Patents by Inventor Ryuji Fuchikami

Ryuji Fuchikami 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: 8654850
    Abstract: An image coding device (300) according to the present invention includes: a signal division unit (302) which divides each of pictures included in an input image signal (310) into a first coding target region (315A) and a second coding target region (315B); a first coding unit (303A) which codes the first coding target region (315A) to generate a first coded signal (313A); a second coding unit (303B) which codes the second coding target region (315B) to generate a second coded signal (313B); and a signal combining unit (307) which combines the first coded signal (313A) and the second coded signal (313B) to generate an output coded signal (314), wherein the signal division unit (302) determines, as a range to be used for motion vector search by the first coding unit (303A), a range including the first coding target region (315A) and a first overlap region (316A), and changes a size of the first overlap region (316A) according to a predetermined condition.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 19, 2009
    Date of Patent: February 18, 2014
    Assignee: Panasonic Corporation
    Inventors: Kenji Shimizu, Ryuji Fuchikami
  • Patent number: 8390698
    Abstract: Provided is an image capturing apparatus (100) that can improve coding efficiency, and record a still image with a wide dynamic range and smooth moving images. The apparatus includes: an image capturing unit (110) capturing images by exposure for a first exposure time and a second exposure time longer than the first exposure time to generate a short-time exposure image and a long-time exposure image; a short-time exposure image storage unit (120) storing the short-time exposure image; a long-time exposure image storage unit (130) storing the long-time exposure image; a motion blur adding unit (140) generating a predicted image of the long-time exposure image by adding motion blur to the short-time exposure image; a subtracting unit (150) calculating a difference between the long-time exposure image and the predicted image to generate a difference image; and a coding unit (170) coding the short-time exposure image and the difference image.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 7, 2010
    Date of Patent: March 5, 2013
    Assignee: Panasonic Corporation
    Inventors: Kenji Shimizu, Ryuji Fuchikami
  • Patent number: 8350990
    Abstract: A liquid crystal display apparatus includes a light source for emitting light having high directivity; a reflecting plate for reflecting the light emitted by the light source; a liquid crystal layer that the light reflected by the reflecting plate penetrates; a position detector for detecting a position of eyes of a user viewing a display image on the liquid crystal layer to generate position information regarding the position of eyes; a reflection angle controller for controlling a rotation angle of the reflecting plate based on the position information; and a light emission controller for controlling light intensity and a light-emitting angle of the light source according to the rotation angle of the reflecting plate. This configuration enables to effectively radiate the light emitted by the light source toward the eyes of the user.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 1, 2006
    Date of Patent: January 8, 2013
    Assignee: Panasonic Corporation
    Inventors: Ryuji Fuchikami, Yoichi Nishida, Ikuo Fuchigami
  • Patent number: 8144213
    Abstract: A frame brightness detecting unit 15 detects a frame brightness value of each of a plurality of image frames. A flicker spectrum detecting unit 16 detects, from the frame brightness values of 512 frames, spectrum values at frequencies, such as 100 Hz, 200 Hz, and 300 Hz. A brightness estimating unit 17 estimates a brightens value of a light source from the spectrum values. An encoding unit 18 uses a reciprocal of the estimated brightens value to determine a reference frame. The encoding unit 18 also uses the reciprocal in an evaluation function for motion vector estimation. The image frame is encoded using the motion vector.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 23, 2008
    Date of Patent: March 27, 2012
    Assignee: Panasonic Corporation
    Inventors: Ryuji Fuchikami, Ikuo Fuchigami, Tomoo Kimura
  • Publication number: 20120038793
    Abstract: Provided is an image capturing apparatus (100) that can improve coding efficiency, and record a still image with a wide dynamic range and smooth moving images. The apparatus includes: an image capturing unit (110) capturing images by exposure for a first exposure time and a second exposure time longer than the first exposure time to generate a short-time exposure image and a long-time exposure image; a short-time exposure image storage unit (120) storing the short-time exposure image; a long-time exposure image storage unit (130) storing the long-time exposure image; a motion blur adding unit (140) generating a predicted image of the long-time exposure image by adding motion blur to the short-time exposure image; a subtracting unit (150) calculating a difference between the long-time exposure image and the predicted image to generate a difference image; and a coding unit (170) coding the short-time exposure image and the difference image.
