Patents by Inventor Satoshi Ukai

Satoshi Ukai 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: 11217263
    Abstract: A sound collection device includes a sensor, a database, a microphone, and an electronic controller. The sensor detects a state of at least one of the sound collection device or a device equipped with the sound collection device, or both. The database is a database of noise sounds. The electronic controller includes a signal processing unit configured to read at least one noise sound from the database based on a detection value of the sensor and carry out a noise reduction process to reduce noise from a sound signal acquired by the microphone based on the at least one noise sound read from the database.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 9, 2020
    Date of Patent: January 4, 2022
    Assignee: YAMAHA CORPORATION
    Inventors: Kohei Kanamori, Satoshi Ukai
  • Patent number: 11197091
    Abstract: A sound pickup method includes splitting a sound pickup signal of a microphone of which sound pickup in a predetermined range is blocked by an acoustic obstacle, into a plurality of sound pickup signals and subjecting at least one sound pickup signal among the plurality of sound pickup signals to band limitation processing, and comparing characteristic amounts of the plurality of sound pickup signals including the sound pickup signal after being subjected to the band limitation processing and controlling a gain of the microphone in accordance with a result of comparing the characteristic amounts.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 20, 2019
    Date of Patent: December 7, 2021
    Assignee: YAMAHA CORPORATION
    Inventor: Satoshi Ukai
  • Patent number: 10979839
    Abstract: A sound pickup method obtains a correlation between a first sound pickup signal of a directional first microphone and a second sound pickup signal of a non-directional second microphone, and performs level control of the first sound pickup signal or the second sound pickup signal according to a calculation result of the correlation.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 23, 2019
    Date of Patent: April 13, 2021
    Assignee: Yamaha Corporation
    Inventors: Satoshi Ukai, Tetsuto Kawai, Mikio Muramatsu, Takayuki Inoue
  • Patent number: 10893358
    Abstract: A gain adjustment method includes using a sensor to measure a physical quantity that varies according to a distance, and adjusting a level of an audio signal obtained by a microphone according to a measurement result of the sensor.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 11, 2019
    Date of Patent: January 12, 2021
    Assignee: YAMAHA CORPORATION
    Inventors: Satoshi Ukai, Mikio Muramatsu
  • Patent number: 10873810
    Abstract: A sound pickup method obtains a correlation between a first sound pickup signal to be generated from a first microphone and a second sound pickup signal to be generated from a second microphone, and performs level control of the first sound pickup signal or the second sound pickup signal, according to a ratio of a frequency component of which the correlation exceeds a threshold value.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 17, 2019
    Date of Patent: December 22, 2020
    Assignee: YAMAHA CORPORATION
    Inventors: Tetsuto Kawai, Mikio Muramatsu, Takayuki Inoue, Satoshi Ukai
  • Patent number: 10841695
    Abstract: A sound pickup method obtains a correlation between a first sound pickup signal to be generated from a first microphone and a second sound pickup signal to be generated from a second microphone, and performs level control of the first sound pickup signal or the second sound pickup signal, according to a ratio of a frequency component of which the correlation exceeds a threshold value.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 17, 2019
    Date of Patent: November 17, 2020
    Assignee: YAMAHA CORPORATION
    Inventors: Tetsuto Kawai, Mikio Muramatsu, Takayuki Inoue, Satoshi Ukai
  • Patent number: 10827075
    Abstract: An echo reducer includes: an obtainer configured to obtain frequency characteristics of a transmission system from a sound emitter of a sound emission and collection device to a sound collector of the sound emission and collection device; a determiner configured to determine whether or not both a transmission signal and a reception signal in the sound emission and collection device are in a state of including a sound; and an attenuator configured to attenuate the reception signal to be output to the sound emitter, by attenuation characteristics corresponding to the frequency characteristics of the transmission system that the obtainer obtains, when the determiner determines that both the transmission signal and the reception signal in the sound emission and collection device include a sound.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 25, 2018
    Date of Patent: November 3, 2020
    Assignee: Yamaha Corporation
    Inventors: Tetsuto Kawai, Satoshi Ukai, Yoshifumi Oizumi
  • Patent number: 10764441
