Patents by Inventor Masahiro Nishio

Masahiro Nishio 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: 10729312
    Abstract: An endoscope light source device includes a light source to emit light, and a speckle reduction member to scatter the light. The reduction member has a surface including thickness variation to provide the light with an optical path difference. The device also includes a drive to move the reduction member, and a lens to condense the light passed through the reduction member onto a light guide of an endoscope. The surface of the reduction member has inclination of an average inclination angle. The average inclination angle is determined so that a light quantity loss rate of the entering light into the light guide by scattering of the reduction member and refraction of the lens has a positive value equal to or smaller than an effective allowable loss rate.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 9, 2019
    Date of Patent: August 4, 2020
    Assignee: OLYMPUS CORPORATION
    Inventors: Hiroyuki Kamee, Eiji Yamamoto, Takeshi Ito, Masahiro Nishio
  • Publication number: 20200129055
    Abstract: A light source system includes an illumination device configured to generate illumination light, and a light source module having a function of supplying light to the illumination device and configured to be detachably attached to the illumination device. The illumination device includes a first light source and a first storage configured to store characteristic information of the first light source. The light source module includes a second light source and a second storage configured to store characteristic information of the second light source. The illumination device includes a control circuit configured to determine a driving condition of at least one of the first and second light sources, based on the characteristic information of the first and second light sources.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 23, 2019
    Publication date: April 30, 2020
    Applicant: OLYMPUS CORPORATION
    Inventors: Masahiro Nishio, Yoshihiko Watanabe
  • Patent number: 10624534
    Abstract: A light source device includes a primary light source that emits primary light, a light guide that guides the primary light, an optical conversion unit that converts the primary light emitted from the light guide and having a first light distribution angle into secondary light having a second light distribution angle and emits the secondary light, and a light distribution adjustment unit that adjusts the secondary light to illumination light having a third light distribution angle and emits the illumination light. The light distribution adjustment unit and the optical conversion unit slide each other. The light distribution adjustment unit allows a light distribution adjustment amount for adjusting the second light distribution angle of the secondary light to adjust to the third light distribution angle of the illumination light.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 22, 2017
    Date of Patent: April 21, 2020
    Assignee: OLYMPUS CORPORATION
    Inventors: Kazuaki Tamura, Masahiro Nishio
  • Publication number: 20200107706
    Abstract: An endoscope light source device includes a light source to emit light, and a speckle reduction member to scatter the light. The reduction member has a surface including thickness variation to provide the light with an optical path difference. The device also includes a drive to move the reduction member, and a lens to condense the light passed through the reduction member onto a light guide of an endoscope. The surface of the reduction member has inclination of an average inclination angle. The average inclination angle is determined so that a light quantity loss rate of the entering light into the light guide by scattering of the reduction member and refraction of the lens has a positive value equal to or smaller than an effective allowable loss rate.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 9, 2019
    Publication date: April 9, 2020
    Applicant: OLYMPUS CORPORATION
    Inventors: Hiroyuki KAMEE, Eiji YAMAMOTO, Takeshi ITO, Masahiro NISHIO
  • Patent number: 10610083
    Abstract: A light source illumination unit has operation modes including at least a normal electric power mode to operate with first electric power consumption, and a low electric power mode to operate with second electric power consumption lower than the first electric power consumption. A controller selects at least one of the operation modes in accordance with the current usage, and controls the light source illumination unit in accordance with the selected operation mode.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 3, 2017
    Date of Patent: April 7, 2020
    Assignee: OLYMPUS CORPORATION
    Inventors: Masahiro Nishio, Takeshi Ito, Satoshi Ohara, Motoki Tabata
  • Patent number: 10548466
    Abstract: A first light source module includes a light source-side connection hole to which a irradiation-side connector of a irradiation module is mechanically detachably attached. The light source-side connection hole is made common to the first irradiation-side connector, which is mounted in the first irradiation module, and the second irradiation-side connector, which is mounted in the second irradiation module, such that the light source-side connection hole is connectable to the first irradiation-side connector and the second irradiation-side connector.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 21, 2016
    Date of Patent: February 4, 2020
    Assignee: OLYMPUS CORPORATION
    Inventors: Satoshi Ohara, Eiji Yamamoto, Takeshi Ito, Masahiro Nishio, Hiroyuki Kamee, Motoki Tabata
  • Patent number: 10527237
    Abstract: An illumination apparatus includes a first wavelength converter which absorbs part of the first excitation light and emits first wavelength-converted light, a second wavelength converter which absorbs part of the first excitation light and emits second wavelength-converted light, a reflector including a reflecting surface which is arranged to surround the members, and a holder which holds the members. A first region where light distribution angles of light emitted from the members have a predetermined value or less and a second region where the light distribution angle is less than the predetermined value are present in a region surrounded by the reflecting surface. The holder holds at least one part of the wavelength converter and at least one part of the second wavelength converter at the first region.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 8, 2017
