Patents by Inventor Osamu Nishiyama

Osamu Nishiyama 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: 10304457
    Abstract: According to one embodiment, a transcription support system supports transcription work to convert voice data to text. The system includes a first storage unit configured to store therein the voice data; a playback unit configured to play back the voice data; a second storage unit configured to store therein voice indices, each of which associates a character string obtained from a voice recognition process with voice positional information, for which the voice positional information is indicative of a temporal position in the voice data and corresponds to the character string; a text creating unit that creates the text in response to an operation input of a user; and an estimation unit configured to estimate already-transcribed voice positional information indicative of a position at which the creation of the text is completed in the voice data based on the voice indices.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 15, 2012
    Date of Patent: May 28, 2019
    Assignee: KABUSHIKI KAISHA TOSHIBA
    Inventors: Hirokazu Suzuki, Nobuhiro Shimogori, Tomoo Ikeda, Kouji Ueno, Osamu Nishiyama, Manabu Nagao
  • Patent number: 9798804
    Abstract: According to an embodiment, an information processing apparatus includes a storage unit, a detector, an acquisition unit, and a search unit. The storage unit configured to store therein voice indices, each of which associates a character string included in voice text data obtained from a voice recognition process with voice positional information, the voice positional information indicating a temporal position in the voice data and corresponding to the character string. The acquisition unit acquires reading information being at least a part of a character string representing a reading of a phrase to be transcribed from the voice data played back. The search unit specifies, as search targets, character strings whose associated voice positional information is included in the played-back section information among the character strings included in the voice indices, and retrieves a character string including the reading represented by the reading information from among the specified character strings.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 26, 2012
    Date of Patent: October 24, 2017
    Assignee: KABUSHIKI KAISHA TOSHIBA
    Inventors: Nobuhiro Shimogori, Tomoo Ikeda, Kouji Ueno, Osamu Nishiyama, Hirokazu Suzuki, Manabu Nagao
  • Patent number: 9460718
    Abstract: According to an embodiment, a text generator includes a recognizer, a selector, and a generation unit. The recognizer is configured to recognize an acquired sound and obtain recognized character strings in recognition units and confidence levels of the recognized character strings. The selector is configured to select at least one of the recognized character strings used for a transcribed sentence on the basis of at least one of a parameter about transcription accuracy and a parameter about a workload needed for transcription. The generation unit is configured to generate the transcribed sentence using the selected recognized character strings.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 12, 2014
    Date of Patent: October 4, 2016
    Assignee: Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba
    Inventors: Taira Ashikawa, Osamu Nishiyama, Tomoo Ikeda, Koji Ueno, Kouta Nakata
  • Patent number: 9251808
    Abstract: According to one embodiment, a speaker clustering apparatus includes a clustering unit, an extraction unit, and an error detection unit. The clustering unit is configured to extract acoustic features for speakers from an acoustic signal, and to cluster utterances included in the acoustic signal into the speakers by using the acoustic features. The extraction unit is configured to acquire character strings representing contents of the utterances, and to extract linguistic features of the speakers by using the character strings. The error detection unit is configured to decide that, when one of the character strings does not fit with a linguistic feature of a speaker into which an utterance of the one is clustered, the utterance is erroneously clustered by the clustering unit.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 6, 2012
    Date of Patent: February 2, 2016
    Assignee: Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba
    Inventors: Tomoo Ikeda, Manabu Nagao, Osamu Nishiyama, Hirokazu Suzuki, Koji Ueno, Nobuhiro Shimogori
  • Patent number: 9196253
    Abstract: According to an embodiment, an information processing apparatus includes a dividing unit, an assigning unit, and a generating unit. The dividing unit is configured to divide speech data into pieces of utterance data. The assigning unit is configured to assign speaker identification information to each piece of utterance data based on an acoustic feature of the each piece of utterance data. The generating unit is configured to generate a candidate list that indicates candidate speaker names so as to enable a user to determine a speaker name to be given to the piece of utterance data identified by instruction information, based on operation history information in which at least pieces of utterance identification information, pieces of the speaker identification information, and speaker names given by the user to the respective pieces of utterance data are associated with one another.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 6, 2013
