Patents by Inventor Kazutoshi Kitano

Kazutoshi Kitano 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: 11971487
    Abstract: An advanced map DB 43 stored on a server device 4 includes pulse type information that is configuration information for detecting a landmark using a LIDAR 2. By sending request information D1 including own vehicle position information, the vehicle mounted device 1 receives response information D2 including pulse type information corresponding to a landmark around the own vehicle position and controls the LIDAR 2 on the basis of the received pulse type information.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 19, 2016
    Date of Patent: April 30, 2024
    Assignee: PIONEER CORPORATION
    Inventors: Eiji Muramatsu, Yoshinori Abe, Kazutoshi Kitano, Kenji Mito, Takeshi Koda
  • Publication number: 20240133734
    Abstract: An information processing apparatus according to an embodiment includes a first recognition unit (122) that performs recognition processing based on a point group output by a photodetection distance measurement unit (11), and outputs three-dimensional recognition information of a target object, the photodetection distance measurement unit (11) including a light transmission unit (101) that transmits light modulated by a frequency continuous modulation wave and a light reception unit (103) that receives light and outputs a reception signal, and outputting, based on the reception signal, a point group including a plurality of points each having velocity information, a generation unit (125) that generates vibration distribution information indicating a vibration distribution of the target object based on the velocity information and the three-dimensional recognition information, and a detection unit (20) that detects an abnormality of the target object based on the vibration distribution information.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 17, 2021
    Publication date: April 25, 2024
    Inventors: Yuusuke Kawamura, Kazutoshi Kitano, Kousuke Takahashi, Takeshi Kubota
  • Publication number: 20240103133
    Abstract: An information processing apparatus according to an embodiment includes: a recognition unit (122) configured to perform recognition processing on the basis of a point cloud output from a photodetection ranging unit (11) using a frequency modulated continuous wave to determine a designated area in a real object, the photodetection ranging unit being configured to output the point cloud including velocity information and three-dimensional coordinates of the point cloud on the basis of a reception signal reflected by an object and received, and configured to output three-dimensional recognition information including information indicating the determined designated area, and a correction unit (125) configured to correct three-dimensional coordinates of the designated area in the point cloud on the basis of the three-dimensional recognition information output by the recognition unit.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 23, 2021
    Publication date: March 28, 2024
    Inventors: Kousuke Takahashi, Kazutoshi Kitano, Yuusuke Kawamura, Takeshi Kubota
  • Publication number: 20220214431
    Abstract: The light control device is installed in a movable body, and comprises a light transmission/reception unit including an emission unit and a light receiving unit. The emission unit emits a light, and the light receiving unit receives the light reflected by an object around the movable body. The control unit controls the emission unit to continuously shift the light emitted by the emission unit in a first direction and a second direction crossing the first direction such that a transition locus of the light emitted by the emission unit becomes helical.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 24, 2022
    Publication date: July 7, 2022
    Inventor: Kazutoshi KITANO
  • Patent number: 11294038
    Abstract: The light control device is installed in a movable body, and comprises a light transmission/reception unit including an emission unit and a light receiving unit. The emission unit emits a light, and the light receiving unit receives the light reflected by an object around the movable body. The control unit controls the emission unit to continuously shift the light emitted by the emission unit in a first direction and a second direction crossing the first direction such that a transition locus of the light emitted by the emission unit becomes helical.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 6, 2015
    Date of Patent: April 5, 2022
    Assignee: PIONEER CORPORATION
    Inventor: Kazutoshi Kitano
  • Patent number: 11067689
    Abstract: The information processing device includes a plurality of light transmission/reception units and an information processing unit. Each of the light transmission/reception unit includes an emission unit which emits a light, a scanning unit which scans the light emitted by the emission unit, and a light receiving unit which receives the light reflected by an object. The information processing unit obtains at least one of a distance to the object and an angle of the object based on light receiving results of the light receiving units. Each of the scanning units is arranged at a position where there is a direction in which the light scanned by the scanning unit is blocked by a vehicle itself, and scans the light omnidirectionally in a horizontal direction in a manner shared by the scanning units.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 6, 2015
    Date of Patent: July 20, 2021
    Assignee: PIONEER CORPORATION
    Inventor: Kazutoshi Kitano
  • Patent number: 11016290
    Abstract: The light control device emits a light from the emission unit, and receives the light reflected by an object by the light receiving unit. The acquisition unit acquires inclination information related to an inclination of the movable body, and the controller controls an emission direction of the light emitted by the emission unit based on the inclination information.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 29, 2016
    Date of Patent: May 25, 2021
    Assignee: PIONEER CORPORATION
    Inventor: Kazutoshi Kitano
  • Patent number: 10965099
    Abstract: A LIDAR unit includes: an LD driver, a laser diode, and a scanner corresponding to an emission unit; a photo detector, a current/voltage conversion circuit, a A/D converter and an valuable segmenter that correspond to a light receiving unit; a landmark position prediction unit and landmark map acquisition unit that acquire position information indicating the position of a landmark on a map; and a synchronization controller that generates a valuable pulse trigger signal and a segment extraction signal. Based on a predicted current vehicle position value and the position of the landmark on the map, the landmark position prediction unit determines a predicted angular range of the landmark. The synchronization controller generates the valuable pulse trigger signal and the segment extraction signal such that the scan density of the light pulse is higher in the predicted angular range than the scan density of the light pulse in the other range.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 6, 2015
