Patents by Inventor Kenji Furukawa

Kenji Furukawa 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: 20180281646
    Abstract: Provided is a seat cushion member for use in a vehicle seat. The seat cushion member includes a cushion pad; a first side frame; a second side frame; at least one coupling member; and a load receiving member arranged in an area lower than the cushion pad and capable of receiving a downward load that acts on the cushion pad. The load receiving member is joined to the at least one coupling member and is spaced apart from the second side frame with a void therebetween.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 26, 2018
    Publication date: October 4, 2018
    Applicant: TOYOTA BOSHOKU KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventors: Kenji FURUKAWA, Teruyuki SHIMIZU
  • Patent number: 10081280
    Abstract: A vehicle seat that can reduce the mass of a side frame without significantly reducing the mechanical strength of the side frame is provided. The vehicle seat comprises a back frame that comprises a side frame that extends substantially vertically, and a recliner that is coupled to a lower end of the side frame and configured so that the back frame is pivotable. The side frame comprises a side frame body that comprises a closed cross-section portion and extends from an upper end of the side frame to the recliner, and a reinforcing member that extends to the recliner from a point between a first and a second end of the side frame body along an extension axis of the side frame body and is fixed to the side frame body with at least a part of the reinforcing member being inserted into the closed cross-section portion.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 27, 2017
    Date of Patent: September 25, 2018
    Assignee: TOYOTA BOSHOKU KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventors: Kenji Furukawa, Yoshihiro Motoi, Shohei Funaki
  • Patent number: 10076980
    Abstract: A vehicle seat includes: a seat back configured to be coupled with a vehicle body and to have backrest angle adjustable with respect to the vehicle body; a support shaft that is attached to the seat back and extends in a seat width direction an armrest that is coupled with the seat back to be pivotable about the support shaft and allowed to be pivotally extracted from the seat back to be in an extracted position and retracted to the seat back to be in a retracted position; and an extracted position retaining mechanism that retains the armrest in the extracted position when the armrest is extracted from the seat back to limit an angle of the armrest with respect to the vehicle body to be in a predetermined range while the backrest angle of the seat back is changed.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 5, 2016
    Date of Patent: September 18, 2018
    Assignee: TOYOTA BOSHOKU KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventors: Kenji Furukawa, Makoto Esaki
  • Publication number: 20180170226
    Abstract: A vehicle seat that can reduce the mass of a side frame without significantly reducing the mechanical strength of the side frame is provided. The vehicle seat comprises a back frame that comprises a side frame that extends substantially vertically, and a recliner that is coupled to a lower end of the side frame and configured so that the back frame is pivotable. The side frame comprises a side frame body that comprises a closed cross-section portion and extends from an upper end of the side frame to the recliner, and a reinforcing member that extends to the recliner from a point between a first and a second end of the side frame body along an extension axis of the side frame body and is fixed to the side frame body with at least a part of the reinforcing member being inserted into the closed cross-section portion.
    Type: Application
    Filed: November 27, 2017
    Publication date: June 21, 2018
    Applicant: TOYOTA BOSHOKU KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventors: Kenji FURUKAWA, Yoshihiro MOTOI, Shohei FUNAKI
  • Publication number: 20180147956
    Abstract: A movable rail is slidable relative to a fixed rail and supports a seat. A projection protrudes towards the seat from an upper surface of the movable rail that faces the seat and fixes the seat to the movable rail. A rail cover is elastic, and configured to cover the upper surface of the movable rail. The rail cover extends in a direction parallel to a longitudinal axis of the fixed rail and comprises a slit that allows the projection to pass through. A spacer plate having a strip shape is attached to the upper surface of the movable rail and extends in a direction parallel to a longitudinal axis of the movable rail, and is configured to comprise a through-hole for the projection to pass through.
    Type: Application
    Filed: November 9, 2017
    Publication date: May 31, 2018
    Applicant: TOYOTA BOSHOKU KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventors: Kenji FURUKAWA, Keigo MATSUMOTO, Yoshiro HARA
  • Patent number: 9893647
    Abstract: A resonance inverter includes a first coil provided between an input terminal and a switch element, a first capacitor provided between the drain and the source of the switch element, a second capacitor serially connected between the drain and the source of the switch element, and a second coil. A drain-source voltage of a switch element can be effectively lowered, by setting a serial resonance frequency based on the second coil and the second capacitor to a value higher than twice of a driving frequency, and lower than 2.75 times thereof.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 12, 2016
    Date of Patent: February 13, 2018
    Assignee: TDK CORPORATION
    Inventors: Katsunori Imai, Kenji Furukawa
  • Patent number: 9539926
    Abstract: A hinge mechanism includes a resin base member, and a support rotatably and pivotally mounted to the base member. The base member is formed by blow molding so as to be hollowed. The base member integrally includes a hinge member for rotatably and pivotally mounting the support to the base member. The hinge member is set in a molding die for clamping at the time of the blow molding of the base member, so as to be molded integrally with the base member.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 5, 2013
    Date of Patent: January 10, 2017
    Assignee: TOYOTA BOSHOKU KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventors: Kenji Furukawa, Hiroshi Tsuchida
  • Publication number: 20160325650
    Abstract: A vehicle seat includes: a seat back configured to be coupled with a vehicle body and to have backrest angle adjustable with respect to the vehicle body; a support shaft that is attached to the seat back and extends in a seat width direction an armrest that is coupled with the seat back to be pivotable about the support shaft and allowed to be pivotally extracted from the seat back to be in an extracted position and retracted to the seat back to be in a retracted position; and an extracted position retaining mechanism that retains the armrest in the extracted position when the armrest is extracted from the seat back to limit an angle of the armrest with respect to the vehicle body to be in a predetermined range while the backrest angle of the seat back is changed.
