Patents by Inventor Koji Morikawa

Koji Morikawa 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: 20160157778
    Abstract: An eyeglass-type electroencephalogram interface system is worn on the head of a user. The system includes: an output section for presenting a visual stimulation to the user; an ear electrode portion disposed at a position coming in contact with an ear of the user when the system is worn; a facial electrode portion disposed at a position coming in contact with the face below a straight line connecting an external canthus and an internal canthus of an eye of the user, such that the mass of the system is supported at the position, when the system is worn; and an electroencephalogram measurement and determination section for measuring an event-related potential on the basis of a potential difference between the ear electrode portion and the facial electrode portion based on the visual stimulation being presented by the output section as a starting point.
    Type: Application
    Filed: February 10, 2016
    Publication date: June 9, 2016
    Inventors: Yoshihisa Terada, Koji Morikawa
  • Patent number: 9241226
    Abstract: An exemplary UCL estimation system including: an output section configured to present to a user a first sound, and a second sound after lapse of a first predetermined time from a point of presenting the first sound, the first sound having a sound pressure within a predetermined sound pressure range, and the second sound having a same sound pressure as that of the first sound; a measurement section configured to measure an electroencephalogram signal of the user; an extraction section configured to extract, from an electroencephalogram signal measured within a second predetermined time from a point of presenting the second sound, a characteristic amount of an event-related potential of the signal; and an estimation section configured to estimate, by referring to a predetermined relationship between characteristic amount values of event-related potential and uncomfortableness threshold values, an uncomfortableness threshold value corresponding to the extracted characteristic amount of the potential.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 4, 2013
    Date of Patent: January 19, 2016
    Assignee: Panasonic Intellectual Property Management Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Koji Morikawa, Shinobu Adachi, Yumiko Kato, Jun Ozawa
  • Patent number: 9232905
    Abstract: An uncomfortable sound pressure estimation system includes: a biological signal measurement section for measuring an electroencephalogram signal of a user; a sound stimulation output section for presenting a sound stimulation group to the user, the sound stimulation group including a first sound, a second sound, and a third sound which are pure tones of the same frequency and which consecutively decrease in sound pressure within a predetermined range; an extraction section for, from the electroencephalogram signal in a predetermined zone defined based on a point of presenting at least one of the second sound and the third sound as a starting point, extracting an N1-P2-amplitude related or wavelet-coefficient related characteristic amount of event-related potential of the electroencephalogram signal; and a determination section for determining an uncomfortable sound pressure at the frequency of the sound stimulation group based on the characteristic amount extracted by the extraction section.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 16, 2013
    Date of Patent: January 12, 2016
    Assignee: Panasonic Intellectual Property Management Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Shinobu Adachi, Koji Morikawa, Jun Ozawa
  • Patent number: 9232904
    Abstract: In an electroencephalogram recording apparatus: a classification section classifies a collected sound into one of categories concerning sound pressure; an accumulation determination section determines whether or not to record an electroencephalogram of a user based on whether a number of times of data accumulation has reached a target value for the category into which the sound is classified; and an accumulation section accumulates an electroencephalogram data and a sound data in association if the electroencephalogram data is determined to be recorded. A first value is designated as a target value for a first category into which sounds of an expected minimum value are classified. A second value is designated as a target value for a second category into which any sound having a sound pressure greater than the minimum value is classified. The accumulation determination section sets the first value to be equal to or greater than the second value.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 21, 2013
    Date of Patent: January 12, 2016
    Assignee: Panasonic Intellectual Property Management Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Koji Morikawa, Jun Ozawa, Shinobu Adachi
  • Patent number: 9149202
    Abstract: An adjustment device for a hearing aid includes: an audio extraction section for, through an acoustic process of a collected audio signal, utilizing information of a phoneme or syllable contained in the audio signal to output time information, the time information identifying a point of uttering the phoneme or syllable; an electroencephalogram measurement section for measuring an electroencephalogram signal of a user; a determination section for determining a difficulty of hearing of the phoneme or syllable by relying on an event-related potential in the electroencephalogram signal based on the identified point of uttering the phoneme or syllable as a starting point; a phoneme identification section for, when a plurality of phonemes or syllables are determined as difficult to hear, identifying a chronologically preceding phoneme or syllable among them to be difficult to hear; and a gain adjustment section for, with respect to the phoneme or syllable identified by the phoneme identification section, determinin
