Patents by Inventor Makoto Otani

Makoto Otani 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: 20200241697
    Abstract: A position detecting method includes (a) acquiring a first captured image and a second captured image using a first camera and a second camera, (b) acquiring a first image for processing and a second image for processing from the first captured image and the second captured image, (c) extracting a first region of interest image and a second region of interest image from the first image for processing and the second image for processing, and (d) determining a distance-related parameter related to a distance between an operation surface and a pointer using a convolutional neural network including an input layer to which the first region of interest image and the second region of interest image are input and an output layer that outputs the distance-related parameter.
    Type: Application
    Filed: January 29, 2020
    Publication date: July 30, 2020
    Applicant: SEIKO EPSON CORPORATION
    Inventors: Akira IKEDA, Makoto OTANI
  • Publication number: 20200241695
    Abstract: A position detecting method includes (a) imaging, using a first camera and a second camera, a pointer over an operation surface as a background to capture a first captured image and a second captured image, (b) creating a first calibration image and a second calibration image by performing stereo calibration on the first captured image and the second captured image, (c) extracting a first region of interest image and a second region of interest image from the first calibration image and the second calibration image, (d) creating a correlation image from the first region of interest image and the second region of interest image, and (e) determining a distance-related parameter related to a distance between the operation surface and the pointer using a convolutional neural network including an input layer to which the correlation image is input and an output layer that outputs the distance-related parameter.
    Type: Application
    Filed: January 29, 2020
    Publication date: July 30, 2020
    Applicant: SEIKO EPSON CORPORATION
    Inventors: Akira IKEDA, Makoto OTANI
  • Patent number: 10662822
    Abstract: A heat cycle system includes a cooling circuit and a Rankine cycle circuit in which an organic medium circulates. The Rankine cycle circuit includes an evaporator, an expander, and a condenser. Before warm-up of an engine, a control device executes a warm-up mode in which the organic medium is circulated through the condenser, the expander and the evaporator in sequence; after the warm-up of the engine, the control device executes a waste heat recovery mode in which the organic medium is circulated through the evaporator, the expander and the condenser in sequence. In the warm-up mode, by supplying energy to the expander, the control device compresses the organic medium passing through the condenser and supplies the compressed organic medium to the evaporator; in the waste heat recovery mode, by depressurizing the organic medium passing through the evaporator by the expander, the control device recovers the energy generated by the expander.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 31, 2018
    Date of Patent: May 26, 2020
    Assignee: Honda Motor Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Keizo Iwama, Makoto Otani, Shinichi Tosa
  • Publication number: 20200063943
    Abstract: A first light emitter of a light emitting device includes a first lens for making first light wide-angle from a first diffusion center as a starting point, and a second light emitter includes a second lens for making second light wide-angle from a second diffusion center as a starting point. A cover lens disposed downstream of the first lens and the second lens includes a first curved surface and a second curved surface. A first curvature center as a curvature center of the first curved surface overlaps the first diffusion center of the first lens when viewed from a front-back direction, and a second curvature center as a curvature center of the second curved surface overlaps the second diffusion center of the second lens when viewed from the front-back direction.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 26, 2019
    Publication date: February 27, 2020
    Applicant: SEIKO EPSON CORPORATION
    Inventor: Makoto OTANI
  • Publication number: 20200064646
    Abstract: A light emitting device is provided with a first light emitter and a second light emitter. The first light emitter is provided with a first lens for making the light of the first light source wide-angle, and the second light emitter is provided with a second lens for making the light of the second light source wide-angle. The cover lens tilted with respect to a projection surface and disposed downstream of the first lens and the second lens has a curved surface shape, and the curvature center of the cover lens is different in position from a first diffusion center to be a starting point from which the first light is made wide-angle, and a second diffusion center to be a starting point from which the second light is made wide-angle.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 23, 2019
    Publication date: February 27, 2020
    Applicant: SEIKO EPSON CORPORATION
    Inventor: Makoto OTANI
  • Publication number: 20200064723
    Abstract: A light emitting device is provided with a first light emitter and a second light emitter. The first light emitter is provided with a first lens for making the light of the first light source wide-angle, and the second light emitter is provided with a second lens for making the light of the second light source wide-angle. A plurality of first small lenses are arranged on a first incident plane of the first lens. The first small lens has a shape in which a maximum value of an angle formed between the first incident plane and a tangent of the first small lens is larger than an angle formed between the first incident plane and first light. The second lens has substantially the same configuration.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 26, 2019
