apparatus includes: a light projector; a sensor to receive light projected from the light projector and reflected from a target object, photoelectrically convert the received light to an electrical signal, and obtain a plurality of phase signals from the electrical signal; and an interface to output distance data indicating a distance to the target object, the distance data being obtained based on the plurality of phase signals. The light projector includes: a plurality of light emitters that are arranged two-dimensionally; and circuitry configured to cause the plurality of light emitters to emit light a plurality of times while shifting positions of the plurality of light emitters.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 3, 2020
    Publication date: September 24, 2020
    Applicant: Ricoh Company, Ltd.
    Inventor: HIROKAZU TAKENAKA
  • Publication number: 20200301011
    Abstract: A range finding device includes a light-emitting unit including light-emitting regions; an optical element to guide light emitted from the light-emitting unit; a light-receiving unit including light receiving regions to receive light reflected from an object; and circuitry to control light emission amount of the light-emitting regions; measure an amount of light received at the light receiving regions; measure a distance to the object by measuring a time difference between a start time when the light is emitted from the light-emitting unit and a time when the light reflected from the object is received by the light receiving regions; cause the light-emitting regions to emit the same light amount as a preliminary light emission stage; control the light emission amount of the light-emitting regions for a main light emission stage based on the amount of light measured at the preliminary light emission stage; and measure the distance to the object.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 16, 2020
    Publication date: September 24, 2020
    Inventors: Norikatsu NIINAMI, Hirokazu TAKENAKA
  • Publication number: 20200288059
    Abstract: An image processor includes a first converter to convert input images into images in a different coordinate system from that of the input images according to first conversion data based on a projection model, a position detector to detect a connecting position of the images converted by the converter, a corrector to correct the first conversion data on the basis of a result of the detection by the position detector, and a data generator to generate second conversion data for image synthesis from the conversion data corrected by the corrector on the basis of coordinate conversion, the second conversion data defining the conversion of the input images.
    Type: Application
    Filed: May 26, 2020
    Publication date: September 10, 2020
    Applicant: Ricoh Company, Ltd.
    Inventors: Hirokazu TAKENAKA, Noriyuki TERAO, Yoshiaki IRINO, Tomonori TANAKA, Nozomi IMAE, Toru HARADA, Hideaki YAMAMOTO, Kensuke MASUDA, Yoichi ITO, Satoshi SAWAGUCHI, Daisuke BESSHO, Hiroyuki SATOH, Makoto SHOHARA, Shusaku TAKASU
  • Patent number: 10710291
    Abstract: A front panel for on-board liquid crystal displays has a high hardness resin composition (B) on at least one side of a layer containing a resin (A) having a polycarbonate resin (a1). The front panel satisfies the following conditions (i) to (iv): (i) the thickness of the layer containing a high hardness resin composition (B) is 10 to 250 ?m, and the total thickness of the layer containing a resin (A) comprising a polycarbonate resin (a1) and the layer containing a high hardness resin composition (B) is 100 to 3,000 ?m; (ii) the high hardness resin composition (B) consists of any one of specific resin compositions (B1) to (B3); (iii) the retardation of the front panel is 3,000 nm or more; and (iv) the standard deviation of the second derivative of the irregular shape of the hard coat layer having irregularities is 0.1 or more.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 2, 2017
    Date of Patent: July 14, 2020
    Assignees: MITSUBISHI GAS CHEMICAL COMPANY, INC., MGC FILSHEET CO., LTD.
    Inventors: Hirokazu Takenaka, Yasuo Oose, Takuya Goto
  • Patent number: 10666860
    Abstract: An image processor includes a first converter to convert input images into images in a different coordinate system from that of the input images according to first conversion data based on a projection model, a position detector to detect a connecting position of the images converted by the converter, a corrector to correct the first conversion data on the basis of a result of the detection by the position detector, and a data generator to generate second conversion data for image synthesis from the conversion data corrected by the corrector on the basis of coordinate conversion, the second conversion data defining the conversion of the input images.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 10, 2013
    Date of Patent: May 26, 2020
    Assignee: RICOH COMPANY, LTD.
    Inventors: Hirokazu Takenaka, Noriyuki Terao, Yoshiaki Irino, Tomonori Tanaka, Nozomi Imae, Toru Harada, Hideaki Yamamoto, Kensuke Masuda, Yoichi Ito, Satoshi Sawaguchi, Daisuke Bessho, Hiroyuki Satoh, Makoto Shohara, Shusaku Takasu
  • Patent number: 10649185
    Abstract: An optical system includes a central portion having a magnification per unit angle of view which increases from a center to an outside at an increase rate and a circumferential portion being outside the central portion and having a magnification per unit of view which increases from the central portion to an outside at an increase rate smaller than the increase rate of the central portion.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 4, 2016
    Date of Patent: May 12, 2020
    Assignee: RICOH COMPANY, LTD.
    Inventors: Kensuke Masuda, Noriyuki Terao, Yoshiaki Irino, Tomonori Tanaka, Nozomi Imae, Toru Harada, Hirokazu Takenaka, Hideaki Yamamoto, Satoshi Sawaguchi, Hiroyuki Satoh