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 13, 2011
    Date of Patent: October 6, 2015
    Assignee: Panasonic Intellectual Property Management Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Koji Morikawa, Shinobu Adachi
  • Patent number: 9149214
    Abstract: An annoyance judgment system includes: a biological signal measurement section configured to measure an electroencephalogram signal of a user; a database retaining a plurality of monosyllabic speech sounds such that, for each speech sound, the speech sound and a reference latency of an electroencephalogram negative component corresponding to the speech sound are retained in association; a presented-speech sound determination section configured to determine a monosyllabic speech sound to be presented by referring to the database; and an annoyance judgment section configured to judge annoyance of the output speech sound by comparing a peak latency of a negative component of the electroencephalogram signal in a range from 50 ms to 350 ms from a starting point, the a starting point being a point in time at which the determined speech sound is presented, against the reference latency corresponding to the determined speech sound that is retained in the database.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 28, 2012
    Date of Patent: October 6, 2015
    Assignee: Panasonic Intellectual Property Management Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Shinobu Adachi, Jun Ozawa, Koji Morikawa, Yumiko Kato
  • Publication number: 20150261307
    Abstract: A sensor device includes a plurality of electrode chambers, a measurement chamber, and an accommodation chamber which are connected in annular relationship permitting expansion and contraction. Each of the plurality of electrode chambers has a measurement electrode. The measurement chamber has a biological potential measurement circuit which is connected with each measurement electrode via electrically conductive wiring for measuring biological potential of the user by using the measurement electrode. The accommodation chamber has an internal protrusion. The wiring which connects at least one measurement electrode and the biological potential measurement circuit is provided around the protrusion, the wiring having a length which enables longitudinal feeding in accordance with an amount of elongation when the sensor device is elongated. A maximum clearance S between the accommodation chamber and an adjacent chamber is greater than a maximum clearance R between any two adjacent chambers.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 23, 2015
    Publication date: September 17, 2015
    Inventors: Koji MORIKAWA, Tsuyoshi INOUE, Koichi IKEMOTO, Satoshi KANAI
  • Patent number: 9131868
    Abstract: The determination system includes a presented-speech sound control section for determining a speech sound to be presented to a user; auditory/visual stimulation presentation sections for presenting the determined speech sound as an audio/a character; a group-wise summation section for taking a summation of an event-related potential of an electroencephalogram signal of the user for each group of speech sounds; a first determination section for, from the event-related potential having been subjected to summation for each group, making a group-by-group determination of comfortableness as to whether the user is comfortably hearing to the speech sound, to at least determine whether the user is listening to the speech sound with strife, or to determine whether the user is annoyed by the speech sound; and a second determination section for, from the event-related potential, making a speech sound-by-speech sound determination of intelligibility as to whether the user is clearly hearing the speech sound.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 1, 2012
    Date of Patent: September 15, 2015
    Assignee: Panasonic Intellectual Property Management Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Kazuki Kozuka, Shinobu Adachi, Koji Morikawa
  • Patent number: 9117124
    Abstract: A driving attention amount determination apparatus includes: an electroencephalogram measurement section for measuring an electroencephalogram signal of a driver; a central stimulation presentation section for presenting a visual stimulation in a central visual field of the driver; a peripheral stimulation presentation section for presenting a visual stimulation in a peripheral visual field of the driver; a threshold setting section for setting a determination threshold for attention amount determination from a distribution of amplitude of an event-related potential in the electroencephalogram signal based on a point of presenting the stimulation in the central visual field as a starting point; and an attention amount determination section for determining an attention amount through a comparison between the determination threshold and an amplitude of an event-related potential in the electroencephalogram signal based on a point of presenting the stimulation in the peripheral visual field as a starting point.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 8, 2014
    Date of Patent: August 25, 2015
    Assignee: Panasonic Intellectual Property Management Co., Ltd
    Inventors: Yoshihisa Terada, Koji Morikawa
  • Patent number: 9100758
    Abstract: A sound pressure assessment system determines sounds to be presented by referring to a database retaining data of sounds, each of which is a pure tone. The system presents the determined sound as a first sound, and in a predetermined time after presenting the first sound, presents as a second sound a sound at least having the same frequency and the same sound pressure level as those of the first sound to the user. The system extracts an amount of change from an N1 component in response to the first sound to that in response to the second sound. The N1 components are negative components of an user's event-related potential based on points of presenting the first and second sounds as respective starting points. The system determines whether the sound pressure level of the presented sound is excessive to the user, based on the amount of change.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 13, 2012