    Publication date: February 27, 2020
    Applicant: SEIKO EPSON CORPORATION
    Inventor: Makoto OTANI
  • Patent number: 10516864
    Abstract: Cameras that are four imagers that form an imaging system are so configured as to be capable of acquiring parallax information based on two sets of parallax images that differ from each other in terms of imaging range for acquisition of the parallax information with the inter-camera distance reduced. The acquired parallax information is used to detect a pointing element on an irradiated region that is a projection screen to achieve interactive image projection.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 28, 2018
    Date of Patent: December 24, 2019
    Assignee: SEIKO EPSON CORPORATION
    Inventor: Makoto Otani
  • Patent number: 10502938
    Abstract: A light outputting apparatus includes a light outputting section that outputs light, and the light outputting section includes a light source that emits light, a collimator lens for parallelizing the light emitted from the light source, and an optical element including a plurality of lenslets that widen the light having passed through the collimator lens in a direction perpendicular to the optical axis of the light source and corresponding to a first direction that is one of first and second directions perpendicular to each other.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 16, 2018
    Date of Patent: December 10, 2019
    Assignee: SEIKO EPSON CORPORATION
    Inventor: Makoto Otani
  • Publication number: 20190324571
    Abstract: A projector system includes a projector main body that obliquely projects image light and an imager that operates based on a stereographic projection scheme and captures an image of a stereographic region containing a projection region where the image light from the projector main body is projected to detect a pointing element present in the stereographic region.
    Type: Application
    Filed: November 6, 2017
    Publication date: October 24, 2019
    Applicant: SEIKO EPSON CORPORATION
    Inventor: Makoto OTANI
  • Patent number: 10416424
    Abstract: A light outputting apparatus includes a first light outputting section and a second light outputting section. The first light outputting section includes a first light source, a first collimator lens, and a first optical element that widens light having passed through the first collimator lens, and the second light outputting section includes a second light source, a second collimator lens, and a second optical element that widens light having passed through the second collimator lens. The first light outputting section and the second light outputting section are so disposed that a first optical path and a second optical path intersect each other at a point on upstream optical paths of the first and second optical elements, and that part of the light outputted from the first light outputting section and part of the light outputted from the second light outputting section overlap with each other.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 20, 2018
    Date of Patent: September 17, 2019
    Assignee: SEIKO EPSON CORPORATION
    Inventor: Makoto Otani
  • Publication number: 20190220103
    Abstract: A light emitting device uses optical elements each formed of a plurality of small lenses. On that basis, the array pitch of the plurality of small lenses is set within a predetermined numerical range determined based on a proportional relationship between two values with respect to the focal distance of a collimator.
    Type: Application
    Filed: January 11, 2019
    Publication date: July 18, 2019
    Applicant: SEIKO EPSON CORPORATION
    Inventor: Makoto OTANI
  • Publication number: 20190179158
    Abstract: A light emitting apparatus includes a light emitting unit. The light emitting unit includes a light source, a collimator lens, and an optical element that spreads light transmitted through the collimator lens in a direction corresponding to a width direction. The optical element has a plurality of lens groups arranged in a first direction (stacking direction), each of the plurality of lens groups has a plurality of small lenses arranged in a second direction orthogonal to the first direction and crossing an optical axis, each of the plurality of small lenses is formed to spread entering light in a direction corresponding to the width direction so that the lights spread by the small lenses adjacent in a second direction are superimposed, and the plurality of lens groups have the small lenses with the small lenses adjacent in the first direction and the second direction in different sizes from each other.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 10, 2018
    Publication date: June 13, 2019
    Applicant: SEIKO EPSON CORPORATION
    Inventor: Makoto OTANI
  • Publication number: 20190128146
    Abstract: A heat cycle system includes a cooling circuit and a Rankine cycle circuit in which an organic medium circulates. The Rankine cycle circuit includes an evaporator, an expander, and a condenser. Before warm-up of an engine, a control device executes a warm-up mode in which the organic medium is circulated through the condenser, the expander and the evaporator in sequence; after the warm-up of the engine, the control device executes a waste heat recovery mode in which the organic medium is circulated through the evaporator, the expander and the condenser in sequence. In the warm-up mode, by supplying energy to the expander, the control device compresses the organic medium passing through the condenser and supplies the compressed organic medium to the evaporator; in the waste heat recovery mode, by depressurizing the organic medium passing through the evaporator by the expander, the control device recovers the energy generated by the expander.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 31, 2018
    Publication date: May 2, 2019
    Applicant: Honda Motor Co.,Ltd.
