Patents by Inventor Makoto Hirohata

Makoto Hirohata 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: 10832685
    Abstract: According to an embodiment, a speech processing device includes an extractor, a classifier, a similarity calculator, and an identifier. The extractor is configured to extract a speech feature from utterance data. The classifier is configured to classify the utterance data into a set of utterances for each speaker based on the extracted speech feature. The similarity calculator is configured to calculate a similarity between the speech feature of the utterance data included in the set and each of a plurality of speaker models. The identifier is configured to identify a speaker for each set based on the calculated similarity.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 1, 2016
    Date of Patent: November 10, 2020
    Assignee: Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba
    Inventors: Ning Ding, Makoto Hirohata
  • Patent number: 10460733
    Abstract: According to one embodiment, a signal processing apparatus includes a memory and a processor electrically coupled to the memory. The processor separates a plurality of signals by a separation filter, and outputs a plurality of separate signals. The plurality of signals includes signals which are received at different positions and come from different directions. The processor estimates incoming directions of the plurality of separate signals, respectively, and associates the plurality of separate signals with transmission sources of the signals, and present association between the plurality of separate signals and the transmission sources of the signals.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 12, 2017
    Date of Patent: October 29, 2019
    Assignee: Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba
    Inventors: Makoto Hirohata, Toru Taniguchi, Taro Masuda
  • Patent number: 10366706
    Abstract: According to one embodiment, a signal processing apparatus includes a processer. The processor separates a plurality of signals, which are received at different positions and come from different directions, by a separation filter. The processor estimates incoming directions of a plurality of separate signals respectively, and associates the plurality of separate signals with transmission sources of the plurality of signals. The processor associates either one of a first attribute and a second attribute with the separate signals which are associated with the transmission sources of the signals based on results of the estimation of the incoming directions in a first period, and add either one of first label information and second label information.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 12, 2017
    Date of Patent: July 30, 2019
    Assignee: Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba
    Inventors: Makoto Hirohata, Toru Taniguchi, Taro Masuda
  • Patent number: 10109291
    Abstract: A noise suppression device includes an estimating unit that estimates, from a feature quantity representing the feature in each frequency range of a first acoustic signal which represents sound, the noise component of the feature quantity; a calculating unit that calculates, from the feature quantity and the noise component for each frequency range, a first suppression coefficient to be used in suppressing noise included in the first acoustic signal; a first attenuating unit that attenuates the first suppression coefficient in the time domain and calculates a second suppression coefficient; a second attenuating unit that attenuates the second suppression coefficient in the frequency domain and calculates a third suppression coefficient; and a generating unit that estimates, from the feature quantity and the third suppression coefficient, a voice component of the feature quantity and generates a second acoustic signal in which the noise included in the first acoustic signal is suppressed.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 23, 2016
    Date of Patent: October 23, 2018
    Assignee: Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba
    Inventors: Makoto Hirohata, Yusuke Kida
  • Publication number: 20180277120
    Abstract: According to one embodiment, a signal processing apparatus includes a memory and a processes electrically coupled to the memory. The processor separates a plurality of signals by a separation filter, and outputs a plurality of separate signals. The plurality of signals includes signals which are received at different positions and come from different directions. The processor estimates incoming directions of the plurality of separate signals, respectively, and associates the plurality of separate signals with transmission sources of the signals, and present association between the plurality of separate signals and the transmission sources of the signals.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 12, 2017
    Publication date: September 27, 2018
    Inventors: Makoto Hirohata, Toru Taniguchi, Taro Masuda
  • Publication number: 20180277141
    Abstract: According to one embodiment, a signal processing apparatus includes a processer. The processor separates a plurality of signals, which are received at different positions and come from different directions, by a separation filter. The processor estimates incoming directions of a plurality of separate signals respectively, and associates the plurality of separate signals with transmission sources of the plurality of signals. The processor associates either one of a first attribute and a second attribute with the separate signals which are associated with the transmission sources of the signals based on results of the estimation of the incoming directions in a first period, and add either one of first label information and second label information.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 12, 2017
    Publication date: September 27, 2018
    Inventors: Makoto Hirohata, Toru Taniguchi, Taro Masuda
  • Publication number: 20180061433
    Abstract: According to an embodiment, a signal processing device includes a calculating unit and a generating unit. The calculating unit calculates, for each of a plurality of separation signals obtained through blind source separation, a degree of belonging indicating a degree that the separation signal belongs to a cluster that is set. The generating unit synthesizes the plurality of separation signals each weighted by a weight that increases as the degree of belonging increases, so as to generate a synthetic signal corresponding to the cluster.