    Type: Application
    Filed: May 5, 2016
    Publication date: November 10, 2016
    Applicant: TOYOTA BOSHOKU KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventors: Kenji FURUKAWA, Makoto ESAKI
  • Patent number: 9481267
    Abstract: A vehicle seat includes a reclining mechanism that is provided to make the angle of a seat back relative to a seat cushion adjustable; a biasing member that biases the seat back in such a direction as to decrease the angle of the seat back relative to the seat cushion; and an assist member that applies a force in a direction opposite to the biasing force of the biasing member to the seat back, and generates a force that is smaller than the total of the weight of the seat back and the biasing force of the biasing member when the seat back is lifted up from a forwardly folded position in which the seat back has a small angle relative to the seat cushion toward a sitting position.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 4, 2013
    Date of Patent: November 1, 2016
    Assignee: TOYOTA BOSHOKU KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventors: Kenji Furukawa, Yoshiyuki Kumazaki
  • Publication number: 20160241128
    Abstract: A resonance inverter includes a first coil provided between an input terminal and a switch element, a first capacitor provided between the drain and the source of the switch element, a second capacitor serially connected between the drain and the source of the switch element, and a second coil. A drain-source voltage of a switch element can be effectively lowered, by setting a serial resonance frequency based on the second coil and the second capacitor to a value higher than twice of a driving frequency, and lower than 2.75 times thereof.
    Type: Application
    Filed: February 12, 2016
    Publication date: August 18, 2016
    Applicants: TDK CORPORATION, TDK CORPORATION
    Inventors: Katsunori IMAI, Kenji FURUKAWA
  • Patent number: 9362770
    Abstract: A device control apparatus according to an embodiment includes a monitoring unit, a first processing unit, and a second processing unit. The monitoring unit monitors a state of voltage supply from a battery. When the start of the voltage supply is detected, the first processing unit starts the voltage supply to some devices, operates in a first operation mode, and executes a resume process of the devices. When the resume process is completed, the second processing unit starts the voltage supply to devices other than some devices, initializes states of the devices, and operates in a second operation mode in which consumption power is larger than consumption power of the first operation mode.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 27, 2014
    Date of Patent: June 7, 2016
    Assignee: FUJITSU TEN LIMITED
    Inventors: Kenji Tada, Kenji Furukawa, Tohru Mikamo, Toshihito Sawai, Hideshi Nishizawa, Takashi Mizushima, Satoru Nakae, Kiyoshi Koyama, Ryoh Izumoto, Mitsuru Hanada
  • Patent number: 9278638
    Abstract: Certain embodiments of the present invention include a vehicular seat having a seatback, a seat cushion, a table and an armrest. The seatback is preferably tiltably connected to a seat cushion. The table is preferably provided beside the seat cushion. The armrest is preferably mounted to a side portion of the seatback. The table preferably has a recess for avoiding from interfering the table with the armrest when the seatback is brought down to a predetermined position.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 24, 2013
    Date of Patent: March 8, 2016
    Assignee: TOYOTA BOSHOKU KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventors: Hiroshi Tsuchida, Kenji Furukawa
  • Patent number: 9123137
    Abstract: A motion vector computing device according to one embodiment includes: a difference computing unit that computes inter-frame temporal difference value It, uses horizontal direction inter-pixel difference value Ix and vertical direction inter-pixel difference value Iy in a same frame, the current frame signal and the different frame signals when the pixel moves for a small-time, a variance matrix generating unit computes the variances of the gradient in the horizontal direction, in the vertical direction and in the temporal direction of the luminance value on the basis of the difference values Ix, Iy and It, a coefficient computing unit computes a coefficient of a flat plane formula by calculating a formula for giving a minimum with regard to the square error of the flat plane formula approximating the distribution of luminance gradients of the pixel and a vector computing unit computes the motion vector uses the coefficient.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 8, 2012
    Date of Patent: September 1, 2015
    Assignee: Toshiba Alpine Automotive Technology Corporation
    Inventors: Kiyoyuki Kawai, Kenji Furukawa
  • Publication number: 20150092051
    Abstract: According to one embodiment, a moving object detector includes an image input device and an image processing device. The image input device captures a moving object existing at a close distance to acquire image information of the moving object. The image processing device applies arithmetic processing to the image information to generate a cylindrical binary image and a top view binary image, extracts a region of the moving object by background correlation, estimates an approaching direction of the moving object from the cylindrical binary image, and estimates a motion trajectory of the moving object based on the approaching direction and the top view binary image.
