Patents by Inventor Norio Watarai

Norio Watarai 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: 11498576
    Abstract: An onboard device estimates a traveling state of a vehicle that may be influenced by the psychological state of a driver, based on an utterance of the driver without the use of various sensors, and includes: a voice collection unit for collecting a driver's voice; a traveling state collection unit for collecting traveling state information representing a traveling state of a vehicle; a database generation unit for generating a database by associating voice information corresponding to the collected voice with the collected traveling state information; a learning unit for learning an estimation model, with pairs including the voice information and the traveling state information recorded in the generated database being used as learning data; and an estimation unit for estimating the traveling state of the vehicle that may be influenced by a psychological state of the driver by using the estimation model, based on an utterance of the driver.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 31, 2019
    Date of Patent: November 15, 2022
    Assignee: CLARION CO., LTD.
    Inventors: Hiroaki Kokubo, Norio Watarai, Kazunori Nakayama
  • Patent number: 10818283
    Abstract: To assign an appropriate pronunciation to a word or phrase having a unique pronunciation or a word or phrase having a pronunciation incorrectly used by a user, a terminal device divides a first word or phrase indicated by a first recognition result acquired from a speech recognition server into morphemes and assigns a pronunciation to each of the morphemes, and divides a second word or phrase indicated by a second recognition result acquired from a speech recognition module into morphemes. Further, the terminal device selects, for a morpheme having the same character string as that of any one of the morphemes forming the second word or phrase among the morphemes forming the first word or phrase, a pronunciation of the morpheme indicated by the second recognition result.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 5, 2018
    Date of Patent: October 27, 2020
    Assignee: Clarion Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Hiroaki Kokubo, Takuya Matsumoto, Norio Watarai
  • Publication number: 20190013010
    Abstract: To assign an appropriate pronunciation to a word or phrase having a unique pronunciation or a word or phrase having a pronunciation incorrectly used by a user, a terminal device divides a first word or phrase indicated by a first recognition result acquired from a speech recognition server into morphemes and assigns a pronunciation to each of the morphemes, and divides a second word or phrase indicated by a second recognition result acquired from a speech recognition module into morphemes. Further, the terminal device selects, for a morpheme having the same character string as that of any one of the morphemes forming the second word or phrase among the morphemes forming the first word or phrase, a pronunciation of the morpheme indicated by the second recognition result.
    Type: Application
    Filed: July 5, 2018
    Publication date: January 10, 2019
    Inventors: Hiroaki KOKUBO, Takuya MATSUMOTO, Norio WATARAI
  • Patent number: 9094956
    Abstract: A wireless communication terminal has input devices for inputting an operation content for operating an application, a communicator for transmitting the operation content input from the input devices to a server, and receiving a server processing result as a result of predetermined processing executed by the server, and a controller determining in accordance with the application as an operation target based on the operation content whether the operation based on the operation content input before interruption of the communication is continued after the communication with the server is recovered, when the communication with the server is interrupted after the operation content is input from the input means and before a server processing result corresponding to the operation content is received from the server.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 14, 2011
    Date of Patent: July 28, 2015
    Assignee: CLARION CO., LTD.