    Date of Patent: March 30, 2021
    Assignee: PIONEER CORPORATION
    Inventor: Kazutoshi Kitano
  • Patent number: 10540896
    Abstract: An acquisition unit acquires a light path length rij corresponding to an emission direction of emitted light, which is surrounding information of a moving body obtained by using a laser radar mounted on the moving body, a traffic mirror information including a center position N of a traffic mirror on a map, and position information of the moving body on the map. Then, on the basis of the acquired traffic mirror information and the acquired position information of the moving body on the map, an extraction unit extracts a light path length acquired via the traffic mirror from the acquired light path length rij, and then calculates an object reflection position corresponding to the extracted light path length. This makes it possible to obtain surrounding information in a blind spot for a driver while increasing robustness with respect to the surrounding information, and thus advanced driving assistance can be implemented.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 22, 2015
    Date of Patent: January 21, 2020
    Assignee: PIONEER CORPORATION
    Inventor: Kazutoshi Kitano
  • Publication number: 20190079282
    Abstract: The light control device emits a light from the emission unit, and receives the light reflected by an object by the light receiving unit. The acquisition unit acquires inclination information related to an inclination of the movable body, and the controller controls an emission direction of the light emitted by the emission unit based on the inclination information.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 29, 2016
    Publication date: March 14, 2019
    Inventor: Kazutoshi KITANO
  • Publication number: 20190041523
    Abstract: An advanced map DB 43 stored on a server device 4 includes pulse type information that is configuration information for detecting a landmark using a LIDAR 2. By sending request information D1 including own vehicle position information, the vehicle mounted device 1 receives response information D2 including pulse type information corresponding to a landmark around the own vehicle position and controls the LIDAR 2 on the basis of the received pulse type information.
    Type: Application
    Filed: February 19, 2016
    Publication date: February 7, 2019
    Inventors: Eiji MURAMATSU, Yoshinori ABE, Kazutoshi KITANO, Kenji MITO, Takeshi KODA
  • Publication number: 20180267145
    Abstract: The light control device is installed in a movable body, and comprises a light transmission/reception unit including an emission unit and a light receiving unit. The emission unit emits a light, and the light receiving unit receives the light reflected by an object around the movable body. The control unit controls the emission unit to continuously shift the light emitted by the emission unit in a first direction and a second direction crossing the first direction such that a transition locus of the light emitted by the emission unit becomes helical.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 6, 2015
    Publication date: September 20, 2018
    Inventor: Kazutoshi KITANO
  • Publication number: 20180254607
    Abstract: A LIDAR unit includes: an LD driver, a laser diode, and a scanner corresponding to an emission unit; a photo detector, a current/voltage conversion circuit, a A/D converter and an valuable segmenter that correspond to a light receiving unit; a landmark position prediction unit and landmark map acquisition unit that acquire position information indicating the position of a landmark on a map; and a synchronization controller that generates a valuable pulse trigger signal and a segment extraction signal. Based on a predicted current vehicle position value and the position of the landmark on the map, the landmark position prediction unit determines a predicted angular range of the landmark. The synchronization controller generates the valuable pulse trigger signal and the segment extraction signal such that the scan density of the light pulse is higher in the predicted angular range than the scan density of the light pulse in the other range.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 6, 2015
    Publication date: September 6, 2018
    Applicant: Pioneer Corporation
    Inventor: Kazutoshi KITANO
  • Publication number: 20180252812
    Abstract: The information processing device includes a plurality of light transmission/reception units and an information processing unit. Each of the light transmission/reception unit includes an emission unit which emits a light, a scanning unit which scans the light emitted by the emission unit, and a light receiving unit which receives the light reflected by an object. The information processing unit obtains at least one of a distance to the object and an angle of the object based on light receiving results of the light receiving units. Each of the scanning units is arranged at a position where there is a direction in which the light scanned by the scanning unit is blocked by a vehicle itself, and scans the light omnidirectionally in a horizontal direction in a manner shared by the scanning units.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 6, 2015
    Publication date: September 6, 2018
    Inventor: Kazutoshi KITANO
  • Publication number: 20180246192
    Abstract: A LIDAR unit 100 generates polar coordinate space frames Fp from segment signals Sseg of segments prior to conversion to point group information. The LIDAR unit 100 then generates an averaged frame Fa in which the polar coordinate space frames Fp are averaged along a temporal direction, and displays on a display 4 an orthogonal coordinate space frame Fo in which the averaged frame Fa is coordinate-converted to an orthogonal coordinate space.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 31, 2015
    Publication date: August 30, 2018
    Inventors: Yoshinori ABE, Kazutoshi KITANO
  • Publication number: 20180018878
    Abstract: An acquisition unit acquires a light path length rij corresponding to an emission direction of emitted light, which is surrounding information of a moving body obtained by using a laser radar mounted on the moving body, a traffic mirror information including a center position N of a traffic mirror on a map, and position information of the moving body on the map. Then, on the basis of the acquired traffic mirror information and the acquired position information of the moving body on the map, an extraction unit extracts a light path length acquired via the traffic mirror from the acquired light path length rij, and then calculates an object reflection position corresponding to the extracted light path length. This makes it possible to obtain surrounding information in a blind spot for a driver while increasing robustness with respect to the surrounding information, and thus advanced driving assistance can be implemented.
