Patents by Inventor Katsuyuki Kuramoto

Katsuyuki Kuramoto 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: 8169367
    Abstract: A radio-frequency device includes a PAA processing portion configured to control a directivity of reception of a receiver antenna device, a received-signal-strength detecting portion configured to detect a strength of the received signal received by the receiver antenna device, and a direction detecting portion configured to detect the direction toward the communication object, on the basis of a direction in which a higher one of two strength values of the received signal respectively detected in first and second maximum-reception-directivity directions of a predetermined angular difference established by the PAA processing portion is minimal. Accordingly, the direction toward the radio-frequency tag can be suitably detected.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 8, 2007
    Date of Patent: May 1, 2012
    Assignee: Brother Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Katsuyuki Kuramoto, Tsuyoshi Ohashi, Kazunari Taki
  • Patent number: 8089360
    Abstract: A radio-frequency tag communication device including a receiver array antenna device for receiving a reply signal, a cancel-signal generating portion configured to generate a cancel signal for eliminating a leakage signal that is a part of a transmitted signal, which part is received by the receiver array antenna device, a cancel-signal control portion configured to control a phase and/or an amplitude of the cancel signal generated by the cancel-signal generating portion, and a received-signal combining portion configured to combine together received signals received by a plurality of antenna elements of the receiver array antenna device, to obtain a composite signal, and wherein the transmission of the transmitted signal and the reception of the received signals are concurrently controlled, and the cancel signal generated by the cancel-signal generating portion is applied to the received-signal combining portion, whereby the received signals and the cancel signal are combined together, so that a signal/noise
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 20, 2007
    Date of Patent: January 3, 2012
    Assignee: Brother Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventor: Katsuyuki Kuramoto
  • Patent number: 8040222
    Abstract: A radio-frequency tag communication system including (a) a radio-frequency tag, (b) a radio-frequency tag communication device configured to transmit a transmitted signal toward the radio-frequency tag, and to receive a reply signal transmitted from the radio-frequency tag in response to the transmitted signal, for thereby effecting radio communication with the radio-frequency tag, and (c) at least one reference tag disposed fixedly in an area of communication of the radio-frequency tag communication system and configured to transmit a reply signal in response to the transmitted signal, for thereby effecting radio communication with the radio-frequency tag communication device, and wherein the radio-frequency tag communication device includes a directivity control portion configured to control a directivity of communication with the radio-frequency tag, on the basis of a result of the radio communication of the radio-frequency tag communication device with the at least one reference tag.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 12, 2007
    Date of Patent: October 18, 2011
    Assignee: Brother Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Katsuyuki Kuramoto, Shiro Yamada
  • Patent number: 7860535
    Abstract: A radio-frequency receiver device including receiver antenna elements each arranged to receive a signal from a desired communication object, a phased-array control portion to perform a phased array antenna control for controlling the directivity of reception of the signals by the receiver antenna elements, an adaptive-array control portion to perform an adaptive array antenna control for controlling the directivity of reception of the signals by the receiver antenna elements, a received-signal-quality determining portion to determine whether the signals received by the receiver antenna elements has a quality higher than a predetermined threshold, and a directivity control switching portion configured to enable the phased-array control portion to perform the phased array antenna controls, and to enable the adaptive-array control portion to perform the adaptive array antenna control only if a negative determination is obtained by the received-signal-quality determining portion after the phased array antenna con
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 6, 2007
    Date of Patent: December 28, 2010
    Assignee: Brother Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Katsuyuki Kuramoto, Tomoyasu Fukui
  • Patent number: 7777609
    Abstract: A radio-frequency tag communication device arranged to transmit a transmitted signal toward a radio-frequency tag and to receive a reply signal transmitted from the radio-frequency tag in response to the transmitted signal, for thereby effecting radio communication with the radio-frequency tag, the radio-frequency tag communication device including (a) a receiver portion including a receiver antenna device which has a plurality of receiver antenna elements for receiving the reply signal from the radio-frequency tag, (b) a reception-directivity control portion which controls the directivity of reception of the receiver portion device, by controlling the phase of a received signal which is received by each of the plurality of receiver antenna elements and which may include a leakage signal which is a part of the transmitted signal, (c) a modulated-component extracting portion which extracts a modulated component of the received signal which is modulated by the radio-frequency tag, and (d) a direction detecting
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 27, 2007
    Date of Patent: August 17, 2010
    Assignee: Brother Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventor: Katsuyuki Kuramoto
  • Publication number: 20080278291
    Abstract: A radio-frequency tag communication system including (a) a radio-frequency tag, (b) a radio-frequency tag communication device configured to transmit a transmitted signal toward the radio-frequency tag, and to receive a reply signal transmitted from the radio-frequency tag in response to the transmitted signal, for thereby effecting radio communication with the radio-frequency tag, and (c) at least one reference tag disposed fixedly in an area of communication of the radio-frequency tag communication system and configured to transmit a reply signal in response to the transmitted signal, for thereby effecting radio communication with the radio-frequency tag communication device, and wherein the radio-frequency tag communication device includes a directivity control portion configured to control a directivity of communication with the radio-frequency tag, on the basis of a result of the radio communication of the radio-frequency tag communication device with the at least one reference tag.
