Patents by Inventor Hirotaka SAWA

Hirotaka SAWA 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: 9516412
    Abstract: A directivity control apparatus controls a directivity of a sound collected by a sound collecting unit including a plurality of microphones. A beam forming unit forms a beam in a direction from the sound collecting unit toward a sound source corresponding to a position designated in an image on a display unit. A magnification setting unit sets a magnification for magnifying or demagnifying the image in the display according to an input. The beam forming unit also changes a size of the formed beam in accordance with the magnification set by the magnification setting unit.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 28, 2014
    Date of Patent: December 6, 2016
    Assignee: PANASONIC INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY MANAGEMENT CO., LTD.
    Inventors: Shinichi Shigenaga, Shuichi Watanabe, Tadashi Maki, Akitoshi Izumi, Kazunori Hayashi, Toshimichi Tokuda, Shojiro Matsuo, Hirotaka Sawa
  • Patent number: 9414153
    Abstract: A directivity control apparatus controls a directivity of a sound collected by a first sound collecting unit including a plurality of microphones. The directivity control apparatus includes a directivity forming unit, configured to form a directivity of the sound in a direction toward a monitoring target corresponding to a first designated position in an image displayed on a display unit, and an information obtaining unit, configured to obtain information on a second designated position in the image displayed on the display unit, designated in accordance with a movement of the monitoring target. The directivity forming unit is configured to change the directivity of the sound toward the monitoring target corresponding to the second designated position by referring to the information on the second designated position obtained by the information obtaining unit.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 8, 2014
    Date of Patent: August 9, 2016
    Assignee: PANASONIC INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY MANAGEMENT CO., LTD.
    Inventors: Shinichi Shigenaga, Akitoshi Izumi, Kazunori Hayashi, Toshimichi Tokuda, Hirotaka Sawa
  • Publication number: 20160142620
    Abstract: Sound collection directionality is formed toward a location corresponding to a position designated in a video of a predetermined region which is imaged by a camera apparatus with a microphone array apparatus as a reference, and audio data is collected with high accuracy. In a directionality control system (10), a signal processing unit (33) derives a sound collection direction (?MAh,?MAv) which is directed from an installation position of a microphone array apparatus (2) toward a sound position corresponding to a position designated in video data on a screen of the display device (36) in response to a user's designation of any position in the video data displayed on the screen. The signal processing unit (33) forms sound collection directionality of audio data in the derived sound collection direction (?MAh,?MAv).
    Type: Application
    Filed: February 14, 2014
    Publication date: May 19, 2016
    Applicant: PANASONIC INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY MANAGEMENT CO., LTD.
    Inventors: Hirotaka SAWA, Toshimichi TOKUDA, Shinichi SHIGENAGA, Shuichi WATANABE, Shojiro MATSUO, Takashi HIRABARA, Tadashi MAKI, Hisashi TSUJI, Teppei FUKUDA, Akitoshi IZUMI, Shintaro YOSHIKUNI, Hiroyuki MATSUMOTO, Kazunori HAYASHI, Kosuke SHINOZAKI
  • Publication number: 20160043699
    Abstract: An audio processing system, includes: an audio collector that collects audio in a non-directivity state using audio collection elements; an operator receives an input of one or more designation directions for audio emphasis for switching from the non-directivity state to a directivity state; an emphasis processor that generates audio data in the directivity state obtained by performing an emphasis process on the audio data in the designation direction from the audio collector using audio data collected by the audio collector according to the input of the designation direction; a volume adjustor that adjusts volume of the audio data in a directivity state; and an audio output that outputs the audio in a non-directivity state collected by the audio collector or the audio in a directivity state after the volume has been adjusted by the volume adjustor.
    Type: Application
    Filed: July 27, 2015
    Publication date: February 11, 2016
    Applicant: PANASONIC INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY MANAGEMENT CO., LTD.
    Inventors: Hirotaka SAWA, Toshimichi TOKUDA, Shuichi WATANABE, Hiroyuki MATSUMOTO, Hisashi TSUJI, Shintaro YOSHIKUNI
  • Publication number: 20160021474
    Abstract: Provided a sound velocity correction device including an environmental parameter obtainer that acquires a measured value of a surrounding environmental parameter of a sound collector that collects a sound emitted from a sound source; and a sound velocity corrector that corrects a sound velocity of the sound which is used to form directivity in a directing direction toward the sound source from the sound collector, using the measured value of the surrounding environmental parameter of the sound collector which is acquired by the environmental parameter obtainer.
    Type: Application
    Filed: July 14, 2015
    Publication date: January 21, 2016
    Applicant: PANASONIC INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY MANAGEMENT CO., LTD.