    Type: Application
    Filed: January 22, 2015
    Publication date: January 18, 2018
    Inventor: Kazutoshi KITANO
  • Patent number: 9073449
    Abstract: An efficiency map generating apparatus (100) generates an efficiency map of motors (M) connected to drive wheels of a mobile body and includes an instructed torque detecting unit (111) that detects an instructed torque input for the multiple motors (M), a torque distributing unit (112) that distributes torque to each of the multiple motors (M) based on the instructed torque, a power consumption detecting unit (113) that detects power consumption of the motors (M), a rotation count detecting unit (103) that detects the rotation counts of the motors (M), and an efficiency map generating unit (114) that generates a motor efficiency map (115) based on the torque in multiple combinations, the power consumption, and the rotation counts, where the torque distributing unit (112) causes any of the multiple motors (M) to generate regenerative torque.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 10, 2011
    Date of Patent: July 7, 2015
    Assignee: PIONEER CORPORATION
    Inventors: Kazutoshi Kitano, Masahiro Kato, Yoshikazu Takeuchi, Kazunobu Hashimoto, Chihiro Kawabata, Eiji Muramatsu
  • Patent number: 9045057
    Abstract: An efficiency map generating apparatus (100) generates an efficiency map of motors (M) connected to drive wheels of a mobile body and includes an instructed torque detecting unit (111) that detects an instructed torque input for the multiple motors (M), a torque distributing unit (112) that distributes torque to each of the multiple motors (M) based on the instructed torque, a power consumption detecting unit (113) that detects power consumption of the motors (M), a rotation count detecting unit (103) that detects the rotation counts of the motors (M), and an efficiency map generating unit (114) that generates a motor efficiency map (115) based on the torque in multiple combinations, the power consumption, and the rotation counts, where the torque distributing unit (112) causes any of the multiple motors (M) to generate regenerative torque.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 10, 2011
    Date of Patent: June 2, 2015
    Assignee: PIONEER CORPORATION
    Inventors: Kazutoshi Kitano, Masahiro Kato, Yoshikazu Takeuchi, Kazunobu Hashimoto, Chihiro Kawabata, Eiji Muramatsu
  • Patent number: 9014897
    Abstract: A torque distribution apparatus acquires instructed torque input and a motor efficiency map; detects vehicular speed and drive wheel rotational speed; calculates based on the speeds, a relational expression of a slip rate at drive wheels and a friction coefficient; creates based on the relational expression, a performance curve expression that indicates torque-drive wheel rotational speed relations, superimposes the performance curve expression on the motor efficiency map, creates an efficiency variation expression that indicates for each vehicular speed, the torque and efficiency values of the motor efficiency map, and calculates torque that optimizes efficiency, from the efficiency variation expression; calculates within a range of the slip rate being 0 to 0.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 18, 2011
    Date of Patent: April 21, 2015
    Assignee: Pioneer Corporation
    Inventors: Masahiro Kato, Eiji Muramatsu, Chihiro Kawabata, Kazutoshi Kitano, Kazunobu Hashimoto, Yoshikazu Takeuchi
  • Patent number: 8935032
    Abstract: A torque distribution apparatus acquires an instructed torque input and a motor efficiency map for motors; detects vehicular speed and drive wheel rotational speed; calculates based on the detected speeds, a relational expression of drive wheel slip rate and a friction coefficient; creates based on the relational expression, a performance curve expression indicating relations between torque and the drive wheel rotational speed, superimposes the performance curve expression on the motor efficiency map, creates an efficiency variation expression indicating for each vehicular speed, the torque and efficiency values of the motor efficiency map, and calculates a torque that optimizes efficiency from the efficiency variation expression; calculates based on the instructed torque and the torque optimizing efficiency, a torque distribution value for each motor; and controls torque distribution to each motor, within a range of the slip rate being 0 to 0.2 and based on the torque distribution values.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 18, 2011
    Date of Patent: January 13, 2015
    Assignee: Pioneer Corporation
    Inventors: Masahiro Kato, Eiji Muramatsu, Chihiro Kawabata, Kazutoshi Kitano, Kazunobu Hashimoto, Yoshikazu Takeuchi