    Type: Application
    Filed: February 28, 2017
    Publication date: March 1, 2018
    Applicant: KABUSHIKI KAISHA TOSHIBA
    Inventors: Yusuke KIDA, Toru TANIGUCHI, Makoto HIROHATA
  • Publication number: 20170194018
    Abstract: A noise suppression device includes an estimating unit that estimates, from a feature quantity representing the feature in each frequency range of a first acoustic signal which represents sound, the noise component of the feature quantity; a calculating unit that calculates, from the feature quantity and the noise component for each frequency range, a first suppression coefficient to be used in suppressing noise included in the first acoustic signal; a first attenuating unit that attenuates the first suppression coefficient in the time domain and calculates a second suppression coefficient; a second attenuating unit that attenuates the second suppression coefficient in the frequency domain and calculates a third suppression coefficient; and a generating unit that estimates, from the feature quantity and the third suppression coefficient, a voice component of the feature quantity and generates a second acoustic signal in which the noise included in the first acoustic signal is suppressed.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 23, 2016
    Publication date: July 6, 2017
    Applicant: Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba
    Inventors: Makoto HIROHATA, Yusuke KIDA
  • Publication number: 20170076727
    Abstract: According to an embodiment, a speech processing device includes an extractor, a classifier, a similarity calculator, and an identifier. The extractor is configured to extract a speech feature from utterance data. The classifier is configured to classify the utterance data into a set of utterances for each speaker based on the extracted speech feature. The similarity calculator is configured to calculate a similarity between the speech feature of the utterance data included in the set and each of a plurality of speaker models. The identifier is configured to identify a speaker for each set based on the calculated similarity.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 1, 2016
    Publication date: March 16, 2017
    Applicant: Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba
    Inventors: Ning DING, Makoto HIROHATA
  • Patent number: 9478232
    Abstract: According to an embodiment, a signal processing apparatus includes an ambient sound estimating unit, a representative component estimating unit, a voice estimating unit, and a filter generating unit. The ambient sound estimating unit is configured to estimate, from the feature, an ambient sound component that is non-stationary among ambient sound components having a feature. The representative component estimating unit is configured to estimate a representative component representing ambient sound components estimated from one or more features for a time period, based on a largest value among the ambient sound components within the time period. The voice estimating unit is configured to estimate, from the feature, a voice component having the feature. The filter generating unit is configured to generate a filter for extracting a voice component and an ambient sound component from the feature, based on the voice component and the representative component.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 21, 2013
    Date of Patent: October 25, 2016
    Assignee: Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba
    Inventors: Makoto Hirohata, Masashi Nishiyama
  • Patent number: 9460714
    Abstract: In a speech processing apparatus, an acquisition unit is configured to acquire a speech. A separation unit is configured to separate the speech into a plurality of sections in accordance with a prescribed rule. A calculation unit is configured to calculate a degree of similarity in each combination of the sections. An estimation unit is configured to estimate, with respect to the each section, a direction of arrival of the speech. A correction unit is configured to group the sections whose directions of arrival are mutually similar into a same group and correct the degree of similarity with respect to the combination of the sections in the same group. A clustering unit is configured to cluster the sections by using the corrected degree of similarity.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 12, 2014
    Date of Patent: October 4, 2016
    Assignee: KABUSHIKI KAISHA TOSHIBA
    Inventors: Ning Ding, Yusuke Kida, Makoto Hirohata
  • Patent number: 9412391
    Abstract: According to an embodiment, a signal processing device includes a background calculator, a signal generator, an extractor, a similarity calculator, and a mixer. The background calculator is configured to calculate a first background signal in which a speech signal is removed, based on the acoustic signals. The signal generator is configured to generate a reference signal from at least one of the acoustic signals. The extractor is configured to extract a second background signal by removing a speech signal from the reference signal. The similarity calculator is configured to calculate a similarity between feature data of the background signals. The mixer is configured to calculate a weighted sum of the background signals in such a way that a greater weight is given to the first background signal as the similarity is higher and a greater weight is given to the second background signal as the similarity is lower.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 20, 2013
    Date of Patent: August 9, 2016
    Assignee: Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba
    Inventors: Toshiyuki Ono, Makoto Hirohata, Masashi Nishiyama, Toru Taniguchi
  • Patent number: 9384563
    Abstract: In an embodiment, an image processing device includes: a first calculating unit; a selecting unit; an extracting unit; a second calculating unit; a determining unit; and a generating unit. The first calculating unit calculates posture information of a subject from a first image including the subject. The selecting unit selects a second image associated with the posture information from a plurality of second images including clothing. The extracting unit extracts a first feature of the subject from a first contour in the first image and extracts a second feature from a second contour in the second image. The second calculating unit calculates a first difference between the first feature and the second feature. The determining unit determines a transparency that is higher as the first difference is larger. The generating unit generates a composite image combining the first image and the second image with the determined transparency.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 28, 2012
    Date of Patent: July 5, 2016
    Assignee: Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba
    Inventors: Shihomi Takahashi, Masashi Nishiyama, Tomoyuki Shibata, Makoto Hirohata, Masahiro Sekine, Kaoru Sugita
  • Patent number: 9224392