    Abstract: A sound signal processing device includes: a microphone terminal to which a sound signal derived from sound received by a microphone is input; a loudspeaker terminal from which a sound signal directed to a loudspeaker is output; a first input terminal to which a sound signal from another proximal-end device is input; a first output terminal from which a sound signal directed to the other device is output; a distal-end input terminal to which a distal-end sound signal is input via a network; a distal-end output terminal from which a sound signal directed to the network is output; and at least one processor configured to execute stored instructions to establish at least one signal path from at least one of the microphone terminal, the first input terminal, or the distal-end input terminal, to at least one of the loudspeaker terminal, the first output terminal, or the distal-end output terminal.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 19, 2018
    Date of Patent: September 1, 2020
    Assignee: Yamaha Corporation
    Inventors: Satoshi Ukai, Takayuki Inoue
  • Publication number: 20200152221
    Abstract: A sound collection device includes a sensor, a database, a microphone, and an electronic controller. The sensor detects a state of at least one of the sound collection device or a device equipped with the sound collection device, or both. The database is a database of noise sounds. The electronic controller includes a signal processing unit configured to read at least one noise sound from the database based on a detection value of the sensor and carry out a noise reduction process to reduce noise from a sound signal acquired by the microphone based on the at least one noise sound read from the database.
    Type: Application
    Filed: January 9, 2020
    Publication date: May 14, 2020
    Inventors: Kohei KANAMORI, Satoshi UKAI
  • Publication number: 20200128323
    Abstract: A sound processing method performs near-end side sound collection processing to collect a sound on a near-end side and generate a sound collection signal, near-end side filter processing to adjust the sound collection signal using transfer characteristics of a far-end side, and near-end side sound emission processing to emit the sound collection signal that has been adjusted, from a speaker on the near-end side.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 19, 2019
    Publication date: April 23, 2020
    Inventors: Satoshi UKAI, Mikio MURAMATSU
  • Publication number: 20200120420
    Abstract: A gain adjustment method includes using a sensor to measure a physical quantity that varies according to a distance, and adjusting a level of an audio signal obtained by a microphone according to a measurement result of the sensor.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 11, 2019
    Publication date: April 16, 2020
    Inventors: Satoshi UKAI, Mikio MURAMATSU
  • Publication number: 20200021932
    Abstract: A sound pickup method obtains a correlation between a first sound pickup signal of a directional first microphone and a second sound pickup signal of a non-directional second microphone, and performs level control of the first sound pickup signal or the second sound pickup signal according to a calculation result of the correlation.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 23, 2019
    Publication date: January 16, 2020
    Inventors: Satoshi UKAI, Tetsuto KAWAI, Mikio MURAMATSU, Takayuki INOUE
  • Publication number: 20200015010
    Abstract: A sound pickup method obtains a correlation between a first sound pickup signal to be generated from a first microphone and a second sound pickup signal to be generated from a second microphone, and performs level control of the first sound pickup signal or the second sound pickup signal, according to a ratio of a frequency component of which the correlation exceeds a threshold value.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 17, 2019
    Publication date: January 9, 2020
    Inventors: Tetsuto KAWAI, Mikio MURAMATSU, Takayuki INOUE, Satoshi UKAI
  • Publication number: 20200013389
    Abstract: A word extraction method according to at least one embodiment of the present disclosure includes: converting, with at least one processor operating with a memory device in a device, received speech information into text data; converting the text data into a string of words including a plurality of words; extracting, with the at least one processor operating with the memory device in the device, a keyword included in a keyword database from the plurality of words; and calculating, with the at least one processor operating with the memory device in the device, importance levels of the plurality of words based on timing of utterance of the keyword and timing of utterance of each of the plurality of words.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 17, 2019
    Publication date: January 9, 2020
    Inventor: Satoshi UKAI
  • Publication number: 20200015003