    Date of Patent: August 4, 2015
    Assignee: Panasonic Corporation
    Inventors: Shinobu Adachi, Yumiko Kato, Koji Morikawa, Jun Ozawa, Hiroshi Nittono
  • Patent number: 9078725
    Abstract: An electroencephalogram interface system includes: a presentation section for presenting multiple options to a user, the multiple options being manipulable items concerning manipulations of a device; a selection flicker control section for flickering each option; an inference section for inferring one option corresponding to a desired manipulation of the user by utilizing an event-related potential of an electroencephalogram of the user, the event-related potential being based on the flickering of each option as a starting point; a confirmation flicker control section for effecting confirmation flickering of the one option inferred; a determination section for determining whether the inferred option corresponds to the desired manipulation of the user by utilizing an event-related potential of the user's electroencephalogram, the event-related potential being based on the confirmation flickering of the one option as a starting point; and an output section for executing a process which is in accordance with the
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 29, 2011
    Date of Patent: July 14, 2015
    Assignee: Panasonic Intellectual Property Management Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Koji Morikawa, Yoshihisa Terada
  • Publication number: 20150150485
    Abstract: A biological information measurement system includes: a plurality of electrodes; a current source connected to the plurality of electrodes to supply a current thereto; a measurement unit for measuring impedance from a potential difference between the plurality of electrodes; a detector for detecting values of specific peaks from chronological data of the impedance; an envelope generator for generating an envelope of values of the specific peaks; and an output unit for outputting information of the envelope as biological information.
    Type: Application
    Filed: February 10, 2015
    Publication date: June 4, 2015
    Inventors: Jeffry Bonar FERNANDO, Koji MORIKAWA, Jun OZAWA
  • Patent number: 9044157
    Abstract: In an exemplary assessment system of speech sound listening, an output section presents a speech sound to a user as an auditory stimulation; a positive component determination section determines whether a positive component appears in an event-related potential of an electroencephalogram signal of the user in a range from 600-900 ms from a starting point, the starting point being a point in time at which the speech sound is presented, and outputs an assessment result as to whether the user is listening to the speech sound with strife or not; and a negative component determination section determines whether a negative component appears in the event-related potential in a range from 100-300 ms from a starting point, the starting point being the point in time at which the speech sound is presented, and outputs an assessment result as to whether the user is annoyed by the speech sound or not.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 30, 2012
    Date of Patent: June 2, 2015
    Assignee: Panasonic Intellectual Property Management Co., Ltd
    Inventors: Shinobu Adachi, Koji Morikawa, Yumiko Kato, Kazuki Kozuka
  • Patent number: 8914100
    Abstract: An exemplary electroencephalogram measurement system includes: a frequency analysis section for, analyzing a frequency power of the electroencephalogram signal of a user with respect to each set of a reference electrode and a measurement electrode; an insufficient electrode determination section for, through comparison of the analyzed frequency power against a first threshold value, distinguishing whether a state of attachment of each electrode is sufficient or not; and an insufficiency cause estimation section for determining the number of insufficient electrodes distinguished as insufficiently worn, determining a position at which each insufficient electrode is in contact with the user, and estimating a cause for the insufficient state of attachment of the insufficient electrode or electrodes that corresponds to the determined number of insufficient electrodes and position of each insufficient electrode by referring to insufficiency pattern data.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 30, 2012
    Date of Patent: December 16, 2014
    Assignee: Panasonic Corporation
    Inventors: Shinobu Adachi, Jun Ozawa, Yoshihisa Terada, Koji Morikawa
  • Publication number: 20140333332
    Abstract: An exemplary electronic device is in a housing to be gripped by both hands, and measures the potentials of first and second fingers of respectively different hands. The device includes: a first electrode group provided in a position to come in contact with the first finger, including a first main electrode and at least one first auxiliary electrode provided in a position away from the first main electrode; a second electrode group provided in a position to come in contact with the second finger, including a second main electrode and at least one second auxiliary electrode provided in a position away from the second main electrode; a biological signal processor for, from potential values measured at the first and second electrode groups, determining respective contact states concerning the first and second fingers; and a transmission circuit for presenting information concerning a finger contact state based on a result of determination.
