Patents by Inventor Hisashi Watanabe

Hisashi Watanabe 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: 20190094618
    Abstract: A lighting device includes a board on which a plurality of light emitting devices are arranged in a matrix, and a reflection sheet provided on the board and having a plurality of apertures. The apertures correspond one-to-one to the light emitting devices. The reflection sheet is extended in a predetermined specific extending direction. The apertures are formed such that a first distance in the extending direction between rims of the apertures and side surfaces of the corresponding light emitting devices within the apertures is greater than a second distance in an orthogonal direction that is orthogonal to the extending direction between the rims of the apertures and the side surfaces of the corresponding light emitting devices.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 28, 2018
    Publication date: March 28, 2019
    Inventors: YOUZOU KYOUKANE, HISASHI WATANABE, HIROTOSHI YASUNAGA
  • Publication number: 20190086604
    Abstract: A backlight unit includes an LED, a light guide plate, a light collecting portion, an opposite end portion, and a total reflection regulator. The light guide plate includes a light entering end surface opposed to the LED and a light exiting surface that is one of plate surfaces. The light collecting portion includes light collecting pieces extending on the light exiting surface in a normal direction to the light entering end surface and arrayed in an orthogonal direction perpendicular to the normal direction. The opposite end portion is on an opposite side from the light entering end surface. A section of the opposite end portion includes a curved end surface. The total reflection regulator is disposed on at least a portion of the curved end surface and configured to regulate the amount of light in the opposite end portion to be totally reflected by the curved end surface.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 22, 2017
    Publication date: March 21, 2019
    Inventors: Hirotoshi YASUNAGA, Hisashi WATANABE, Youzou KYOUKANE
  • Publication number: 20190072822
    Abstract: A lighting device includes LEDs, a light guide plate, and a frame. The light guide plate includes a light guide plate hole portion passing through in a thickness direction, a light entering surface, and a light exiting surface. The frame surrounds the light guide plate. The frame includes an outer peripheral wall portion and an inner peripheral wall portion. The outer peripheral wall portion opposes an outer peripheral end face of the light guide plate. The inner peripheral wall portion inserted to the light guide plate hole portion opposes an inner peripheral end face of the light guide plate on an inner side of the light guide plate hole portion. The inner peripheral wall portion has a configuration in which the opposing surface has a lower light reflectivity than that of an opposing surface of the outer peripheral wall portion.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 28, 2016
    Publication date: March 7, 2019
    Inventors: Hirotoshi YASUNAGA, Mitsuhiro MURATA, Hisashi WATANABE, Ryuzo YUKI
  • Patent number: 10223059
    Abstract: Provided is a configuration of a display device that can have a narrower frame. A display device (1) includes a first display unit (11) including a first substrate (111); a second display unit (12) including a second substrate (121) that is arranged so as to be adjacent to the first substrate (111) in an in-plane direction of the first substrate (111); a first line group (1171) that supplies a signal to the first display unit (11), the first line group (1171) passing through between the first substrate (111) and the second substrate (121); and a second line group (1271) that supplies a signal to the second display unit (12), the second line group (1271) passing through between the first substrate (111) and the second substrate (121).
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 31, 2015
    Date of Patent: March 5, 2019
    Assignee: SHARP KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventor: Hisashi Watanabe
  • Patent number: 10219378
    Abstract: The present invention provides a flexible printed circuit capable of being mounted to an outer edge portion of a display panel including a periphery that is at least partially curved. The flexible printed circuit of the present invention includes: a flexible substrate provided with multiple slits; multiple conductive lines; and multiple terminals electrically coupled with the respective conductive lines in an independent manner. The slits and the conductive lines are disposed in the longitudinal direction of the flexible substrate. The terminals are disposed on a first longitudinal end of the flexible substrate.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 24, 2016
    Date of Patent: February 26, 2019
    Assignee: SHARP KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventor: Hisashi Watanabe
  • Patent number: 10212401
    Abstract: An imaging system serving as an image generation device is provided with: a random optical filter array that has a plurality of types of optical filters and a scattering unit; photodiodes that receive light transmitted through the random optical filter array; an AD conversion unit that converts the light received by the photodiodes, into digital data; and a color image generation circuit that generates an image, using the digital data and modulation information of the random optical filter array, in which the scattering unit is located between the plurality of types of optical filters and the photodiodes, and in which the scattering unit includes a material having a first refractive index, and a material having a second refractive index that is different from the first refractive index.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 14, 2017
    Date of Patent: February 19, 2019
    Assignee: PANASONIC INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY MANAGEMENT CO., LTD.
