Patents by Inventor Masao Sambongi

Masao Sambongi 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: 8611725
    Abstract: A playback display device including: a display unit; a data storage unit which stores data representing a travel route and a plurality of pieces of image data each associated with an image capturing place; a movement display control unit which displays a mark moving on a map displayed on the display unit based on the data representing the travel route; and an image playback unit which displays image data when, while the movement display control unit displays the mark moving on the map, a displayed position of the mark matches a corresponding position of the image capturing place associated with the image data.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 14, 2011
    Date of Patent: December 17, 2013
    Assignee: Casio Computer Co., Ltd.
    Inventor: Masao Sambongi
  • Patent number: 8554504
    Abstract: Disclosed is a positioning apparatus including: an autonomous navigation sensor which is held by a pedestrian and which outputs periodic oscillation and direction information; a step length data storage section which stores step length data; a movement distance calculating section which calculates movement distance; a traveling direction calculating section which calculates a traveling direction; and a movement direction calculating section which calculates a movement direction for each step, wherein the movement distance calculating section includes a taken step angle calculating section which calculates a taken step angle from the movement direction for each step with respect to the traveling direction; and the movement distance calculating section corrects a value of the step length data so that the step length is larger as the taken step angle becomes larger to calculate a movement distance for each step.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 21, 2011
    Date of Patent: October 8, 2013
    Assignee: Casio Computer Co., Ltd.
    Inventor: Masao Sambongi
  • Publication number: 20130262359
    Abstract: A positional information acquisition unit 52 acquires positional information from a GPS unit 16. An internal user condition acquisition unit 53 acquires user condition information, which is output from the sensor unit 17, and which indicates predetermined internal user conditions. A history acquisition unit 55 associates the positional information acquired by the positional information acquisition unit 52 with the user condition information acquired by the internal user condition acquisition unit 53, and acquires these information as user behavior history.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 18, 2013
    Publication date: October 3, 2013
    Applicant: CASIO COMPUTER CO., LTD.
    Inventor: Masao SAMBONGI
  • Publication number: 20130251331
    Abstract: A moving image capturing apparatus includes a capturing section; a sensor; an operation judging section; a priority setting section; a storage section; and a digest playback section. The digest playback setting section includes a portion selecting section; a selected time comparing section; and a setting section. The priority setting section sets a priority for a moving image portion according to a type of state judged by the operation judging section based on a predetermined standard. The digest playback section sets a playback portion of a moving image of a digest playback target. The portion selecting section selects in order from a moving image portion set with a high priority.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 18, 2013
    Publication date: September 26, 2013
    Applicant: CASIO COMPUTER CO., LTD.
    Inventor: Masao SAMBONGI
  • Patent number: 8482459
    Abstract: A positioning device including: a time counter for counting time; a first reception controller (S1) for intermittently receiving time information from the positioning satellite through a reception unit; a time revising unit (S14) for revising the time counted by the time counter based on the received time information; an error calculator (S12, S13) for calculating an error per unit time (“?/?”) in the time counted by the time counter based on the received time information and the time counted by the time counter; a time correcting unit (S4) for calculating corrected time by removing an error from the time counted by the time counter based on the calculated error per unit time (“?/?”); and a positioning unit (S5 to S8) for acquiring a signal of the positioning satellite by using the corrected time and measuring a position of the positioning device based on the acquired signal.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 4, 2011
    Date of Patent: July 9, 2013
    Assignee: Casio Computer Co., Ltd
    Inventor: Masao Sambongi
  • Patent number: 8473195
    Abstract: A positioning device for obtaining position data of a plurality of points on a movement route, including a positioning unit that can measure a present position; a movement measuring unit for measuring a relative positional change; a position calculating unit for calculating position data of the plurality of points on the movement route on the basis of position data of a first reference point and positional change data obtained through measurement of the movement measuring unit; and a correcting unit for correcting the position data of at least one of the plurality of points calculated by the position calculating unit on the basis of difference information representing difference between a position represented by the position data calculated by the position calculating unit and a position represented by a positioning result of the positioning unit with respect to any second reference point on the movement route.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 11, 2010
    Date of Patent: June 25, 2013
    Assignee: Casio Computer Co., Ltd.
