Patents by Inventor Shota HIGASHIHARA

Shota HIGASHIHARA 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: 11884280
    Abstract: A vehicle control device includes: a speech acquiring section that acquires speech data related to a speech of a speaker; a state acquiring section that acquires information indicating whether or not a driver attempting to start driving a vehicle is in an intoxicated state based on the speech data; and a control section configured to limit a start operation of the vehicle in a case in which the information indicates that the driver is in the intoxicated state, the start operation being an operation performed by the driver with respect to the vehicle to start driving the vehicle.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 28, 2018
    Date of Patent: January 30, 2024
    Assignee: TOYOTA JIDOSHA KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventors: Hideki Kobayashi, Akihiro Muguruma, Yukiya Sugiyama, Shota Higashihara, Riho Matsuo, Naoki Yamamuro
  • Patent number: 11150863
    Abstract: A vehicle sound output device including: an acquiring section configured to acquire wakefulness level information that indicates a degree of a wakefulness state of a driver of a vehicle; and a control section configured to, in a case in which the degree of the wakefulness state indicates a decreased level of wakefulness, control a sound output section to output a sound based on at least one of a predetermined frequency, a predetermined tone, or a predetermined content that stimulates a sympathetic nerve of the driver.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 24, 2018
    Date of Patent: October 19, 2021
    Assignee: Toyota Jidosha Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Hideki Kobayashi, Akihiro Muguruma, Yukiya Sugiyama, Shota Higashihara, Riho Matsuo, Naoki Yamamuro
  • Patent number: 11011167
    Abstract: A communication system includes a pair of speech recognition devices that are capable of communicating with each other, each of the speech recognition devices including a speech input section into which speech is input, a speech recognition section that recognizes speech input to the speech input section, and a speech output section that outputs speech. The communication system also includes an information generation section that generates notification information corresponding to speech recognized by the speech recognition section in one speech recognition device from out of the pair of speech recognition devices, and a speech output control section that performs control to output notification speech corresponding to the notification information at a specific timing from the speech output section of the other speech recognition device from out of the pair of speech recognition devices.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 8, 2019
    Date of Patent: May 18, 2021
    Assignee: Toyota Jidosha Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Hideki Kobayashi, Akihiro Muguruma, Yukiya Sugiyama, Shota Higashihara, Riho Matsuo, Naoki Yamamuro
  • Patent number: 10984792
    Abstract: Each of plural dialogue devices generates proposition information that is an utterance indicating a proposition for passengers who are on board plural vehicles, based on an utterance submitted by a passenger and current destination information and past destination information. The dialogue device transmits the generated proposition information to other dialogue device.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 8, 2019
    Date of Patent: April 20, 2021
    Assignee: Toyota Jidosha Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Hideki Kobayashi, Akihiro Muguruma, Yukiya Sugiyama, Shota Higashihara, Riho Matsuo, Naoki Yamamuro
  • Patent number: 10971146
    Abstract: A speech interaction device includes an ascertaining section and a control section. The ascertaining section ascertains a direction of a speech utterer by audio emitted by the speech utterer. The control section controls directionality of audio output through a speaker when outputting audio toward the speech utterer, such that directionality of audio in the direction ascertained by the ascertaining section is higher than directionality of audio in other directions.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 28, 2018
    Date of Patent: April 6, 2021
    Assignee: Toyota Jidosha Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Hideki Kobayashi, Akihiro Muguruma, Yukiya Sugiyama, Shota Higashihara, Riho Matsuo, Naoki Yamamuro
  • Patent number: 10884700
    Abstract: A sound outputting device includes: a receiving section that receives driving information that supports driving of a moving body; a sound outputting section that outputs at least one of a musical piece currently playing or a voice that gives notice of the driving information; and an outputting section that, during playing of the musical piece, causes the sound outputting section to output the voice that gives notice of the driving information received by the receiving section so as to match at least one of a pitch or a tune of the musical piece that is currently playing.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 18, 2018
    Date of Patent: January 5, 2021
    Assignee: Toyota Jidosha Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Hideki Kobayashi, Akihiro Muguruma, Yukiya Sugiyama, Shota Higashihara, Riho Matsuo, Naoki Yamamuro
  • Patent number: 10872608
    Abstract: Each of plural dialogue devices generates proposition information that is an utterance indicating a proposition for passengers who are on board plural vehicles, based on an utterance submitted by a passenger and current destination information and past destination information. The dialogue device transmits the generated proposition information to other dialogue device.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 8, 2019
    Date of Patent: December 22, 2020
    Assignee: Toyota Jidosha Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Hideki Kobayashi, Akihiro Muguruma, Yukiya Sugiyama, Shota Higashihara, Riho Matsuo, Naoki Yamamuro