    Date of Patent: November 24, 2015
    Assignee: Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba
    Inventors: Osamu Nishiyama, Taira Ashikawa, Tomoo Ikeda, Kouji Ueno, Kouta Nakata
  • Patent number: 9020821
    Abstract: An acquisition unit analyzes a text, and acquires phonemic and prosodic information. An editing unit edits a part of the phonemic and prosodic information. A speech synthesis unit converts the phonemic and prosodic information before editing the part to a first speech waveform, and converts the phonemic and prosodic information after editing the part to a second speech waveform. A period calculation unit calculates a contrast period corresponding to the part in the first speech waveform and the second speech waveform. A speech generation unit generates an output waveform by connecting a first partial waveform and a second partial waveform. The first partial waveform contains the contrast period of the first speech waveform. The second partial waveform contains the contrast period of the second speech waveform.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 19, 2011
    Date of Patent: April 28, 2015
    Assignee: Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba
    Inventor: Osamu Nishiyama
  • Publication number: 20140303974
    Abstract: According to an embodiment, a text generator includes a recognizer, a selector, and a generation unit. The recognizer is configured to recognize an acquired sound and obtain recognized character strings in recognition units and confidence levels of the recognized character strings. The selector is configured to select at least one of the recognized character strings used for a transcribed sentence on the basis of at least one of a parameter about transcription accuracy and a parameter about a workload needed for transcription. The generation unit is configured to generate the transcribed sentence using the selected recognized character strings.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 12, 2014
    Publication date: October 9, 2014
    Applicant: KABUSHIKI KAISHA TOSHIBA
    Inventors: Taira ASHIKAWA, Osamu NISHIYAMA, Tomoo IKEDA, Koji UENO, Kouta NAKATA
  • Publication number: 20140207454
    Abstract: According to an embodiment, a text reproduction device includes a setting unit, an acquiring unit, an estimating unit, and a modifying unit. The setting unit is configured to set a pause position delimiting text in response to input data that is input by the user during reproduction of speech data. The acquiring unit is configured to acquire a reproduction position of the speech data being reproduced when the pause position is set. The estimating unit is configured to estimate a more accurate position corresponding to the pause position by matching the text around the pause position with the speech data around the reproduction position. The modifying unit is configured to modify the reproduction position to the estimated more accurate position in the speech data, and set the pause position so that reproduction of the speech data can be started from the modified reproduction position when the pause position is designated by the user.
    Type: Application
    Filed: January 17, 2014
    Publication date: July 24, 2014
    Applicant: KABUSHIKI KAISHA TOSHIBA
    Inventors: Kouta Nakata, Taira Ashikawa, Tomoo Ikeda, Kouji Ueno, Osamu Nishiyama
  • Publication number: 20140046666
    Abstract: According to an embodiment, an information processing apparatus includes a dividing unit, an assigning unit, and a generating unit. The dividing unit is configured to divide speech data into pieces of utterance data. The assigning unit is configured to assign speaker identification information to each piece of utterance data based on an acoustic feature of the each piece of utterance data. The generating unit is configured to generate a candidate list that indicates candidate speaker names so as to enable a user to determine a speaker name to be given to the piece of utterance data identified by instruction information, based on operation history information in which at least pieces of utterance identification information, pieces of the speaker identification information, and speaker names given by the user to the respective pieces of utterance data are associated with one another.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 6, 2013
    Publication date: February 13, 2014
    Applicant: KABUSHIKI KAISHA TOSHIBA
    Inventors: Osamu Nishiyama, Taira Ashikawa, Tomoo Ikeda, Kouji Ueno, Kouta Nakata
  • Patent number: 8554565