    Inventors: Keizo IWAMA, Makoto OTANI, Shinichi TOSA
  • Patent number: 10209786
    Abstract: An imaging section receives, as detection light, the components within a wavelength band different from the wavelength band contained in projection light (image light) that is light containing a visible wavelength band. As a result, even when the detection light and the projection light are each formed of light containing a visible wavelength band, the imaging section can reliably distinguish the detection light from the projection light and therefore detect only the detection light.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 20, 2017
    Date of Patent: February 19, 2019
    Assignee: SEIKO EPSON CORPORATION
    Inventor: Makoto Otani
  • Patent number: 10142603
    Abstract: An image display device capable of being incorporated into a projector, an HMD, or the like and capable of adjusting an image formation position for each image area, a projector, and a transmission type display device into which the image display device is incorporated. In an image display device, a refractive index distribution regarding a passing area of light emitted from an optical modulation device is changed by a pixel unit of a refractive index distribution variable panel. In a projector in which the image display device is incorporated, the refractive index distribution variable panel is inserted immediately after the optical modulation device so as to make it possible to perform focusing at all areas even for a screen (surface to be irradiated) having any shape.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 16, 2016
    Date of Patent: November 27, 2018
    Assignee: SEIKO EPSON CORPORATION
    Inventor: Makoto Otani
  • Publication number: 20180284410
    Abstract: A light outputting apparatus includes a first light outputting section and a second light outputting section. The first light outputting section includes a first light source, a first collimator lens, and a first optical element that widens light having passed through the first collimator lens, and the second light outputting section includes a second light source, a second collimator lens, and a second optical element that widens light having passed through the second collimator lens. The first light outputting section and the second light outputting section are so disposed that a first optical path and a second optical path intersect each other at a point on upstream optical paths of the first and second optical elements, and that part of the light outputted from the first light outputting section and part of the light outputted from the second light outputting section overlap with each other.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 20, 2018
    Publication date: October 4, 2018
    Applicant: SEIKO EPSON CORPORATION
    Inventor: Makoto OTANI
  • Publication number: 20180284409
    Abstract: A light outputting apparatus includes a light outputting section that outputs light, and the light outputting section includes a light source that emits light, a collimator lens for parallelizing the light emitted from the light source, and an optical element including a plurality of lenslets that widen the light having passed through the collimator lens in a direction perpendicular to the optical axis of the light source and corresponding to a first direction that is one of first and second directions perpendicular to each other.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 16, 2018
    Publication date: October 4, 2018
    Applicant: SEIKO EPSON CORPORATION
    Inventor: Makoto OTANI
  • Publication number: 20180270460
    Abstract: Cameras that are four imagers that form an imaging system are so configured as to be capable of acquiring parallax information based on two sets of parallax images that differ from each other in terms of imaging range for acquisition of the parallax information with the inter-camera distance reduced. The acquired parallax information is used to detect a pointing element on an irradiated region that is a projection screen to achieve interactive image projection.
    Type: Application
    Filed: February 28, 2018
    Publication date: September 20, 2018
    Applicant: SEIKO EPSON CORPORATION
    Inventor: Makoto OTANI
  • Patent number: 10048573
    Abstract: In an imaging section (imaging device), optical filters constituting an optical filter device are inserted and extracted, and an aperture varies an f-number in accordance with the insertion and the extraction of the optical filters. Thus, during the writing operation to the surface of the projection screen, namely during the interactive projector operation, entering of the light in the wavelength band other than that of the detected light DL is suppressed while capturing the detected light DL with the necessary light intensity, and during an alignment (a calibration), the axial chromatic aberration caused by the difference in wavelength band between the pattern image light GL as the image light and the detected light DL is suppressed to achieve an improvement in accuracy.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 21, 2017
    Date of Patent: August 14, 2018
    Assignee: SEIKO EPSON CORPORATION
    Inventor: Makoto Otani
  • Publication number: 20180088688
    Abstract: An imaging section receives, as detection light, the components within a wavelength band different from the wavelength band contained in projection light (image light) that is light containing a visible wavelength band. As a result, even when the detection light and the projection light are each formed of light containing a visible wavelength band, the imaging section can reliably distinguish the detection light from the projection light and therefore detect only the detection light.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 20, 2017
    Publication date: March 29, 2018
    Applicant: SEIKO EPSON CORPORATION
    Inventor: Makoto OTANI