    Inventors: Takeshi Homma, Norio Watarai, Hiroshi Shojima, Makoto Sugiyama
  • Publication number: 20150032374
    Abstract: An object of the present invention is to provide a technique of an information terminal that allows more efficient utilization of high-level searching functions. The information terminal is provided with an audio input accepting unit to accept an input of speech information, a communication unit to establish communication with a predetermined server device via a network, an output unit, a POI specifying unit to transmit the speech information accepted by the audio input accepting unit to the server device and receive information specifying a candidate of a POI (Point Of Interest) associated with the speech information, a POI candidate output unit to output to the output unit, the information specifying the candidate of the POI received by the POI specifying unit, and a route searching unit to accept a selective input of the information specifying the candidate of the POI, and search for a route directed to the POI.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 13, 2014
    Publication date: January 29, 2015
    Inventors: Takeshi HOMMA, Kouichirou FUKUNAGA, Norio WATARAI, Masataka MOTOHASHI, Yasunari OBUCHI
  • Patent number: 8903651
    Abstract: An object of the present invention is to provide a technique of an information terminal that allows more efficient utilization of high-level searching functions. The information terminal is provided with an audio input accepting unit to accept an input of speech information, a communication unit to establish communication with a predetermined server device via a network, an output unit, a POI specifying unit to transmit the speech information accepted by the audio input accepting unit to the server device and receive information specifying a candidate of a POI (Point Of Interest) associated with the speech information, a POI candidate output unit to output to the output unit, the information specifying the candidate of the POI received by the POI specifying unit, and a route searching unit to accept a selective input of the information specifying the candidate of the POI, and search for a route directed to the POI.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 21, 2012
    Date of Patent: December 2, 2014
    Assignee: Clarion Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Takeshi Homma, Kouichirou Fukunaga, Norio Watarai, Masataka Motohashi, Yasunari Obuchi
  • Publication number: 20140057611
    Abstract: A wireless communication terminal has input devices for inputting an operation content for operating an application, a communicator for transmitting the operation content input from the input devices to a server, and receiving a server processing result as a result of predetermined processing executed by the server, and a controller determining in accordance with the application as an operation target based on the operation content whether the operation based on the operation content input before interruption of the communication is continued after the communication with the server is recovered, when the communication with the server is interrupted after the operation content is input from the input means and before a server processing result corresponding to the operation content is received from the server.
    Type: Application
    Filed: November 14, 2011
    Publication date: February 27, 2014
    Applicant: CLARION CO., LTD.
    Inventors: Takeshi Homma, Norio Watarai, Hiroshi Shojima, Makoto Sugiyama
  • Patent number: 8560226
    Abstract: Provided is a technology of a navigation device which is capable of identifying an intersection or the like based on designation of an incomplete name of a street in which an input of a first keyword and an input of a second keyword are received, and a connection point of a first street having a street name which includes at least in part the first keyword and a second street having a street name which includes at least in part the second keyword is identified, to thereby save the user, who is not always familiar with the geography of a search target area, from the inconvenience of inputting a complete name of the first street, based on which the second street is retrieved and selected and an intersection point of the first street and the second street is identified.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 25, 2009
    Date of Patent: October 15, 2013
    Assignee: Clarion Co. Ltd.
    Inventors: Norio Watarai, Chiharu Hirai
  • Patent number: 8355863
    Abstract: Provided is a technology of a navigation device which is capable of identifying an intersection or the like based on designation of an incomplete name of a street in which an input of a first keyword and an input of a second keyword are received, and a connection point of a first street having a street name which includes at least in part the first keyword and a second street having a street name which includes at least in part the second keyword is identified, to thereby save the user, who is not always familiar with the geography of a search target area, from the inconvenience of inputting a complete name of the first street, based on which the second street is retrieved and selected and an intersection point of the first street and the second street is identified.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 25, 2009
    Date of Patent: January 15, 2013
    Assignee: Clarion Co. Ltd.
    Inventors: Norio Watarai, Chiharu Hirai
  • Publication number: 20100138150
    Abstract: Provided is a technology of a navigation device which is capable of identifying an intersection or the like based on designation of an incomplete name of a street in which an input of a first keyword and an input of a second keyword are received, and a connection point of a first street having a street name which includes at least in part the first keyword and a second street having a street name which includes at least in part the second keyword is identified, to thereby save the user, who is not always familiar with the geography of a search target area, from the inconvenience of inputting a complete name of the first street, based on which the second street is retrieved and selected and an intersection point of the first street and the second street is identified.
    Type: Application
    Filed: November 25, 2009
    Publication date: June 3, 2010
    Applicant: Clarion Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Norio WATARAI, Chiharu HIRAI