    Date of Patent: January 7, 2020
    Assignee: OLYMPUS CORPORATION
    Inventors: Kazuaki Tamura, Masahiro Nishio, Satoshi Ohara
  • Patent number: 10517462
    Abstract: A light source illumination unit has operation modes including at least a normal electric power mode to operate with first electric power consumption, and a low electric power mode to operate with second electric power consumption lower than the first electric power consumption. A controller selects at least one of the operation modes in accordance with a use schedule, and controls the light source illumination unit in accordance with the selected operation mode.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 1, 2017
    Date of Patent: December 31, 2019
    Assignee: OLYMPUS CORPORATION
    Inventors: Masahiro Nishio, Takeshi Ito, Satoshi Ohara, Motoki Tabata
  • Patent number: 10327626
    Abstract: A light source apparatus includes at least one light-emitter, a driving circuit, an input unit, a temperature control circuit, and an effective light power setting circuit. The driving circuit allows the light-emitter to emit light by applying a driving waveform to the light-emitter. The effective light power setting circuit drives the driving circuit to allow the light-emitter to emit light with a predetermined effective light power, in accordance with a driving condition set by the temperature control circuit. The temperature control circuit controls the light-emitter to be in a predetermined heat generation state by increasing or decreasing a heat generation amount of the light-emitter without changing the predetermined effective light power of the light emitted from the light-emitter by adjusting the driving condition of the light-emitter.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 2, 2016
    Date of Patent: June 25, 2019
    Assignee: OLYMPUS CORPORATION
    Inventor: Masahiro Nishio
  • Patent number: 10314462
    Abstract: An observation apparatus includes an imager, a light source unit, an image processor and a light intensity adjusting section. The imager includes types of elements which generate a first signal when the elements receive light included in a sensitivity region. The light source unit includes light sources to emit narrow spectrum light, wavelengths of the light being different from one another and being set so that at least one of the wavelengths is included in each of the sensitivity regions. The image processor generates display data indicating a color image on the basis of the image data. The light intensity adjusting section separately adjusts respective light intensity of the light sources.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 28, 2015
    Date of Patent: June 11, 2019
    Assignee: OLYMPUS CORPORATION
    Inventors: Hiroyuki Kamee, Masahiro Nishio, Takeshi Ito, Eiji Yamamoto
  • Publication number: 20190110663
    Abstract: An endoscope system includes an illuminator comprising a light source adapted to emit light of a light amount corresponding to a magnitude of supply energy, the illuminator configured to emit the light in a form of illumination light for illuminating a subject; an imager configured to image the subject to acquire an image; a controller configured to control the illuminator by adjusting the magnitude of the supply energy within a range less or equal to a maximum supply value, to bring brightness of the illumination light close to a target value; and a setter configured to set the maximum supply value according to a temperature of the light source.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 13, 2018
    Publication date: April 18, 2019
    Applicant: OLYMPUS CORPORATION
    Inventor: Masahiro Nishio
  • Publication number: 20190109435
    Abstract: A light source device includes a laser diode configured to emit a laser light used as an illumination light, a determination unit configured to determine one of a plurality of modes as an operation mode of the laser diode based on usage state of the light source device; and a driver configured to drive the laser diode in a condition that a bias current to the laser diode is applied depending on the operation mode determined by the determination unit.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 7, 2018
    Publication date: April 11, 2019
    Applicant: OLYMPUS CORPORATION
    Inventors: Iwao KOMAZAKI, Masahiro NISHIO
  • Publication number: 20180353061
    Abstract: An endoscope system includes an endoscope including a control section, an insertion section, and a light guide member, a light source configured to emit light guided by the light guide member, a failure-cause detecting circuit configured to detect a pre-failure state that causes a failure of the endoscope, and a light source controller configured to control an output of the light source based on a detection result of the failure-cause detecting circuit. The failure-cause detecting circuit includes a cause predicting circuit configured to detect a second pre-failure state in which it is predicted that the endoscope reaches a first pre-failure state that directly causes the failure of the endoscope. The light source controller controls the output of the light source based on a detection result of the cause predicting circuit.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 22, 2018
    Publication date: December 13, 2018
    Applicant: OLYMPUS CORPORATION
    Inventors: Yoshinori TANAKA, Masahiro NISHIO
  • Publication number: 20180303312
    Abstract: An endoscope illumination apparatus includes a light convertor including first and second light conversion members that receive primary light emitted from a primary light source and convert at least one of the optical properties of the primary light, a detector that receives at least part of first light conversion light converted by the first light conversion member as detection light, and outputs a detection signal corresponding to a quantity of the detection light, and an operation estimation circuit that estimates, based on an amount of change in the detection signal output from the detector, whether any one of the first and second light conversion members is in an abnormal operation or both of the first and second light conversion members are in an abnormal operation.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 15, 2018