    Inventors: Satoshi Sato, Takeo Azuma, Kunio Nobori, Hisashi Watanabe, Takamasa Ando, Nobuhiko Wakai
  • Patent number: 10209432
    Abstract: A backlight device (12) includes a light guide plate (14), and LEDs (17), and wiring portions (18c). The light guide plate (14) has a substantially circular outer shape and has fan-shaped areas (SA) defined by segment lines (SL) extending through a center (C) thereof. All the segment lines (SL) meet at the center (C). The LEDs (17) are arranged such that middle positions between LEDs (17) each located at an end in the circumferential direction in the respective sets of the LEDs (17) provided for the fan-shaped areas (SA) adjacent to each other in the circumferential direction coincides with the segment lines (SL). The wiring portions (18c) are equal or larger in number than the LEDs (17) included in each of the sets of LEDs (17) provided for the fan-shaped areas (SA) and are configured to supply electric power to the respective LEDs (17).
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 5, 2016
    Date of Patent: February 19, 2019
    Assignee: SHARP KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventors: Mitsuhiro Murata, Ryuzo Yuki, Hisashi Watanabe, Shinya Kadowaki, Takeshi Ishida, Takeshi Masuda
  • Patent number: 10209428
    Abstract: A lighting device includes an annular light source including light sources arranged in a circular pattern, a light guide plate having a round shape in a plan view, and a case holding the annular light source and the light guide plate. The light guide plate is disposed inside the annular light source. The light guide plate includes light entering portions, circumferentially aligned portions, and a light emitting portion. The light entering portions are opposed to the light sources. Each circumferentially aligned portion is between the adjacent light entering portions. A dimension of the circumferentially aligned portion in the radial direction is larger than a dimension of the light entering portion in the radial direction. The circumferentially aligned portions are aligned with the light sources in the circumferential direction and configured to contact the light sources when the light guide plate is rotated in the circumferential direction.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 18, 2015
    Date of Patent: February 19, 2019
    Assignee: SHARP KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventors: Ryuzo Yuki, Hisashi Watanabe, Takeshi Masuda, Mitsuhiro Murata, Shinya Kadowaki, Takeshi Ishida
  • Patent number: 10203442
    Abstract: A backlight unit includes side emitting-type LEDs, a light guide plate, and an LED board. The light guide plate includes a light entering end surface, a light exiting plate surface, and an opposite plate surface. The LED board includes a plate surface attached to an edge of the opposite plate surface. A gap in a range from 0.1 mm to 0.2 mm is provided between light emitting surfaces of the LEDs and the light entering end surface. The edge of each light emitting surface is at a position ?D1 mm inner than an edge of the light entering end surface with respect to a thickness direction of the light guide plate. An edge of each light emitting surface is at a position ?D2 mm inner than an edge of the light entering end surface. ?D1 and ?D2 satisfy relational expressions: ?D2??D1 and ?D2?0.1.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 21, 2016
    Date of Patent: February 12, 2019
    Assignee: SHARP KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventors: Hisashi Watanabe, Hirotoshi Yasunaga, Ryuzo Yuki, Mitsuhiro Murata
  • Patent number: 10195887
    Abstract: A transparent film is provided, enabling a printed matter that is less likely to exhibit apparently white-tinged images and has less degraded image quality. The transparent film of an embodiment of the present application includes a support; an anti-reflection layer disposed on one side of the support; and an ink-absorbing layer disposed on the other side of the support. The anti-reflection layer preferably has, on the surface thereof on the side opposite to the support, an anti-reflection structure with multiple protrusions disposed at a pitch not greater than the visible light wavelength.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 12, 2015
    Date of Patent: February 5, 2019
    Assignee: SHARP KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventors: Hisashi Watanabe, Akiko Miyazaki
  • Patent number: 10187990
    Abstract: The present invention provides a flexible printed circuit capable of being mounted to an outer edge portion of a display panel including a periphery that is at least partially curved. The flexible printed circuit of the present invention includes: a flexible substrate provided with multiple slits; multiple conductive lines; and multiple terminals electrically coupled with the respective conductive lines in an independent manner. The slits and the conductive lines are disposed in the longitudinal direction of the flexible substrate. The terminals are disposed on a first longitudinal end of the flexible substrate.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 24, 2016
    Date of Patent: January 22, 2019
    Assignee: SHARP KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventor: Hisashi Watanabe
  • Patent number: 10180761