    Abstract: According to one embodiment, a speech synthesizer generates a speech segment sequence and synthesizes speech by connecting speech segments of the generated speech segment sequence. If a speech segment of a synthesized first speech segment sequence is different from the speech segment of a synthesized second speech segment sequence having the same synthesis unit as the first speech segment sequence, the speech synthesizer disables the speech segment of the first speech segment sequence that is different from the speech segment of the second speech segment sequence.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 14, 2010
    Date of Patent: October 8, 2013
    Assignee: Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba
    Inventors: Osamu Nishiyama, Takehiko Kagoshima
  • Publication number: 20130080163
    Abstract: According to an embodiment, an information processing apparatus includes a storage unit, a detector, an acquisition unit, and a search unit. The storage unit configured to store therein voice indices, each of which associates a character string included in voice text data obtained from a voice recognition process with voice positional information, the voice positional information indicating a temporal position in the voice data and corresponding to the character string. The acquisition unit acquires reading information being at least a part of a character string representing a reading of a phrase to be transcribed from the voice data played back. The search unit specifies, as search targets, character strings whose associated voice positional information is included in the played-back section information among the character strings included in the voice indices, and retrieves a character string including the reading represented by the reading information from among the specified character strings.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 26, 2012
    Publication date: March 28, 2013
    Applicant: KABUSHIKI KAISHA TOSHIBA
    Inventors: Nobuhiro Shimogori, Tomoo Ikeda, Kouji Ueno, Osamu Nishiyama, Hirokazu Suzuki, Manabu Nagao
  • Publication number: 20130080174
    Abstract: In an embodiment, a retrieving device includes: a text input unit, a first extracting unit, a retrieving unit, a second extracting unit, an acquiring unit, and a selecting unit. The text input unit inputs a text including unknown word information representing a phrase that a user was unable to transcribe. The first extracting unit extracts related words representing a phrase related to the unknown word information among phrases other than the unknown word information included in the text. The retrieving unit retrieves a related document representing a document including the related words. The second extracting unit extracts candidate words representing candidates for the unknown word information from a plurality of phrases included in the related document. The acquiring unit acquires reading information representing estimated pronunciation of the unknown word information. The selecting unit selects at least one of candidate word of which pronunciation is similar to the reading information.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 20, 2012
    Publication date: March 28, 2013
    Applicant: KABUSHIKI KAISHA TOSHIBA
    Inventors: Osamu Nishiyama, Nobuhiro Shimogori, Tomoo Ikeda, Kouji Ueno, Hirokazu Suzuki, Manabu Nagao
  • Publication number: 20130030794
    Abstract: According to one embodiment, a speaker clustering apparatus includes a clustering unit, an extraction unit, and an error detection unit. The clustering unit is configured to extract acoustic features for speakers from an acoustic signal, and to cluster utterances included in the acoustic signal into the speakers by using the acoustic features. The extraction unit is configured to acquire character strings representing contents of the utterances, and to extract linguistic features of the speakers by using the character strings. The error detection unit is configured to decide that, when one of the character strings does not fit with a linguistic feature of a speaker into which an utterance of the one is clustered, the utterance is erroneously clustered by the clustering unit.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 6, 2012
    Publication date: January 31, 2013
    Applicant: KABUSHIKI KAISHA TOSHIBA
    Inventors: Tomoo Ikeda, Manabu Nagao, Osamu Nishiyama, Hirokazu Suzuki, Koji Ueno, Nobuhiro Shimogori
  • Publication number: 20130030805
    Abstract: According to one embodiment, a transcription support system supports transcription work to convert voice data to text. The system includes a first storage unit configured to store therein the voice data; a playback unit configured to play back the voice data; a second storage unit configured to store therein voice indices, each of which associates a character string obtained from a voice recognition process with voice positional information, for which the voice positional information is indicative of a temporal position in the voice data and corresponds to the character string; a text creating unit that creates the text in response to an operation input of a user; and an estimation unit configured to estimate already-transcribed voice positional information indicative of a position at which the creation of the text is completed in the voice data based on the voice indices.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 15, 2012
