Patents by Inventor Masahiro Sunohara

Masahiro Sunohara 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: 20240078993
    Abstract: Disclosed herein, among other things, are systems and methods for active noise cancellation (ANC) for hearing device applications. A method includes measuring a receiver-to-inward-facing microphone response during an in-situ calibration stage for the hearing device, estimating a receiver-to-eardrum transfer function using the measured receiver-to-inward-facing microphone response, and measuring an outward-facing microphone to inward-facing microphone transfer function for an external noise sound field during run-time operation of the hearing device.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 22, 2023
    Publication date: March 7, 2024
    Inventors: Piero Iared Rivera Benois, Henning Schepker, Masahiro Sunohara, Martin McKinney
  • Publication number: 20240064477
    Abstract: Disclosed herein, among other things, are systems and methods for active noise cancellation (ANC) for hearing device applications. A method includes estimating a first sound pressure on an ear drum of a wearer of the hearing device caused by a hearing processing signal, estimating a second sound pressure on the ear drum of the wearer of the hearing device caused by a leakage path of the hearing device, and computing a ratio of the first sound pressure and the second sound pressure to predict a comb-filtering effect for the hearing device. The method also includes computing an ANC controller using the computed ratio in one or more frequency ranges, and canceling leaked sound into an ear canal of the wearer for the hearing device in the one or more frequency ranges using the ANC controller.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 9, 2023
    Publication date: February 22, 2024
    Inventors: Masahiro Sunohara, Henning Schepker, Martin McKinney, Piero lared Rivera Benois
  • Publication number: 20230411199
    Abstract: A substrate fixing device includes a base plate, a ceramic plate fixed to the base plate and configured to adsorb a substrate by electrostatic force, and an adhesive layer bonding the base plate and the ceramic plate. The adhesive layer includes a plurality of linear heat transfer bodies arranged adjacent to each other such that a longitudinal direction of each linear heat transfer body is along a stack direction of the ceramic plate and the base plate, and a resin filled between adjacent heat transfer bodies of the heat transfer bodies and bonded to the ceramic plate and the base plate.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 14, 2023
    Publication date: December 21, 2023
    Inventors: Masahiro Sunohara, Riku Nishikawa
  • Publication number: 20230411182
    Abstract: A substrate fixing device includes a base plate, a ceramic plate bonded to the base plate via an adhesive layer and configured to adsorb a substrate by electrostatic force, a thermal conduction member arranged in only a central region, which overlaps a central portion of the ceramic plate in a plan view, or in only an outer circumferential region, which overlaps an outer circumferential portion of the ceramic plate in a plan view of at least one of an adhesive surface of the ceramic plate, an adhesive surface of the base plate, or an inside of the adhesive layer, the thermal conduction member having thermal conductivity in a stack direction of the base plate and the ceramic plate member higher than thermal conductivity in a plane direction perpendicular to the stack direction.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 19, 2023
    Publication date: December 21, 2023
    Inventors: Masahiro Sunohara, Riku Nishikawa
  • Publication number: 20230402309
    Abstract: A substrate fixing device includes a base plate, a ceramic plate, and a thermal conduction member. The ceramic plate is bonded to the base plate via an adhesive layer, and has an electrode embedded therein for generating heat, and configured to adsorb a substrate by electrostatic force. The thermal conduction member is arranged in at least one of an adhesive surface of the ceramic plate, an adhesive surface of the base plate, and an inside of the adhesive layer, and having thermal conductivity in a stack direction of the base plate and the ceramic plate higher than thermal conductivity in a plane direction perpendicular to the stack direction.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 7, 2023
    Publication date: December 14, 2023
    Inventors: Masahiro Sunohara, Riku Nishikawa
  • Publication number: 20230290621
    Abstract: A substrate fixing device includes a base plate having a first through-hole penetrating through the base plate in a thickness direction of the base plate, a ceramic plate adhering to the base plate, having an electrode embedded in the ceramic plate and a second through-hole formed to communicate with the first through-hole, and configured to adsorb an adsorption target object by an electrostatic force that is generated when a voltage is applied to the electrode, an insulating plug arranged at a connection portion in the first through-hole connecting to the second through-hole, and a sealing member attached to the insulating plug and configured to seal a periphery of the connection portion.