    Type: Application
    Filed: April 7, 2010
    Publication date: February 16, 2012
    Inventors: Kenji Shimizu, Ryuji Fuchikami
  • Publication number: 20110249750
    Abstract: An imaging device includes: a frame rate conversion unit synthesizing images captured at a second frame rate higher than a first frame rate to convert the images into a synthesized image having the first frame rate; a motion estimation unit performing a motion estimation between consecutive frames of the images captured at the second frame rate; a motion vector synthesis unit synthesizing motion vectors having the second frame rate obtained as a result of the motion estimation, so as to generate a synthesized motion vector of a target macroblock in the synthesized image; a motion blur amount determination unit which counts, in an area surrounding the target macroblock, the number of macroblocks having the same synthesized motion vector as that of the target macroblock and compares a value derived from the number of counted macroblocks with a threshold value, the counting and the comparison being performed for each target macroblock; and a motion vector selection unit selecting the synthesized motion vector wh
    Type: Application
    Filed: November 12, 2009
    Publication date: October 13, 2011
    Inventors: Ryuji Fuchikami, Kenji Shimizu, Tomoo Kimura
  • Patent number: 7856568
    Abstract: An electronic apparatus (200) comprises processors (20)-(22), devices (30)-(33), and a peak power-managing unit (10). The peak power-managing unit (10) includes a power information storage unit (11) operable to store a total power consumption value, and a suspended request storage unit (12) operable to store suspended use requests. Each of the processors (20)-(22) addresses, to the peak power-managing unit (10), a use request for the use of a target device among the devices (30)-(33). The peak power-managing unit (10) issues a device use permit notification to the processor when determining that the operation of the target device still maintains an added total power consumption value within a specified value. Upon receipt of the device use permit notification, the processor sets up a course of action to be provided by the target device. As a result, controlled peak power is provided, and the devices can be run according to updated information.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 5, 2005
    Date of Patent: December 21, 2010
    Assignee: Panasonic Corporation
    Inventors: Ryuji Fuchikami, Toshihiro Ishikawa, Takashi Nishitoba, Takayuki Sasaki
  • Publication number: 20100296582
    Abstract: An image coding device (300) according to the present invention includes: a signal division unit (302) which divides each of pictures included in an input image signal (310) into a first coding target region (315A) and a second coding target region (315B); a first coding unit (303A) which codes the first coding target region (315A) to generate a first coded signal (313A); a second coding unit (303B) which codes the second coding target region (315B) to generate a second coded signal (313B); and a signal combining unit (307) which combines the first coded signal (313A) and the second coded signal (313B) to generate an output coded signal (314), wherein the signal division unit (302) determines, as a range to be used for motion vector search by the first coding unit (303A), a range including the first coding target region (315A) and a first overlap region (316A), and changes a size of the first overlap region (316A) according to a predetermined condition.
    Type: Application
    Filed: May 19, 2009
    Publication date: November 25, 2010
    Inventors: Kenji Shimizu, Ryuji Fuchikami
  • Publication number: 20100208163
    Abstract: A liquid crystal display apparatus according to the present invention includes: a light source (10) for emitting light having high directivity; a reflecting plate (20) for reflecting the light emitted by the light source (10); a liquid crystal layer (30) that the light reflected by the reflecting plate (20) penetrates; a position detector (40) for detecting a position of eyes of a user (100) viewing a display image on the liquid crystal layer (30) to generate position information regarding the position of eyes; a reflection angle controller (50) for controlling a rotation angle of the reflecting plate (20) based on the position information; and a light emission controller (60) for controlling light intensity and a light-emitting angle of the light source (10) according to the rotation angle of the reflecting plate (20).