    Type: Application
    Filed: November 12, 2007
    Publication date: November 13, 2008
    Inventors: Katsuyuki Kuramoto, Shiro Yamada
  • Publication number: 20080238620
    Abstract: A radio-frequency tag communication device arranged to transmit a transmitted signal toward a radio-frequency tag and to receive a reply signal transmitted from the radio-frequency tag in response to the transmitted signal, for thereby effecting radio communication with the radio-frequency tag, the radio-frequency tag communication device including (a) a receiver portion including a receiver antenna device which has a plurality of receiver antenna elements for receiving the reply signal from the radio-frequency tag, (b) a reception-directivity control portion which controls the directivity of reception of the receiver portion device, by controlling the phase of a received signal which is received by each of the plurality of receiver antenna elements and which may include a leakage signal which is a part of the transmitted signal, (c) a modulated-component extracting portion which extracts a modulated component of the received signal which is modulated by the radio-frequency tag, and (d) a direction detecting
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 27, 2007
    Publication date: October 2, 2008
    Inventor: Katsuyuki Kuramoto
  • Publication number: 20080224829
    Abstract: A radio-frequency tag communication device including a receiver array antenna device for receiving a reply signal, a cancel-signal generating portion configured to generate a cancel signal for eliminating a leakage signal that is a part of a transmitted signal, which part is received by the receiver array antenna device, a cancel-signal control portion configured to control a phase and/or an amplitude of the cancel signal generated by the cancel-signal generating portion, and a received-signal combining portion configured to combine together received signals received by a plurality of antenna elements of the receiver array antenna device, to obtain a composite signal, and wherein the transmission of the transmitted signal and the reception of the received signals are concurrently controlled, and the cancel signal generated by the cancel-signal generating portion is applied to the received-signal combining portion, whereby the received signals and the cancel signal are combined together, so that a signal/noise
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 20, 2007
    Publication date: September 18, 2008
    Inventor: Katsuyuki Kuramoto
  • Publication number: 20070279277
    Abstract: A radio-frequency device includes a PAA processing portion configured to control a directivity of reception of a receiver antenna device, a received-signal-strength detecting portion configured to detect a strength of the received signal received by the receiver antenna device, and a direction detecting portion configured to detect the direction toward the communication object, on the basis of a direction in which a higher one of two strength values of the received signal respectively detected in first and second maximum-reception-directivity directions of a predetermined angular difference established by the PAA processing portion is minimal.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 8, 2007
    Publication date: December 6, 2007
    Applicant: Brother Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Katsuyuki Kuramoto, Tsuyoshi Ohashi, Kazunari Taki
  • Publication number: 20070224942
    Abstract: A radio-frequency receiver device including receiver antenna elements each arranged to receive a signal from a desired communication object, a phased-array control portion to perform a phased array antenna control for controlling the directivity of reception of the signals by the receiver antenna elements, an adaptive-array control portion to perform an adaptive array antenna control for controlling the directivity of reception of the signals by the receiver antenna elements, a received-signal-quality determining portion to determine whether the signals received by the receiver antenna elements has a quality higher than a predetermined threshold, and a directivity control switching portion configured to enable the phased-array control portion to perform the phased array antenna controls, and to enable the adaptive-array control portion to perform the adaptive array antenna control only if a negative determination is obtained by the received-signal-quality determining portion after the phased array antenna con
    Type: Application
    Filed: February 6, 2007
    Publication date: September 27, 2007
    Inventors: Katsuyuki Kuramoto, Tomoyasu Fukui
  • Publication number: 20070111692
    Abstract: A radio-frequency receiver device including a plurality of receiver antenna elements for receiving information from a desired communication object, the radio-frequency receiver device including an antenna switching portion configured to select at least one of the plurality of receiver antenna elements which receives a set of information transmitted from the desired communication object, a received-information memory portion configured to store sets of information received by the plurality of receiver antenna elements sequentially selected by the antenna switching portion, and a received-information combining portion configured to read out the sets of information from the received-information memory portion, and to combine together the read out sets of information read out from the received-information memory portion.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 15, 2006
    Publication date: May 17, 2007
    Inventors: Katsuyuki Kuramoto, Takuya Nagai