    Abstract: Provided is a touch-panel-equipped display device that is capable of detecting a touch on a side surface of a case (1) at a high accuracy by a simple controlling operation, without any hardware such as expensive sensors being provided additionally. In the touch-panel-equipped display device, a side surface electrode part can be electrically connected by capacitive coupling with a Y-direction electrode part. A change in capacitive coupling when the side surface electrode part is touched by a finger or the like, therefore, is reflected in a sense signal acquired by the Y-direction electrode part. In other words, in the touch-panel-equipped display device, a touch on the side surface electrode part can be detected using the sense signal. The touch-panel-equipped display device, therefore, is capable of detecting a touch on the side surface electrode part by using hardware and signal processing for touch detection in a conventional touch panel.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 19, 2015
    Date of Patent: January 15, 2019
    Assignee: SHARP KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventors: Hisashi Watanabe, Tomohiro Kimura, Jean Mugiraneza, Yasuhiro Sugita
  • Publication number: 20180321556
    Abstract: A backlight unit includes side emitting-type LEDs, a light guide plate, and an LED board. The light guide plate includes a light entering end surface, a light exiting plate surface, and an opposite plate surface. The LED board includes a plate surface attached to an edge of the opposite plate surface of the light guide plate. A gap is present between light emitting surfaces of the LEDs and the light entering end surface of the light guide plate. Each LED includes a light emitting surface having a dimension in the thickness direction of the light guide plate smaller than a dimension of the light entering end surface in the thickness direction. Each LED is disposed such that the center of the light emitting surface is opposed to the center of the light entering end surface.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 21, 2016
    Publication date: November 8, 2018
    Applicant: SHARP KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventors: HISASHI WATANABE, HIROTOSHI YASUNAGA, RYUZO YUKI, MITSUHIRO MURATA
  • Publication number: 20180313997
    Abstract: A backlight unit includes LEDs, a light guide plate, and a hood-shaped reflection member. The LEDs are linearly arranged at intervals. The light guide plate includes a light entering end surface and a light exiting plate surface. The light entering end surface is at least a part of the peripheral end surfaces extending along an arrangement direction of the LEDs and opposed to light emitting surfaces of the LEDs. The hood-shaped reflection member surrounds inter-LED spaces between adjacent LEDs and includes an opening a light guide plate side. The hood-shaped reflection member includes at least a first reflection portion and a pair of second reflection portions. The first reflection portion is opposed to the light entering end surface 15a. The second reflection portions are separated from each other in a thickness direction of the light guide plate such that the inter-LED spaces LS are between the second reflection portions.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 26, 2016
    Publication date: November 1, 2018
    Inventors: MITSUHIRO MURATA, HISASHI WATANABE, HIROTOSHI YASUNAGA, RYUZO YUKI
  • Publication number: 20180306962
    Abstract: A backlight unit includes side emitting-type LEDs, a light guide plate, and an LED board. The light guide plate includes a light entering end surface, a light exiting plate surface, and an opposite plate surface. The LED board includes a plate surface attached to an edge of the opposite plate surface. A gap in a range from 0.1 mm to 0.2 mm is provided between light emitting surfaces of the LEDs and the light entering end surface. The edge of each light emitting surface is at a position ?D1 mm inner than an edge of the light entering end surface with respect to a thickness direction of the light guide plate. An edge of each light emitting surface is at a position ?D2 mm inner than an edge of the light entering end surface. ?D1 and ?D2 satisfy relational expressions: ?D2??D1 and ?D2?0.1.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 21, 2016
    Publication date: October 25, 2018
    Inventors: HISASHI WATANABE, HIROTOSHI YASUNAGA, RYUZO YUKI, MITSUHIRO MURATA
  • Publication number: 20180286906
    Abstract: An imaging system serving as an image generation device is provided with: a random color filter array that has a plurality of concave lenses and a plurality of color filters having different transmission characteristics; a photodiode that receives light that has passed through the random color filter array; an AD converter that converts the light received by the photodiode into digital data; and a color image generation circuit that generates an image using the digital data and modulation information of the random color filter array, in which the plurality of concave lenses are located between the plurality of color filters and the photodiode, or the plurality of color filters are located between the plurality of concave lenses and the photodiode.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 8, 2018
    Publication date: October 4, 2018
    Inventors: SATOSHI SATO, HISASHI WATANABE, TAKEO AZUMA, KUNIO NOBORI, NOBUHIKO WAKAI, TAKAMASA ANDO
  • Patent number: 10088964
    Abstract: A display device (1) is provided that includes a display panel having a display region P; a transparent cover (16) having a top surface parallel to a surface for displaying the image, and a side surface connected to the top surface; a touch panel; and a case (17) for housing the display panel and the touch panel. The touch panel is capable of sensing contact or approach of an object at at least a part of an outer peripheral line of the top surface of the transparent cover (16). At the part of the outer peripheral line of the transparent cover (16), at which contact or approach of an object can be sensed by the touch panel, a part of the outer peripheral line that is recessed inward or is protruded outward is formed as a deformed part (16a).
