Patents by Inventor Noriaki Tawada

Noriaki Tawada 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: 20160044411
    Abstract: A signal processing apparatus acquires an audio signal of channels using a sound acquisition unit, at least a part of which is within a housing of the apparatus, and obtains an audio signal of channels from a microphone provided outside the housing. The apparatus processes an audio signal in accordance with a first propagation characteristic indicating propagation of sound associated with a direction of a sound source, in a case of processing an audio signal acquired by the sound acquisition unit and processes an audio signal in accordance with a second propagation characteristic different from the first propagation characteristic, in a case of processing an audio signal obtained by the microphone. The signal processing apparatus estimates a sound source direction using an audio signal processed by the first processing unit or an audio signal processed by the second processing unit.
    Type: Application
    Filed: July 28, 2015
    Publication date: February 11, 2016
    Inventor: Noriaki Tawada
  • Patent number: 9134167
    Abstract: Measurement signals for calculating acoustic characteristics of the acoustic space are reproduced in a plurality of periods at sound reproduction intervals. A picked-up signal is acquired by picking up a reproduced signal. The picked-up signal is divided for each period, and the acoustic characteristics of the acoustic space are calculated from an arithmetic unit of the divided periodic signals and the measurement signal. Before sound reproduction, a background noise signal in the acoustic space is measured, and a peak frequency component of a frequency characteristic of the background noise signal is detected. The number of periods and sound reproduction intervals of measurement signals to be reproduced are controlled so as to cancel out a detected peak frequency component at the time of calculating arithmetic unit.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 6, 2011
    Date of Patent: September 15, 2015
    Assignee: CANON KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventor: Noriaki Tawada
  • Publication number: 20150208169
    Abstract: An impulse response between a sound-producing source and a listening point in an acoustic space is measured. A frequency characteristic serving as the processing target of sound field correction is derived from the impulse response. A level difference at a boundary frequency between a level representing a low frequency band and a level representing middle and high frequency bands is calculated for the low frequency band equal to or lower than the boundary frequency and the middle and high frequency bands higher than the boundary frequency in the frequency characteristic. The level of a target characteristic in the low frequency band in the frequency characteristic is decided to set the level difference after sound field correction to be equal to or smaller than a predetermined value.
    Type: Application
    Filed: January 9, 2015
    Publication date: July 23, 2015
    Inventor: Noriaki Tawada
  • Patent number: 9088857
    Abstract: An audio apparatus includes a sound generation unit configured to generate a measuring signal, a sound collection unit configured to obtain a sound collection signal, a detection unit configured to detect a level difference between the sound collection signal and background noise, a characteristic calculation unit configured to extract each signal period of the measuring signal from the sound collection signal, a feature amount calculation unit configured to calculate a feature amount representative of sudden noise for each period based on each of the period signals, and a determination unit configured to compare feature amounts of the periods and to remove, from periods to be used for averaging the period signals, a period or periods whose feature amounts are not within a range between a threshold value and a minimum value of the feature amounts as a reference, wherein the threshold value is determined according to the detected level difference.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 7, 2011
    Date of Patent: July 21, 2015
    Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventor: Noriaki Tawada
  • Publication number: 20150139446
    Abstract: An audio separating apparatus obtains a matrix by performing time-frequency conversion on an input audio signal. The audio separating apparatus divides the obtained matrix into at least a basis matrix and an activity matrix, and classifies base spectra that configure the respective columns of the basis matrix into first base spectra corresponding to a target sound and second base spectra corresponding to a non-target sound.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 29, 2014
    Publication date: May 21, 2015
    Inventor: Noriaki Tawada
  • Publication number: 20140185826
    Abstract: A noise suppression apparatus selectively uses an adaptive beamformer and fixed beamformer for each frequency. A direction of a null of the fixed beamformer is determined from a direction of a null automatically formed by the adaptive beamformer. Filter coefficients of the adaptive beamformer based on an output power minimization rule are calculated by a minimum norm method using a norm of the filter coefficients as a constraint. The above selection is made based on, for example, a depth of a null automatically formed by the adaptive beamformer in the selection.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 23, 2013
    Publication date: July 3, 2014
    Applicant: CANON KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventor: Noriaki Tawada
  • Patent number: 8532308
    Abstract: To efficiently detect a standing wave generated in a room, a standing-wave detection apparatus for detecting a standing wave in a predetermined space, comprises: a sound-receiving unit adapted to receive a sound generated from a sound source arranged in the predetermined space; a storage unit adapted to store time series sound pressure level data acquired by the sound-receiving unit during movement along a path in the predetermined space; an adjustment unit adapted to adjust the time series sound pressure level data stored in the storage unit, based on an adjustment curve determined using a lower envelope of the time series sound pressure level data stored in the storage unit; and a detection unit adapted to detect an existence position of a standing wave in the predetermined space based on the adjusted time series sound pressure level data.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 19, 2010
    Date of Patent: September 10, 2013
    Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventor: Noriaki Tawada
  • Publication number: 20120155662
    Abstract: An audio apparatus includes a sound generation unit configured to generate a measuring signal, a sound collection unit configured to obtain a sound collection signal, a detection unit configured to detect a level difference between the sound collection signal and background noise, a characteristic calculation unit configured to extract each signal period of the measuring signal from the sound collection signal, a feature amount calculation unit configured to calculate a feature amount representative of sudden noise for each period based on each of the period signals, and a determination unit configured to compare feature amounts of the periods and to remove, from periods to be used for averaging the period signals, a period or periods whose feature amounts are not within a range between a threshold value and a minimum value of the feature amounts as a reference, wherein the threshold value is determined according to the detected level difference.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 7, 2011
    Publication date: June 21, 2012
    Applicant: CANON KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventor: Noriaki Tawada
  • Publication number: 20120063605
    Abstract: Measurement signals for calculating acoustic characteristics of the acoustic space are reproduced in a plurality of periods at sound reproduction intervals. A picked-up signal is acquired by picking up a reproduced signal. The picked-up signal is divided for each period, and the acoustic characteristics of the acoustic space are calculated from an arithmetic unit of the divided periodic signals and the measurement signal. Before sound reproduction, a background noise signal in the acoustic space is measured, and a peak frequency component of a frequency characteristic of the background noise signal is detected. The number of periods and sound reproduction intervals of measurement signals to be reproduced are controlled so as to cancel out a detected peak frequency component at the time of calculating arithmetic unit.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 6, 2011
    Publication date: March 15, 2012
    Applicant: CANON KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventor: Noriaki Tawada
  • Publication number: 20100303248
    Abstract: To efficiently detect a standing wave generated in a room, a standing-wave detection apparatus for detecting a standing wave in a predetermined space, comprises: a sound-receiving unit adapted to receive a sound generated from a sound source arranged in the predetermined space; a storage unit adapted to store time series sound pressure level data acquired by the sound-receiving unit during movement along a path in the predetermined space; an adjustment unit adapted to adjust the time series sound pressure level data stored in the storage unit, based on an adjustment curve determined using a lower envelope of the time series sound pressure level data stored in the storage unit; and a detection unit adapted to detect an existence position of a standing wave in the predetermined space based on the adjusted time series sound pressure level data.
    Type: Application
    Filed: May 19, 2010
    Publication date: December 2, 2010
    Applicant: CANON KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventor: Noriaki Tawada