    Abstract: Likelihood calculation means extracts audio features expressing features of a voice signal and a non-voice signal from an acquired audio signal, and calculates likelihood expressing probability that the voice signal is included in the audio signal using the audio features. Spectral feature extraction means performs a frequency analysis to the audio signal to extract a spectral feature. Using the spectral feature, first basis matrix producing means produces a first basis matrix expressing the feature of the non-voice signal. Second basis matrix producing means specifies a component having a high association with the voice signal in the first basis matrix using the likelihood, and excludes the component to produce a second basis matrix. Spectral feature estimation means estimates a spectral feature of the voice signal or a spectral feature of the non-voice signal by performing nonnegative matrix factorization to the spectral feature using the second basis matrix.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 15, 2012
    Date of Patent: December 29, 2015
    Assignee: Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba
    Inventor: Makoto Hirohata
  • Publication number: 20150081298
    Abstract: In a speech processing apparatus, an acquisition unit is configured to acquire a speech. A separation unit is configured to separate the speech into a plurality of sections in accordance with a prescribed rule. A calculation unit is configured to calculate a degree of similarity in each combination of the sections. An estimation unit is configured to estimate, with respect to the each section, a direction of arrival of the speech. A correction unit is configured to group the sections whose directions of arrival are mutually similar into a same group and correct the degree of similarity with respect to the combination of the sections in the same group. A clustering unit is configured to cluster the sections by using the corrected degree of similarity.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 12, 2014
    Publication date: March 19, 2015
    Applicant: Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba
    Inventors: Ning DING, Yusuke KIDA, Makoto HIROHATA
  • Patent number: 8879788
    Abstract: According to one embodiment, a video processing apparatus includes an acquisition unit, a first extraction unit, a generation unit, a second extraction unit, a computation unit and a selection unit. The acquisition unit is configured to acquire video streams. A first extraction unit is configured to analyze at least one of the moving pictures and the sounds for each video stream and to extract feature values. A generation unit is configured to generate segments by dividing each video stream, and to generate associated segment groups. A second extraction unit is configured to extract the associated segment groups that number of associated segments is greater than or equal to threshold as common video segment groups. A computation unit is configured to compute summarization score. A selection unit is configured to select segments used for a summarized video as summarization segments from the common video segment groups based on the summarization score.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 22, 2011
    Date of Patent: November 4, 2014
    Assignee: Kabushiki, Kaisha Toshiba
    Inventors: Koji Yamamoto, Makoto Hirohata
  • Patent number: 8804973
    Abstract: In an example signal clustering apparatus, a feature of a signal is divided into segments. A first feature vector of each segment is calculated, the first feature vector having has a plurality of elements corresponding to each reference model. A value of an element attenuates when a feature of the segment shifts from a center of a distribution of the reference model corresponding to the element. A similarity between two reference models is calculated. A second feature vector of each segment is calculated, the second feature vector having a plurality of elements corresponding to each reference model. A value of an element is a weighted sum and segments of second feature vectors of which the plurality of elements are similar values are clustered to one class.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 19, 2012
    Date of Patent: August 12, 2014
    Assignee: Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba
    Inventors: Makoto Hirohata, Kazunori Imoto, Hisashi Aoki
  • Publication number: 20140180685
    Abstract: According to an embodiment, a signal processing device includes a background calculator, a signal generator, an extractor, a similarity calculator, and a mixer. The background calculator is configured to calculate a first background signal in which a speech signal is removed, based on the acoustic signals. The signal generator is configured to generate a reference signal from at least one of the acoustic signals. The extractor is configured to extract a second background signal by removing a speech signal from the reference signal. The similarity calculator is configured to calculate a similarity between feature data of the background signals. The mixer is configured to calculate a weighted sum of the background signals in such a way that a greater weight is given to the first background signal as the similarity is higher and a greater weight is given to the second background signal as the similarity is lower.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 20, 2013
    Publication date: June 26, 2014
    Applicant: KABUSHIKI KAISHA TOSHIBA
    Inventors: Toshiyuki ONO, Makoto HIROHATA, Masashi NISHIYAMA, Toru TANIGUCHI
  • Publication number: 20140122068
    Abstract: According to an embodiment, a signal processing apparatus includes an ambient sound estimating unit, a representative component estimating unit, a voice estimating unit, and a filter generating unit. The ambient sound estimating unit is configured to estimate, from the feature, an ambient sound component that is non-stationary among ambient sound components having a feature. The representative component estimating unit is configured to estimate a representative component representing ambient sound components estimated from one or more features for a time period, based on a largest value among the ambient sound components within the time period. The voice estimating unit is configured to estimate, from the feature, a voice component having the feature. The filter generating unit is configured to generate a filter for extracting a voice component and an ambient sound component from the feature, based on the voice component and the representative component.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 21, 2013
    Publication date: May 1, 2014
    Applicant: Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba
    Inventors: Makoto HIROHATA, Masashi Nishiyama
  • Patent number: 8713030
    Abstract: A video editing apparatus 100 includes a registering unit 91 configured to register a key candidate having a feature vector of a sound signal which is determined to be registered on the basis of a co-occurrence score to a managing unit 51 as a search key, and a cutting out unit 71 configured to obtain an integration score in each of the blocks from the degree of similarity of the registered search key in each of the blocks and cut out a group of blocks exceeding an integration threshold value from among the integration scores as one video scene.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 5, 2009
    Date of Patent: April 29, 2014
    Assignee: Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba
    Inventors: Kazunori Imoto, Makoto Hirohata, Hisashi Aoki