    Inventor: Masao Sambongi
  • Patent number: 8463034
    Abstract: A tone conversion unit, when performing tone conversion on an image signal, performs the tone conversion so as to provide a more appropriate tone to a feature area such as a face extracted from the image signal. Specifically, a correction coefficient calculation unit performs multi-resolution decomposition on a specific signal with the extracted feature area, and sets all pixels of low-frequency component to 1, while setting high-frequency components considered to include noise to 0, so as to calculate a correction coefficient. Then, a correction coefficient processing unit performs a processing of multiplying the correction coefficient to the image signal similarly performed with multi-resolution decomposition.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 14, 2009
    Date of Patent: June 11, 2013
    Assignees: Olympus Corporation, Apical Limited
    Inventors: Masao Sambongi, Vyacheslav Chesnokov
  • Patent number: 8456541
    Abstract: A plurality of image signals having different exposure levels is acquired; low-frequency components are extracted from each of the image signals to generate a plurality of low-frequency image signals; and the plurality of low-frequency image signals are combined to generate a combined low-frequency image signal. A first image signal is extracted from the plurality of image signals; and high-frequency components are extracted from the first image signal to generate a high-frequency image signal. Then, a combined image signal is generated by combining the combined low-frequency image signal and the high-frequency image signal.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 16, 2010
    Date of Patent: June 4, 2013
    Assignee: Olympus Corporation
    Inventor: Masao Sambongi
  • Patent number: 8311369
    Abstract: In a digital camera 4, when a shot image is chosen, fractal data expressing structural features of object images in the photographed image is obtained. The fractal data is sent to a search server 2. In the search server 2 are stored plural pieces of fractal data showing structural features of an image of a specific object and keywords expressing specific objects corresponding respectively to the plural pieces of fractal data. The search server 2 searches for images on the Internet 1 using as the keyword corresponding to the fractal data sent from the digital camera 4. Further, the search server 2 obtains fractal data of objects in the searched image, and calculates a degree of coincidence based on the similarity between the obtained fractal data and the fractal data sent from the digital camera 4, and successively sends the digital camera 4 the images whose degree of coincidence is larger than a certain reference.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 11, 2009
    Date of Patent: November 13, 2012
    Assignee: Casio Computer Co., Ltd.
    Inventor: Masao Sambongi
  • Patent number: 8305468
    Abstract: A plurality of preliminary image signals is acquired by carrying out preliminary image acquisition of a subject, before actual image acquisition, with different amounts of light received by an image acquisition device. Subsequently, a dynamic range and an amount of noise, or an S/N ratio, for a case in which the plurality of preliminary image signals is combined is calculated, and a received-light-level difference of the image acquisition device among a plurality of actual image signals acquired through the actual image acquisition is calculated on the basis of the dynamic range and the amount of noise, or the S/N ratio. Then, by carrying out the actual image acquisition on the basis of the calculated received-light-level difference, a plurality of actual image signals with different received light level is acquired. These actual image signals are combined to acquire a combined image.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 23, 2010
    Date of Patent: November 6, 2012
    Assignee: Olympus Corporation
    Inventor: Masao Sambongi
  • Publication number: 20120215442
    Abstract: A positioning apparatus determines a registered point to be a current absolute position in the case where the apparatus determines that a current estimated position of the apparatus, which is calculated from an intermittently-measured absolute position and continuously-acquired relative position data, is within a predetermined distance of the beforehand-registered point; and determines that the apparatus is in a predetermined state indicating that the apparatus is likely to arrive at the registered point.
    Type: Application
    Filed: February 15, 2012
    Publication date: August 23, 2012
    Applicant: CASIO COMPUTER CO., LTD.
    Inventor: Masao SAMBONGI
  • Patent number: 8227738
    Abstract: A digital camera includes: an image capture data creation unit; a CPU for directing the image capture data creation unit to perform image captures several times and acquire a plurality of image capture data; and an image processing device that determines whether or not a common specific image region exists in a plurality of image capture data acquired by the CPU and, in the case where it is determined that a specific image region exists, performs a pixel additive synthesis for image data of the specific image region and creates image data.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 6, 2011
    Date of Patent: July 24, 2012
    Assignee: Casio Computer Co., Ltd.
    Inventor: Masao Sambongi
  • Publication number: 20120150440
    Abstract: A positioning apparatus performs two-phased correction in the case where continuous relative position data are acquired by autonomous-navigation positioning unit without acquiring absolute positions, and after that, absolute position data are acquired corresponding to a plurality of points using positioning satellites. In the first phase, correction is performed on continuous relative position data corresponding to a period in which absolute position data is acquired, by associating such continuous relative position data with the acquired absolute position data. In the second phase, correction is preformed on relative position data acquired without absolute positions, by using the parameter identical to that of the first correction.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 8, 2011
    Publication date: June 14, 2012
    Applicant: CASIO COMPUTER CO., LTD.
    Inventor: Masao SAMBONGI
  • Publication number: 20120101763
    Abstract: Disclosed is a positioning apparatus including: an autonomous navigation sensor which is held by a pedestrian and which outputs periodic oscillation and direction information; a step length data storage section which stores step length data; a movement distance calculating section which calculates movement distance; a traveling direction calculating section which calculates a traveling direction; and a movement direction calculating section which calculates a movement direction for each step, wherein the movement distance calculating section includes a taken step angle calculating section which calculates a taken step angle from the movement direction for each step with respect to the traveling direction; and the movement distance calculating section corrects a value of the step length data so that the step length is larger as the taken step angle becomes larger to calculate a movement distance for each step.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 21, 2011
    Publication date: April 26, 2012
    Applicant: Casio Computer Co., Ltd.