    Type: Application
    Filed: July 23, 2014
    Publication date: November 13, 2014
    Inventors: Akinori MATSUMOTO, Koji MORIKAWA, Jeffry Bonar FERNANDO, Katsuyoshi YAMAGAMI, Jun OZAWA
  • Publication number: 20140309540
    Abstract: A biosignal measurement apparatus includes: a potential difference measurement unit that measures a potential difference between a plurality of electrodes of an electrode unit placed on a user's chest; an ECG analysis unit that obtains an electrocardiogram (ECG) indicating a temporal variation of a cardiac potential of the user, from the potential difference measured by the potential difference measurement unit; an impedance measurement switching unit that determines a start timing of a first period which is a period not including an R wave, using the ECG obtained by the ECG analysis unit; an impedance measurement unit that measures an impedance between the plurality of electrodes in the first period; and a respiratory calculation unit that calculates respiratory information related to respiration of the user, based on a temporal variation of the impedance measured by the impedance measurement unit.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 24, 2014
    Publication date: October 16, 2014
    Inventors: Koji MORIKAWA, Jun OZAWA
  • Patent number: 8849391
    Abstract: The speech sound intelligibility assessment system includes: an output section for presenting a speech sound to a user; a biological signal measurement section for measuring an electroencephalogram signal of the user; a positive component determination section for determining presence/absence of a positive component of an event-related potential in the electroencephalogram signal in a zone from 600 ms to 800 ms from a starting point, which is a point in time at which the output section presents a speech sound; a negative component determination section for determining presence/absence of a negative component of an event-related potential in the electroencephalogram signal in a zone from 100 ms to 300 ms from the same starting point; and an assessment section for evaluating whether the user has clearly aurally comprehended the presented speech sound or not based on the results of determination of presence/absence of the positive and negative components, respectively.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 28, 2011
    Date of Patent: September 30, 2014
    Assignee: Panasonic Corporation
    Inventors: Shinobu Adachi, Koji Morikawa
  • Publication number: 20140249438
    Abstract: An exemplary electronic device is in a housing to be gripped by a right hand and a left hand of a user, and has a plurality of manipulable portions. The electronic device includes: electrodes placed at positions which come in contact with the right hand and left hand of the user gripping the housing; an extractor for extracting an electrocardiographic component of the user from a potential difference between the electrodes; a determination section for determining whether the extracted electrocardiographic component is in a positive direction or a negative direction by referring to a prestored criterion; and a change section for, in accordance with a result of determination by the determination section, changing assignment between each of the plurality of manipulable portions and a manipulation signal generated in response to a manipulation.
    Type: Application
    Filed: May 9, 2014
    Publication date: September 4, 2014
    Applicant: Panasonic Corporation
    Inventors: Koji MORIKAWA, Akinori MATSUMOTO, Jeffry Bonar FERNANDO, Katsuyoshi YAMAGAMI, Jun OZAWA
  • Patent number: 8818498
    Abstract: An eyeglass-type electroencephalogram interface system is worn on the head of a user. The system includes: an output section for presenting a visual stimulation to the user; an ear electrode portion disposed at a position coming in contact with an ear of the user when the system is worn; a facial electrode portion disposed at a position coming in contact with the face below a straight line connecting an external canthus and an internal canthus of an eye of the user, such that the mass of the system is supported at the position, when the system is worn; and an electroencephalogram measurement and determination section for measuring an event-related potential on the basis of a potential difference between the ear electrode portion and the facial electrode portion based on the visual stimulation being presented by the output section as a starting point.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 29, 2010
    Date of Patent: August 26, 2014
    Assignee: Panasonic Corporation
    Inventors: Yoshihisa Terada, Koji Morikawa
  • Publication number: 20140226013
    Abstract: A driving attention amount determination apparatus includes: an electroencephalogram measurement section for measuring an electroencephalogram signal of a driver; a central stimulation presentation section for presenting a visual stimulation in a central visual field of the driver; a peripheral stimulation presentation section for presenting a visual stimulation in a peripheral visual field of the driver; a threshold setting section for setting a determination threshold for attention amount determination from a distribution of amplitude of an event-related potential in the electroencephalogram signal based on a point of presenting the stimulation in the central visual field as a starting point; and an attention amount determination section for determining an attention amount through a comparison between the determination threshold and an amplitude of an event-related potential in the electroencephalogram signal based on a point of presenting the stimulation in the peripheral visual field as a starting point.
    Type: Application
    Filed: April 8, 2014
    Publication date: August 14, 2014
    Applicant: Panasonic Corporation
    Inventors: Yoshihisa Terada, Koji Morikawa