    Type: Application
    Filed: January 18, 2023
    Publication date: September 14, 2023
    Inventors: Masahiro Sunohara, Keita Sato
  • Publication number: 20230136161
    Abstract: Adaptive occlusion cancellation is performed in an ear-wearable device using an adaptive filter. An adaptive gain of the adaptive filter is used to determine a leakage path estimate between an external source and an eardrum of the user through the ear-wearable device. The leakage path estimate is used to update an adaptive hear-through filter of the ear-wearable device. The updated adaptive hear-through filter is used for hear-through processing in the ear-wearable device.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 18, 2022
    Publication date: May 4, 2023
    Inventors: Wenyu Jin, Masahiro Sunohara, Jingjing Xu
  • Publication number: 20230005779
    Abstract: An electrostatic chuck includes a ceramic plate, an adsorption electrode, a ground electrode, and a wiring. The adsorption electrode is built-in near one surface of the ceramic plate. The ground electrode is arranged in the ceramic plate between the other surface of the ceramic plate and the adsorption electrode, and can be connected to a ground potential. The wiring is connected to the ground electrode in the ceramic plate and extends to the one surface of the ceramic plate.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 27, 2022
    Publication date: January 5, 2023
    Inventors: Masahiro Sunohara, Ken Sato, Tatsuya Nakamura
  • Patent number: 10863272
    Abstract: A system identification device for performing fast real-time identification for a system from input/output data includes a filter robust to disturbance, by setting the maximum energy gain from the disturbance to a filter error, as an evaluation criterion, smaller than a given upper limit. The filter estimates a state estimation value of a state of the system.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 21, 2019
    Date of Patent: December 8, 2020
    Assignees: NATIONAL UNIVERSITY CORPORATION, IWATE UNIVERSITY, RION Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Kiyoshi Nishiyama, Masahiro Sunohara, Nobuhiko Hiruma, Chiho Haruta, Makoto Tateno
  • Patent number: 10582315
    Abstract: Provided is a hearing aid including a receiver, a microphone, an adaptive filter estimating a feedback transfer function from the receiver to the microphone, a subtractor, a hearing aid processor, a first whitening filter, a second whitening filter having a whitening filter coefficient identical to that of the first whitening filter, a coefficient updater, and a controller controlling the adaptive filter and the first and second whitening filters.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 16, 2018
    Date of Patent: March 3, 2020
    Assignee: RION Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Nobuhiko Hiruma, Masahiro Sunohara
  • Publication number: 20190364361
    Abstract: A system identification device for performing fast real-time identification for a system from input/output data includes a filter robust to disturbance, by setting the maximum energy gain from the disturbance to a filter error, as an evaluation criterion, smaller than a given upper limit. The filter estimates a state estimation value of a state of the system.
    Type: Application
    Filed: May 21, 2019
    Publication date: November 28, 2019
    Inventors: Kiyoshi NISHIYAMA, Masahiro SUNOHARA, Nobuhiko HIRUMA, Chiho HARUTA, Makoto TATENO
  • Patent number: 10482894
    Abstract: A dereverberation device includes an input instantaneous value calculation unit configured to calculate an input instantaneous value based on an input signal; a reverberation estimation unit configured to calculate a moving average of the input instantaneous value as a reverberation component; a gain calculation unit configured to calculate, with the input instantaneous value and the reverberation component, a first gain as a basic gain for the input signal; a gain suppression control unit configured to calculate, according to a ratio between the input instantaneous value and the reverberation component, a second gain changing within a range between a predetermined lower limit and a predetermined upper limit, thereby outputting a larger one of the first gain or the second gain as a third gain; and a gain processing unit configured to multiply the input signal by the third gain.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 19, 2019
    Date of Patent: November 19, 2019
    Assignee: RION Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Masatoshi Osawa, Masahiro Sunohara, Yoichi Fujisaka, Yoko Fujishima
  • Patent number: 10410640
    Abstract: A sound source separation apparatus includes: a separation-matrix processor that transforms a plurality of observation signals corresponding to sounds being propagated from a plurality of sound sources into a frequency-domain signal group the separation-matrix processor updating a separation matrix based on the frequency-domain signal group and transforming the updated separation matrix into time-series filter coefficients to output; a filter-coefficient transformer that partially removes non-causal components from the filter coefficients to transform the filter coefficients, and a separator that supplies the filter coefficients to a filter group, the separator generating a plurality of separation signals separated from the plurality of observation signals corresponding to the separation matrix.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 28, 2017
    Date of Patent: September 10, 2019
    Assignees: RION Co., Ltd., Inter-University Research Institute Corporation Research Organization of Information and Systems
    Inventors: Nobutaka Ono, Masahiro Sunohara, Chiho Haruta
  • Publication number: 20190267021
    Abstract: A dereverberation device includes an input instantaneous value calculation unit configured to calculate an input instantaneous value based on an input signal; a reverberation estimation unit configured to calculate a moving average of the input instantaneous value as a reverberation component; a gain calculation unit configured to calculate, with the input instantaneous value and the reverberation component, a first gain as a basic gain for the input signal; a gain suppression control unit configured to calculate, according to a ratio between the input instantaneous value and the reverberation component, a second gain changing within a range between a predetermined lower limit and a predetermined upper limit, thereby outputting a larger one of the first gain or the second gain as a third gain; and a gain processing unit configured to multiply the input signal by the third gain.