    Abstract: A sound pickup method includes splitting a sound pickup signal of a microphone of which sound pickup in a predetermined range is blocked by an acoustic obstacle, into a plurality of sound pickup signals and subjecting at least one sound pickup signal among the plurality of sound pickup signals to band limitation processing, and comparing characteristic amounts of the plurality of sound pickup signals including the sound pickup signal after being subjected to the band limitation processing and controlling a gain of the microphone in accordance with a result of comparing the characteristic amounts.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 20, 2019
    Publication date: January 9, 2020
    Inventor: Satoshi UKAI
  • Patent number: 10418956
    Abstract: A signal processing apparatus includes a level adjuster adjusting a level of an input signal, and a setter calculating an electric charge estimate value being a value obtained by estimating an electric charge amount of a charging and discharging element based on the charging and discharging element to which a predetermined electric charge is supplied and in which the electric charge is held and the electric charge supplied to the charging and discharging element and setting an adjustment coefficient of the level adjuster based on the electric charge estimate value.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 26, 2018
    Date of Patent: September 17, 2019
    Assignee: Yamaha Corporation
    Inventors: Satoshi Ukai, Mikio Muramatsu
  • Publication number: 20190089839
    Abstract: A sound signal processing device includes: a microphone terminal to which a sound signal derived from sound received by a microphone is input; a loudspeaker terminal from which a sound signal directed to a loudspeaker is output; a first input terminal to which a sound signal from another proximal-end device is input; a first output terminal from which a sound signal directed to the other device is output; a distal-end input terminal to which a distal-end sound signal is input via a network; a distal-end output terminal from which a sound signal directed to the network is output; and at least one processor configured to execute stored instructions to establish at least one signal path from at least one of the microphone terminal, the first input terminal, or the distal-end input terminal, to at least one of the loudspeaker terminal, the first output terminal, or the distal-end output terminal.
    Type: Application
    Filed: November 19, 2018
    Publication date: March 21, 2019
    Inventors: Satoshi UKAI, Takayuki INOUE
  • Publication number: 20180332174
    Abstract: An echo reducer includes: an obtainer configured to obtain frequency characteristics of a transmission system from a sound emitter of a sound emission and collection device to a sound collector of the sound emission and collection device; a determiner configured to determine whether or not both a transmission signal and a reception signal in the sound emission and collection device are in a state of including a sound; and an attenuator configured to attenuate the reception signal to be output to the sound emitter, by attenuation characteristics corresponding to the frequency characteristics of the transmission system that the obtainer obtains, when the determiner determines that both the transmission signal and the reception signal in the sound emission and collection device include a sound.
    Type: Application
    Filed: July 25, 2018
    Publication date: November 15, 2018
    Inventors: Tetsuto KAWAI, Satoshi UKAI, Yoshifumi OIZUMI
  • Patent number: 10038769
    Abstract: A sound emission and collection device includes a speaker, a filter processing a sound emission signal, microphones, echo cancellers cancelling regression sound signals of the sound emitted by the speaker from the sound collection signals of the corresponding microphones, a first integration section integrating adaptive filter coefficients taken out from the plurality of echo cancellers, a reverberation time estimation section estimating the reverberation time for each frequency band in the space in which the speaker and the plurality of microphones are present on the basis of the integrated adaptive filter coefficient, and an arithmetic operation section specifying a frequency band having a long reverberation time from the sound emission signal based on the estimated reverberation time, calculating a filter coefficient for suppressing power of the specified frequency band, and setting the filter coefficient to the filter.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 14, 2017
    Date of Patent: July 31, 2018
    Assignee: YAMAHA CORPORATION
    Inventors: Satoshi Ukai, Takashi Yamakawa
  • Publication number: 20180152159
    Abstract: A signal processing apparatus includes a level adjuster adjusting a level of an input signal, and a setter calculating an electric charge estimate value being a value obtained by estimating an electric charge amount of a charging and discharging element based on the charging and discharging element to which a predetermined electric charge is supplied and in which the electric charge is held and the electric charge supplied to the charging and discharging element and setting an adjustment coefficient of the level adjuster based on the electric charge estimate value.
    Type: Application
    Filed: January 26, 2018
    Publication date: May 31, 2018
    Inventors: Satoshi UKAI, Mikio MURAMATSU