    Inventor: Masao SAMBONGI
  • Publication number: 20120062779
    Abstract: A playback display device including: a display unit; a data storage unit which stores data representing a travel route and a plurality of pieces of image data each associated with an image capturing place; a movement display control unit which displays a mark moving on a map displayed on the display unit based on the data representing the travel route; and an image playback unit which displays image data when, while the movement display control unit displays the mark moving on the map, a displayed position of the mark matches a corresponding position of the image capturing place associated with the image data.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 14, 2011
    Publication date: March 15, 2012
    Applicant: CASIO COMPUTER CO., LTD.
    Inventor: Masao SAMBONGI
  • Publication number: 20120062414
    Abstract: A positioning apparatus including: a first positioning unit which intermittently receives signals from satellites and carries out a first position measurement; a second positioning unit which carries out a second position measurement by adding information of a moving direction and a moving amount to positional information of a reference position; a positioning control unit which obtains positional information corresponding to positions along a movement path by the first position measurement and the second position measurement; a reference position updating unit which updates the positional information of the reference position based on a result of the first position measurement; a distance calculating unit which calculates a distance between two positions, i.e., between the reference position and a position obtained by the second position measurement; and a positioning timing control unit which controls timing to carry out the first position measurement based on the distance.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 14, 2011
    Publication date: March 15, 2012
    Applicant: CASIO COMPUTER CO., LTD.
    Inventor: Masao Sambongi
  • Publication number: 20120059581
    Abstract: A positioning apparatus includes: a first measuring section to directly measuring its own present position; a second measuring section to measure an azimuth and a movement of a user; a movement method judging section to judge a movement method of the user based on the measurement result by the second measuring section; an azimuth specifying section to specify a movement azimuth of the user based on the measurement result by the second measuring section; a movement speed calculating section to calculate an average movement speed in a period where the movement method of the user is judged to be a movement state by car; and a position calculating section to obtain a movement position by integrating a movement distance into the specified movement azimuth at the average movement speed to reference position information obtained by the first measuring section when the user is in the movement state by car.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 1, 2011
    Publication date: March 8, 2012
    Applicant: CASIO COMPUTER CO., LTD.
    Inventor: Masao Sambongi
  • Publication number: 20120059623
    Abstract: A positioning apparatus includes: a position measuring section to obtain measured position data by measuring its own present position; a positioning controlling section to control operation timing of the position measuring section to make the position measuring section discontinuously obtain the measured position data; a movement measuring section to measure a movement operation; a moving method judging section to judge a moving method based on a measurement result of the movement measuring section; a map data storage section to store information of a rail route map; and a migration path judging section to judge a migration path in a period judged to be a moving state by an electric train by the moving method judging section based on the measured position data measured by the position measuring section and the information of the rail route map.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 1, 2011
    Publication date: March 8, 2012
    Applicant: CASIO COMPUTER CO., LTD.
    Inventor: Masao SAMBONGI
  • Publication number: 20120053889
    Abstract: A positioning apparatus includes: a position measuring section to measure a present position of the positioning apparatus to obtain measured position data; a movement measuring section to measure a moving direction and a moving distance; a position calculating section to calculate the present position to obtain calculated position data by accumulating, with respect to reference position, moving data corresponds to the moving direction and the moving distance measured by the movement measuring section; a selecting section to compare accuracy of the measured position data with an accuracy index of the calculated position data to select more accurate position data; and a reference position setting section to set the measured position data as the reference position when the measured position data is selected by the selecting section; wherein the accuracy index of the calculated position data is set such that the accuracy falls correspondence with increasing distance from the reference position.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 1, 2011
    Publication date: March 1, 2012
    Applicant: CASIO COMPUTER CO., LTD.
    Inventor: Masao SAMBONGI
  • Patent number: 8106977
    Abstract: The present invention aims at obtaining a high-quality video signal by reducing tone jumps. A second grayscale conversion characteristic is calculated from a video signal to which a first grayscale conversion process has been applied using a first grayscale conversion characteristic used to convert an M-bit video signal into an N-bit video signal, where M and N are integers and M is larger than N. The first grayscale conversion characteristic is corrected by using the second grayscale conversion characteristic. The first grayscale conversion process is applied to the video signal by using the corrected first grayscale conversion characteristic.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 10, 2009
    Date of Patent: January 31, 2012
    Assignee: Olympus Corporation
    Inventor: Masao Sambongi