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 1, 2006
    Publication date: August 19, 2010
    Inventors: Ryuji Fuchikami, Yoichi Nishida, Ikuo Fuchigami
  • Patent number: 7747806
    Abstract: In a bus arbitration device that utilizes a resource use management device, upon detecting that a processor is permitted to access a memory, a detection unit decreases a counter by 1 and starts a timer, in a delay circuit, that is not in operation to count time. When the timer counts to a predetermined cycle time period, the delay circuit increases the counter by 1. A control unit permits the processor to access the memory, if the counter is larger than 0.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 1, 2007
    Date of Patent: June 29, 2010
    Assignee: Panasonic Corporation
    Inventor: Ryuji Fuchikami
  • Publication number: 20100157093
    Abstract: A frame brightness detecting unit 15 detects a frame brightness value of each of a plurality of image frames. A flicker spectrum detecting unit 16 detects, from the frame brightness values of 512 frames, spectrum values at frequencies, such as 100 Hz, 200 Hz, and 300 Hz. A brightness estimating unit 17 estimates a brightens value of a light source from the spectrum values. An encoding unit 18 uses a reciprocal of the estimated brightens value to determine a reference frame. The encoding unit 18 also uses the reciprocal in an evaluation function for motion vector estimation. The image frame is encoded using the motion vector.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 23, 2008
    Publication date: June 24, 2010
    Inventors: Ryuji Fuchikami, Ikuo Fuchigami, Tomoo Kimura
  • Publication number: 20090103630
    Abstract: An image processing device comprising: an imaging unit outputting frames of image data sequentially in order of imaging; a first generation unit generating first image data sequentially in units of a predetermined number of consecutive frames of image data, from the output frames of image data, wherein a total exposure time of each piece of first image data is a first time period; a second generation unit generating second image data sequentially in units of the predetermined number of consecutive frames, from the output frames of image data, a total exposure time of each piece of second image data is a second time period different from the first time period; and an output unit outputting each pair of first image data and second image data generated from a same set of the predetermined number of consecutive frames of image data, in correlation with each other.
    Type: Application
    Filed: February 12, 2008
    Publication date: April 23, 2009
    Inventors: Ryuji Fuchikami, Ikuo Fuchigami, Tadanori Tezuka
  • Publication number: 20080209265
    Abstract: At a stage of compiling of a source code, range information of a variable that a pointer points and information for a failure recovering are installed into the pointer variable. Since failure recovering information can also be acquired when an illegal pointer access is detected based on range information, a recovering processing suitable for data that has caused the failure is performed according to the failure recovering information. By relating the range information and the failure recovering information with the data address, a data type of a memory area at the failure location can be specified using the failure recovering information (UPPER, LOWER, and FIXED).
    Type: Application
    Filed: January 11, 2005
    Publication date: August 28, 2008
    Applicant: MATSUSHITA ELECTRIC INDUSTRIAL CO., LTD.
    Inventor: Ryuji Fuchikami
  • Publication number: 20070283065
    Abstract: In a bus arbitration device that utilizes a resource use management device, upon detecting that a processor is permitted to access a memory, a detection unit decreases a counter by 1 and starts a timer, in a delay circuit, that is not in operation to count time. When the timer counts to a predetermined cycle time period, the delay circuit increases the counter by 1. A control unit permits the processor to access the memory, if the counter is larger than 0.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 1, 2007
    Publication date: December 6, 2007
    Inventor: Ryuji Fuchikami
  • Publication number: 20070266269
    Abstract: An electronic apparatus (200) comprises processors (20)-(22), devices (30)-(33), and a peak power-managing unit (10). The peak power-managing unit (10) includes a power information storage unit (11) operable to store a total power consumption value, and a suspended request storage unit (12) operable to store suspended use requests. Each of the processors (20)-(22) addresses, to the peak power-managing unit (10), a use request for the use of a target device among the devices (30)-(33). The peak power-managing unit (10) issues a device use permit notification to the processor when determining that the operation of the target device still maintains an added total power consumption value within a specified value. Upon receipt of the device use permit notification, the processor sets up a course of action to be provided by the target device. As a result, controlled peak power is provided, and the devices can be run according to updated information.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 5, 2005
    Publication date: November 15, 2007
    Inventors: Ryuji Fuchikami, Toshihiro Ishikawa, Takashi Nishitoba, Takayuki Sasaki
  • Publication number: 20070179676
    Abstract: A peak power-controlling apparatus including a generating unit (3) operable to generate at least one activating combination available within a predetermined period of time to activate a plurality of devices (6) to (8), each of which has an activating period and required electrical power, in which the activating period includes an operative period of time and an inoperative period of time, a calculating unit (4) operable to calculate a total power consumption value for each of the at least one activating combination, thereby providing the calculated total power consumption value, and a selecting unit (5) operable to select, as a selection result (12), one of the at least one activating combination based on the calculated total power consumption value. As a result, the peak power-controlling apparatus can suppress peak power of the plurality of devices that includes periodically operated devices.