    Publication date: October 25, 2018
    Applicant: OLYMPUS CORPORATION
    Inventors: Kazuaki TAMURA, Masahiro NISHIO
  • Patent number: 10078210
    Abstract: A light source apparatus includes a main unit, light source modules attachable to and detachable from the main unit, and storage mediums storing characteristic information of the light source modules. Each light source module includes at least one light source and a light connection part to be optically connected to the main unit. The main unit includes entrance parts to be optically connected to the light connection parts of the connected light source modules, a light combining unit to combine light entering the entrance parts, at least one exit part to cause light combined by the light combining unit to exit, and an exit light characteristic deriving unit to derive characteristic information of achievable exit light based on characteristic information of the light source modules stored in the storage mediums.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 15, 2016
    Date of Patent: September 18, 2018
    Assignee: OLYMPUS CORPORATION
    Inventors: Motoki Tabata, Masahiro Nishio, Satoshi Ohara
  • Patent number: 10041655
    Abstract: An illumination system includes a light source device configured by an excitation light source, a light guiding member and a wavelength converter that are connected in order, and an operation check device. The system further includes: a connector configured to directly and physically connect the operation check device to a light signal emitting end which includes the wavelength converter; a detector configured to detect a light signal emitted from the light signal emitting end when the light signal emitting end and the operation check device are connected by the connector; and an operation determiner configured to determine the operations of the excitation light source, the light guiding member, and the wavelength converter by a detection result in the detector.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 5, 2016
    Date of Patent: August 7, 2018
    Assignee: OLYMPUS CORPORATION
    Inventors: Masahiro Nishio, Takeshi Ito, Eiji Yamamoto
  • Patent number: 10038299
    Abstract: A light source device includes a plurality of light source units, a plurality of first heat processing units, a second heat processing unit, a plurality of thermal connectors, a light processing unit, and a plurality of optical connectors. The plurality of thermal connectors make the plurality of first heat processing units and the second heat processing unit attachable to and detachable from each other, and thermally connect the plurality of first heat processing units and the second heat processing unit. The light processing unit processes the light output from the plurality of light source units. The plurality of optical connectors make the plurality of light source units and the light processing unit attachable to and detachable from each other, and optically connect the plurality of light source units and the light processing unit.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 8, 2016
    Date of Patent: July 31, 2018
    Assignee: OLYMPUS CORPORATION
    Inventors: Masahiro Nishio, Takeshi Ito
  • Patent number: 10025683
    Abstract: It is an object to provide an information processing device and a computer-readable recording medium that enable achieving reduction in the man-hours of an operator. An information processing device comprises, a processor and a plurality of slots provided for installation of an electronic component. The processor that executes a process including; first detecting presence or absence of installation of the electronic component in each of the slots; second detecting, based on detection result obtained by the first detecting and based on an installation candidate pattern indicating presence or absence of installation of an electronic component in each of the slots as determined based on configuration of the information processing device, an installation defect of the electronic component; and notifying, when the installation defect is detected by the second detecting, the installation detect.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 27, 2016
    Date of Patent: July 17, 2018
    Assignee: FUJITSU LIMITED
    Inventor: Masahiro Nishio
  • Publication number: 20180140173
    Abstract: An imaging system includes an illumination portion, an imager, a reader, and an illumination controller configured to control an intensity of illumination light based on modulated illumination in a non-reading period. The modulated illumination has a first integrated light amount as a product of a variable intensity of a first pulse and an output period of the illumination light and a second integrated light amount as a product of a constant intensity of a second pulse and the output period. In the non-reading period, the illumination controller causes a predetermined light amount that is not larger than a maximum value of the first integrated light amount and is not smaller than a minimum value of the second integrated light amount to transit between the first integrated light amount and the second integrated light amount.
    Type: Application
    Filed: January 22, 2018
    Publication date: May 24, 2018
    Applicant: OLYMPUS CORPORATION
    Inventor: Masahiro NISHIO
  • Publication number: 20180100627
    Abstract: An illumination apparatus includes a first wavelength converter which absorbs part of the first excitation light and emits first wavelength-converted light, a second wavelength converter which absorbs part of the first excitation light and emits second wavelength-converted light, a reflector including a reflecting surface which is arranged to surround the members, and a holder which holds the members. A first region where light distribution angles of light emitted from the members have a predetermined value or less and a second region where the light distribution angle is less than the predetermined value are present in a region surrounded by the reflecting surface. The holder holds at least one part of the wavelength converter and at least one part of the second wavelength converter at the first region.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 8, 2017
    Publication date: April 12, 2018
    Applicant: OLYMPUS CORPORATION
    Inventors: Kazuaki TAMURA, Masahiro Nishio, Satoshi Ohara