    Type: Application
    Filed: February 19, 2019
    Publication date: August 29, 2019
    Inventors: Masatoshi OSAWA, Masahiro SUNOHARA, Yoichi FUJISAKA, Yoko FUJISHIMA
  • Publication number: 20190028818
    Abstract: Provided is a hearing aid including a receiver, a microphone, an adaptive filter estimating a feedback transfer function from the receiver to the microphone, a subtractor, a hearing aid processor, a first whitening filter, a second whitening filter having a whitening filter coefficient identical to that of the first whitening filter, a coefficient updater, and a controller controlling the adaptive filter and the first and second whitening filters.
    Type: Application
    Filed: July 16, 2018
    Publication date: January 24, 2019
    Inventors: Nobuhiko HIRUMA, Masahiro SUNOHARA
  • Publication number: 20180040327
    Abstract: A sound source separation apparatus includes: a separation-matrix processor that transforms a plurality of observation signals corresponding to sounds being propagated from a plurality of sound sources into a frequency-domain signal group the separation-matrix processor updating a separation matrix based on the frequency-domain signal group and transforming the updated separation matrix into time-series filter coefficients to output; a filter-coefficient transformer that partially removes non-causal components from the filter coefficients to transform the filter coefficients, and a separator that supplies the filter coefficients to a filter group, the separator generating a plurality of separation signals separated from the plurality of observation signals corresponding to the separation matrix.
    Type: Application
    Filed: July 28, 2017
    Publication date: February 8, 2018
    Inventors: Nobutaka ONO, Masahiro SUNOHARA, Chiho HARUTA
  • Patent number: 9530429
    Abstract: A reverberation suppression apparatus includes: an instantaneous value calculation unit that calculates an instantaneous value/instantaneous values in an envelope of values correlating with the absolute value or the square of an input signal; a reverberation estimation unit that calculates an exponential moving average of the instantaneous value(s) as an estimated reverberation component; a gain derivation unit that derives a gain corresponding to the input signal according to the estimated reverberation component and the instantaneous value(s) when the each instantaneous value is larger than the estimated reverberation component, and derives a lower limit of the gain as the gain corresponding to the input signal when the each instantaneous value is smaller than the estimated reverberation component; a smoothing unit that performs a smoothing process on the gain; and a gain processing unit that applies the gain to amplitude adjustment of the input signal thereafter.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 26, 2015
    Date of Patent: December 27, 2016
    Assignee: RION CO., LTD.
    Inventors: Masahiro Sunohara, Mariko Nakaichi
  • Patent number: 9392380
    Abstract: A hearing aid according to an embodiment of the present disclosure includes: a microphone configured to convert sound into an electric signal and output a first signal; a receiver configured to convert the third signal that is generated by performing predetermined hearing aid processing on a second signal, into sound; a first feedback removal unit having an adaptive filter configured to adaptively estimate a first transfer function of a sound feedback path from the receiver to the microphone; and a second feedback removal unit having a fixed filter configured to receive the third signal and use a fixed filter coefficient based on a second transfer function of a vibration feedback path from the receiver to the microphone. The second signal is generated by removing from the first signal, output signals from the adaptive filter and the fixed filter.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 6, 2015
    Date of Patent: July 12, 2016
    Assignee: RION CO., LTD.
    Inventor: Masahiro Sunohara
  • Patent number: 9392705
    Abstract: A wiring board includes a substrate body provided with a through hole penetrating the substrate body from one surface to another surface; and a through wiring formed in the through hole and including a first metal layer formed on a part of an inner side surface of the through hole at the one surface side, a first wiring layer that covers the first metal layer to fill a part of the through hole at the one surface side, a second metal layer continuously formed on the rest part of the inner side surface of the through hole at the other surface side and on an end portion of the first wiring layer at the other surface side, and a second wiring layer that covers the second metal layer to fill a part of the through hole at the other surface side.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 28, 2014
    Date of Patent: July 12, 2016
    Assignee: SHINKO ELECTRIC INDUSTRIES CO., LTD.
    Inventors: Masahiro Sunohara, Yuichiro Shimizu
  • Patent number: 9357315
    Abstract: A hearing aid includes: a microphone; a hearing aid processing unit configured to provide a gain to a first signal based on an output signal from the microphone to generate a second signal; a receiver configured to convert the second signal into sound; an adaptive filter configured to adaptively estimate a transfer function corresponding to a pathway from an input side of the receiver to an output side of the microphone; and a feedback removal unit configured to subtract a third signal generated based on the transfer function from the output signal of the microphone to obtain a signal and output the signal as the first signal; and a control unit configured to control the gain setting unit and an adaptive speed of the adaptive filter.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 4, 2014
    Date of Patent: May 31, 2016
    Assignee: RION CO., LTD.
    Inventors: Masahiro Sunohara, Kazuteru Nishiyama