    Type: Application
    Filed: November 25, 2005
    Publication date: August 2, 2007
    Inventors: Takayuki Sasaki, Ryuji Fuchikami, Takashi Nishitoba, Toshihiro Ishikawa
  • Patent number: 7006153
    Abstract: An image composition apparatus includes a composition processing unit comprising a composition position determination unit for receiving a shape signal and an image signal which are outputted from an image decoding unit, and determining a composition position of an object as a foreground image; a shape boundary determination unit for determining the shape and boundary of the object; an arbitrary-shaped frame generation unit for generating an outline or frame of the object on the basis of information relating to the shape and boundary of the object; and a pixel composition unit for compositing a target pixel (pixel to be processed) of the object or an arbitrary-shaped frame pixel that is generated by the arbitrary-shaped frame generation unit 4c, with the corresponding pixel in the background image. Therefore, a composite image, in which an outline or an arbitrary-shaped shape is added to an arbitrary-shaped object, can be generated.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 30, 2002
    Date of Patent: February 28, 2006
    Assignee: Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Hiroki Ohtsuki, Tomonori Yonezawa, Satoshi Kajita, Ryuji Fuchikami
  • Publication number: 20050066093
    Abstract: A real time processor system comprises: a bus arbiter; a plurality of calculating units, each having a processor and an interruption processing unit; a DMA controller; a plurality of priority registers; a memory; and an SCI. The bus arbiter comprises: a priority comparing unit; and a bus assignment unit. Each of the plurality of priority registers stores an I/O access priority value corresponding to each of the calculating units. Priority values are compared, and then right of I/O use is determined. The values of the plurality of priority registers are changed, thereby adaptively performing multiple interruption processing.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 17, 2004
    Publication date: March 24, 2005
    Inventors: Ryuji Fuchikami, Tomonori Yonezawa, Yoichi Nishida
  • Publication number: 20040019774
    Abstract: A processor device comprises: an instruction processing unit, which reads and successively executes a program on a memory device; an address register, which stores the absolute address of a pointer in the program; a range information register, which stores range information concerning the pointer by using the absolute address; and an exception generating unit, which, when the instruction processing unit accesses the memory device using the pointer concerning the address register, inputs the output of the instruction processing unit and the range information in the range information register and, if there is a range violation of the memory device, outputs an exception signal S1 to the instruction processing unit. A pointer and its access range information are associated in an inseparable manner and accurate access protection is performed even beyond a module.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 4, 2003
    Publication date: January 29, 2004
    Inventors: Ryuji Fuchikami, Tomonori Yonezawa, Hiroki Ohtsuki, Yoshiteru Tanaka
  • Publication number: 20030043298
    Abstract: An image composition apparatus includes a composition processing unit comprising a composition position determination unit for receiving a shape signal and an image signal which are outputted from an image decoding unit, and determining a composition position of an object as a foreground image; a shape boundary determination unit for determining the shape and boundary of the object; an arbitrary-shaped frame generation unit for generating an outline or frame of the object on the basis of information relating to the shape and boundary of the object; and a pixel composition unit for compositing a target pixel (pixel to be processed) of the object or an arbitrary-shaped frame pixel that is generated by the arbitrary-shaped frame generation unit 4c, with the corresponding pixel in the background image. Therefore, a composite image, in which an outline or an arbitrary-shaped shape is added to an arbitrary-shaped object, can be generated.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 30, 2002
    Publication date: March 6, 2003
    Applicant: Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Hiroki Ohtsuki, Tomonori Yonezawa, Satoshi Kajita, Ryuji Fuchikami