    Publication date: January 31, 2013
    Applicant: KABUSHIKI KAISHA TOSHIBA
    Inventors: Hirokazu Suzuki, Nobuhiro Shimogori, Tomoo Ikeda, Kouji Ueno, Osamu Nishiyama, Manabu Nagao
  • Publication number: 20120239404
    Abstract: An acquisition unit analyzes a text, and acquires phonemic and prosodic information. An editing unit edits a part of the phonemic and prosodic information. A speech synthesis unit converts the phonemic and prosodic information before editing the part to a first speech waveform, and converts the phonemic and prosodic information after editing the part to a second speech waveform. A period calculation unit calculates a contrast period corresponding to the part in the first speech waveform and the second speech waveform. A speech generation unit generates an output waveform by connecting a first partial waveform and a second partial waveform. The first partial waveform contains the contrast period of the first speech waveform. The second partial waveform contains the contrast period of the second speech waveform.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 19, 2011
    Publication date: September 20, 2012
    Applicant: KABUSHIKI KAISHA TOSHIBA
    Inventor: Osamu Nishiyama
  • Publication number: 20110246199
    Abstract: According to one embodiment, a speech synthesizer generates a speech segment sequence and synthesizes speech by connecting speech segments of the generated speech segment sequence. If a speech segment of a synthesized first speech segment sequence is different from the speech segment of a synthesized second speech segment sequence having the same synthesis unit as the first speech segment sequence, the speech synthesizer disables the speech segment of the first speech segment sequence that is different from the speech segment of the second speech segment sequence.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 14, 2010
    Publication date: October 6, 2011
    Applicant: KABUSHIKI KAISHA TOSHIBA
    Inventors: Osamu NISHIYAMA, Takehiko Kagoshima
  • Publication number: 20090216537
    Abstract: A speech synthesis apparatus includes a text obtaining device that obtains text data for speech synthesis from the outside, a language processor that carries out morphological analysis/parsing to the text data, a prosodic processor that outputs, to a speech synthesizer, a synthesis unit string based on the prosodic and language related attributes of the text data such as accents and word classes, the speech synthesizer that generates synthesized speech from the synthesis unit string, and a speech waveform output device that reproduces a prescribed amount of output synthesized speech after it is accumulated or sequentially as it is output.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 19, 2006
    Publication date: August 27, 2009
    Applicant: KABUSHIKI KAISHA TOSHIBA
    Inventors: Osamu Nishiyama, Masahiro Morita, Takehiko Kagoshima
  • Patent number: 4652419
    Abstract: A wide range monitor apparatus for the output from a nuclear reactor has a logarithmic count rate measuring circuit and a Campbel measuring circuit corresponding to different neutron flux density ranges of the neutron flux output from a neutron detector. The apparatus monitors the nuclear reactor output as a single output which has a linearity with the neutron flux density over a wide range thereof. A logic circuit combines two comparison discrimination signals obtained by comparing low and high comparison voltages corresponding to the hysteresis width in an overlap region of the outputs from the two measuring circuits with detection output voltages from the two measuring circuits. One of the outputs from the two measuring circuits is selected in accordance with the logical level signal obtained by combining the two comparison discrimination signals by the logic circuit.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 28, 1984
    Date of Patent: March 24, 1987
    Assignee: Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba
    Inventors: Toshiki Fukushima, Yorimasa Endo, Osamu Nishiyama
  • Patent number: 4424002
    Abstract: A device for conversion between flow and rotation includes a fixed revolution center shaft integrally provided with a center sprocket, at least one vane having a self-rotation shaft and turnable about the revolution center shaft and on the self-rotation shaft, a vane sprocket fixed to the self-rotation shaft and having twice as many teeth as the center sprocket, and a chain connecting the two sprockets, whereby the vane rotates through 180.degree. on the self-rotation shaft while it revolves around the revolution center shaft through 360.degree.. The device, even if made comparatively small in size, can efficiently convert energy of a flow to rotational energy or vice versa since the orientation of the vane or vanes is continuously varied to enhance the efficiency. Thanks to the self-rotation of vane, the device has an additional advantage that foreign substances, such as string, rope and straw, are automatically removed.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 31, 1981
    Date of Patent: January 3, 1984
    Inventor: Osamu Nishiyama