    Inventors: Hiroyuki MATSUMOTO, Shuichi WATANABE, Hisashi TSUJI, Akitoshi IZUMI, Hirotaka SAWA
  • Publication number: 20150350621
    Abstract: A recorder receives designation of a video which is desired to be reproduced from a user. If designation of one or more designated locations where sound is emphasized on a screen of a display which displays the video is received by the recorder from the user via an operation unit during reproduction or temporary stopping of the video, a signal processing unit performs an emphasis process on audio data, that is, the signal processing unit emphasizes audio data in directions directed toward positions corresponding to the designated locations from a microphone array by using audio data recorded in the recorder. A reproducing device reproduces the emphasis-processed audio data and video data in synchronization with each other.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 27, 2013
    Publication date: December 3, 2015
    Applicant: PANASONIC INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY MANAGEMENT CO., LTD.
    Inventors: Hirotaka SAWA, Shinichi SHIGENAGA, Toshimichi TOKUDA, Shintaro YOSHIKUNI, Shuichi WATANABE, Tadashi MAKI, Hirokazu TASAKA, Susumu ONO, Keisuke FUJIMOTO, Shojiro MATSUO, Teppei FUKUDA, Hiroyuki MATSUMOTO, Akitoshi IZUMI, Hisashi TSUJI, Kazunori HAYASHI, Ryoichi YUGE
  • Publication number: 20150326968
    Abstract: A directivity control apparatus controls a directivity of a sound collected by a first sound collecting unit including a plurality of microphones. The directivity control apparatus includes a directivity forming unit, configured to form a directivity of the sound in a direction toward a monitoring target corresponding to a first designated position in an image displayed on a display unit, and an information obtaining unit, configured to obtain information on a second designated position in the image displayed on the display unit, designated in accordance with a movement of the monitoring target. The directivity forming unit is configured to change the directivity of the sound toward the monitoring target corresponding to the second designated position by referring to the information on the second designated position obtained by the information obtaining unit.
    Type: Application
    Filed: May 8, 2014
    Publication date: November 12, 2015
    Applicant: PANASONIC INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY MANAGEMENT CO., LTD.
    Inventors: Shinichi SHIGENAGA, Akitoshi IZUMI, Kazunori HAYASHI, Toshimichi TOKUDA, Hirotaka SAWA
  • Publication number: 20150281833
    Abstract: A directivity control apparatus controls a directivity of a sound collected by a sound collecting unit including a plurality of microphones. A beam forming unit forms a beam in a direction from the sound collecting unit toward a sound source corresponding to a position designated in an image on a display unit. A magnification setting unit sets a magnification for magnifying or demagnifying the image in the display according to an input. The beam forming unit also changes a size of the formed beam in accordance with the magnification set by the magnification setting unit.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 28, 2014
    Publication date: October 1, 2015
    Applicant: PANASONIC INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY MANAGEMENT CO., LTD.
    Inventors: Shinichi SHIGENAGA, Shuichi WATANABE, Tadashi MAKI, Akitoshi IZUMI, Kazunori HAYASHI, Toshimichi TOKUDA, Shojiro MATSUO, Hirotaka SAWA
  • Publication number: 20150023524
    Abstract: A directivity control system includes: a sound collection unit, configured to collect a sound; a display unit, configured to display a designation screen used to designate a directivity direction oriented from the sound collection unit to a first sound position; a directivity direction calculation unit, configured to calculate a horizontal angle and a vertical angle from the sound collection unit to the first sound position corresponding to the designated directivity direction in accordance with a designation of the directivity direction on the designation screen displayed by the display unit; and a control unit, configured to form directivity of the sound collected by the sound collection unit based on the horizontal angle and the vertical angle calculated by the directivity direction calculation unit.
    Type: Application
    Filed: July 17, 2014
    Publication date: January 22, 2015
    Inventors: Shinichi SHIGENAGA, Kazunori HAYASHI, Toshimichi TOKUDA, Hirotaka SAWA, Kosuke SHINOZAKI, Shuichi WATANABE
  • Publication number: 20140376740
    Abstract: A system includes an imaging part that captures an image, a sound collection part that collects sounds, a display part that displays image data captured by the imaging part, a directive direction calculation part that calculates a directive direction which directs toward a sound position corresponding to a designated position of the image data from the sound collection part when any position of the displayed image data is designated, and a control part that forms a directivity in the sounds in the calculated directive direction. The control part controls output of the sounds collected by the sound collection part or output of the sounds which are collected by the sound collection part and of which the directivity is formed, or suspends collection of sounds in the sound collection part, when it is determined that the sound position is included in a preset protection region.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 23, 2014
    Publication date: December 25, 2014
    Inventors: Shinichi SHIGENAGA, Hirotaka SAWA, Kazunori HAYASHI, Toshimichi TOKUDA, Shintaro YOSHIKUNI, Kosuke SHINOZAKI