    Type: Application
    Filed: February 10, 2014
    Publication date: April 2, 2015
    Applicant: Toshiba Alpine Automotive Technology Corporation
    Inventor: Kenji FURUKAWA
  • Publication number: 20140210421
    Abstract: A device control apparatus according to an embodiment includes a monitoring unit, a first processing unit, and a second processing unit. The monitoring unit monitors a state of voltage supply from a battery. When the start of the voltage supply is detected, the first processing unit starts the voltage supply to some devices, operates in a first operation mode, and executes a resume process of the devices. When the resume process is completed, the second processing unit starts the voltage supply to devices other than some devices, initializes states of the devices, and operates in a second operation mode in which consumption power is larger than consumption power of the first operation mode.
    Type: Application
    Filed: January 27, 2014
    Publication date: July 31, 2014
    Applicant: FUJITSU TEN LIMITED
    Inventors: Kenji TADA, Kenji FURUKAWA, Tohru MIKAMO, Toshihito SAWAI, Hideshi NISHIZAWA, Takashi MIZUSHIMA, Satoru NAKAE, Kiyoshi KOYAMA, Ryoh IZUMOTO, Mitsuru HANADA
  • Publication number: 20140124634
    Abstract: A hinge mechanism includes a resin base member, and a support rotatably and pivotally mounted to the base member. The base member is formed by blow molding so as to be hollowed. The base member integrally includes a hinge member for rotatably and pivotally mounting the support to the base member. The hinge member is set in a molding die for clamping at the time of the blow molding of the base member, so as to be molded integrally with the base member.
    Type: Application
    Filed: November 5, 2013
    Publication date: May 8, 2014
    Applicant: TOYOTA BOSHOKU KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventors: Kenji FURUKAWA, Hiroshi TSUCHIDA
  • Publication number: 20140125106
    Abstract: A vehicle seat includes a reclining mechanism that is provided to make the angle of a seat back relative to a seat cushion adjustable; a biasing member that biases the seat back in such a direction as to decrease the angle of the seat back relative to the seat cushion; and an assist member that applies a force in a direction opposite to the biasing force of the biasing member to the seat back, and generates a force that is smaller than the total of the weight of the seat back and the biasing force of the biasing member when the seat back is lifted up from a forwardly folded position in which the seat back has a small angle relative to the seat cushion toward a sitting position.
    Type: Application
    Filed: November 4, 2013
    Publication date: May 8, 2014
    Applicant: TOYOTA BOSHOKU KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventors: Kenji FURUKAWA, Yoshiyuki KUMAZAKI
  • Publication number: 20140110975
    Abstract: Certain embodiments of the present invention include a vehicular seat having a seatback, a seat cushion, a table and an armrest. The seatback is preferably tiltably connected to a seat cushion. The table is preferably provided beside the seat cushion. The armrest is preferably mounted to a side portion of the seatback. The table preferably has a recess for avoiding from interfering the table with the armrest when the seatback is brought down to a predetermined position.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 24, 2013
    Publication date: April 24, 2014
    Applicant: TOYOTA BOSHOKU KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventors: Hiroshi TSUCHIDA, Kenji FURUKAWA
  • Patent number: 8617596
    Abstract: A process is provided for efficiently producing sustained-release tablets having superior sustained-release properties capable of inhibiting the initial elution of a drug and allowing the drug to be completely eluted after a prescribed amount of time has elapsed. A process for producing sustained-release tablets comprising: dry granulating a mixture composed of a hydroxyalkyl cellulose (A) having a viscosity of 1 to 50 mPa·s in a 2% by mass aqueous solution at 20° C., a hydroxyalkyl cellulose (B) having a viscosity of 100 mPa·s or more in a 2% by mass aqueous solution at 20° C., an active ingredient and an additive, and forming the resulting granules into tablets.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 10, 2007
    Date of Patent: December 31, 2013
    Assignee: Nippon Soda Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Takeshi Honma, Kenji Furukawa
  • Publication number: 20130107124
    Abstract: A motion vector computing device according to one embodiment includes: a difference computing unit that computes inter-frame temporal difference value It, uses horizontal direction inter-pixel difference value Ix and vertical direction inter-pixel difference value Iy in a same frame, the current frame signal and the different frame signals when the pixel moves for a small-time, a variance matrix generating unit computes the variances of the gradient in the horizontal direction, in the vertical direction and in the temporal direction of the luminance value on the basis of the difference values Ix, Iy and It, a coefficient computing unit computes a coefficient of a flat plane formula by calculating a formula for giving a minimum with regard to the square error of the flat plane formula approximating the distribution of luminance gradients of the pixel and a vector computing unit computes the motion vector uses the coefficient.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 8, 2012
    Publication date: May 2, 2013
    Applicant: Toshiba Alpine Automotive Technology Corporation
    Inventors: Kiyoyuki KAWAI, Kenji Furukawa