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 10, 2015
    Date of Patent: October 2, 2018
    Assignee: Sharp Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Hisashi Watanabe, Tomohiro Kimura, Toshiki Matsuoka, Yasuhiro Sugita, Jean Mugiraneza
  • Publication number: 20180274740
    Abstract: A backlight device includes LEDs, a light guide plate, an LED substrate, an optical sheet, and a low light-transmissive member. The light guide plate includes a light entering end surface, a light exiting plate surface, and an opposite plate surface. The LED substrate is disposed such that at least a section of the LED substrate overlaps a light entering-side edge section that is an edge section of the light guide plate on the light entering end surface side. The optical sheet includes a light entering-side edge section overlapping section disposed on the light exiting plate surface side of the light, guide plate to overlap the light entering-side edge section. The low light-transmissive member disposed on the light entering-side edge section overlapping section of the optical sheet. The low light-transmissive member has a light transmissivity lower than that of other sections of the optical sheet.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 26, 2016
    Publication date: September 27, 2018
    Inventors: HISASHI WATANABE, RYUZO YUKI, HIROTOSHI YASUNAGA, MITSUHIRO MURATA, MAKOTO YOSHIMURA, HIROMI ENOMOTO
  • Publication number: 20180259701
    Abstract: A lighting device includes an annular light source including light sources arranged in a circular pattern, a light guide plate having a round shape in a plan view, and a case holding the annular light source and the light guide plate. The light guide plate is disposed inside the annular light source. The light guide plate includes light entering portions, circumferentially aligned portions, and a light emitting portion. The light entering portions are opposed to the light sources. Each circumferentially aligned portion is between the adjacent light entering portions. A dimension of the circumferentially aligned portion in the radial direction is larger than a dimension of the light entering portion in the radial direction. The circumferentially aligned portions are aligned with the light sources in the circumferential direction and configured to contact the light sources when the light guide plate is rotated in the circumferential direction.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 18, 2015
    Publication date: September 13, 2018
    Inventors: RYUZO YUKI, HISASHI WATANABE, TAKESHI MASUDA, MITSUHIRO MURATA, SHINYA KADOWAKI, TAKESHI ISHIDA
  • Publication number: 20180239078
    Abstract: A lighting device includes a light guide plate, a first light source, a second light source, and a case. The light guide plate includes plate surfaces and an outer peripheral surface. One of the plate surfaces is configured as a light exiting surface. Sections of the outer peripheral surface on opposite sides from each other relative to the center of the light exiting surface are configured as a first light entering surface and a second light entering surface, respectively. The first light source is disposed opposite the first light entering surface. The second light source is disposed opposite the second light entering surface. The case includes an annular wall portion surrounding an outer circumference of the light guide plate, the first light source, and the second light source. The annular wall portion includes light source non-disposing areas between the first light entering surface and the second light entering surface.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 8, 2016
    Publication date: August 23, 2018
    Inventors: Ryuzo YUKI, Katsutoshi KIKUCHI, Hayato NAKAMURA, Makoto YOSHIMURA, Hiromi ENOMOTO, Mitsuhiro MURATA, Hisashi WATANABE, Hirotoshi YASUNAGA