  • Patent number: 10703236
    Abstract: There is provided a vehicle seat including: a seatback; a seat cushion; an airflow generating device that generates a difference in pressure between a supporting surface side and a side opposite the supporting surface, and that generates an airflow; and a cushion layer that is provided at, of the seatback or the seat cushion, a side at which the airflow generating device is disposed, and that structures a portion of the supporting surface side, and that is structured to include a main air permeable portion that is set to a predetermined void ratio and through which a majority of the airflow generated by the airflow generating device passes, and an auxiliary air permeable portion, which is set to a void ratio that is lower than that of the main air permeable portion and whose air permeability is lower than that of the main air permeable portion.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 11, 2017
    Date of Patent: July 7, 2020
    Assignee: TOYOTA JIDOSHA KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventor: Shota Higashihara
  • Patent number: 10679479
    Abstract: A server for controlling an output of a sound from a sound output device provided in a room of a destination of a moving user, the server including: an information acquiring section configured to acquire position information indicating a position of the user, the destination, and route information indicating a route of the user to the destination; and a control section configured to, in a case in which the user reaches a position within a predetermined range from the destination, control the sound output device to start the output of a sound that simulates a situation in which a person is present in the room based on the position of the user indicated by the position information and the route of the user indicated by the route information.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 21, 2018
    Date of Patent: June 9, 2020
    Assignee: Toyota Jidosha Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Hideki Kobayashi, Akihiro Muguruma, Yukiya Sugiyama, Shota Higashihara, Riho Matsuo, Naoki Yamamuro
  • Patent number: 10538178
    Abstract: An entry/exit support structure of a vehicle seat has: a side support portion that is provided in a seat transverse direction of a seat cushion, and that is displaced in a seat vertical direction; a seat sliding mechanism that supports the seat cushion to slide in a seat front-rear direction, and that has a locking device restricting sliding of the seat cushion in the seat front-rear direction; and a side support portion restricting mechanism having a release operation portion. In a state in which the release operation portion is positioned at a lock position, displacement of the side support portion in the seat vertical direction is restricted. In a state in which the release operation portion is positioned at a release position, displacement of the side support portion in the seat vertical direction is permitted and sliding of the seat cushion in the seat front-rear direction is permitted.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 21, 2017
    Date of Patent: January 21, 2020
    Assignee: TOYOTA JIDOSHA KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventors: Keita Iwasaki, Shota Higashihara, Kengo Suzuki
  • Patent number: 10452198
    Abstract: A vehicle input device including: a cover configured to include a touch sensor portion that is flexible and that detects operation by an occupant, the cover covering a main body portion of an arm rest that supports an arm of the occupant; and a control unit that outputs an operation signal to an on-board instrument on the basis of a signal detected by the touch sensor portion.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 8, 2017
    Date of Patent: October 22, 2019
    Assignee: TOYOTA JIDOSHA KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventor: Shota Higashihara
  • Patent number: 10434911
    Abstract: A vehicle seat includes; a pair of frame members, the frame members forming a frame of at least one of a seat cushion and a seat back and being disposed at positions surrounding a seat region supporting an occupant with an interval therebetween; and a cloth spring member bridged between the frame members to cover the seat region. The cloth spring member has a shorter length in a bridging direction at least on one end side of the frame member in a longitudinal direction of the frame member than in a center portion of the frame member in the longitudinal direction; and the cloth spring member has elasticity.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 27, 2017
    Date of Patent: October 8, 2019
    Assignees: TOYOTA JIDOSHA KABUSHIKI KAISHA, TOYOTA BOSHOKU KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventors: Shota Higashihara, Keisuke Toda
  • Publication number: 20190214003
    Abstract: A speech interaction device includes an ascertaining section and a control section. The ascertaining section ascertains a direction of a speech utterer by audio emitted by the speech utterer. The control section controls directionality of audio output through a speaker when outputting audio toward the speech utterer, such that directionality of audio in the direction ascertained by the ascertaining section is higher than directionality of audio in other directions.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 28, 2018
    Publication date: July 11, 2019
    Inventors: Hideki Kobayashi, Akihiro Muguruma, Yukiya Sugiyama, Shota Higashihara, Riho Matsuo, Naoki Yamamuro
  • Publication number: 20190213994
    Abstract: A voice output device is provided that includes an acquisition unit that acquires a vehicle state and an output unit that, in a case in which the vehicle state acquired by the acquisition unit indicates an abnormality in the vehicle, outputs a sound associated with the vehicle state.
    Type: Application
    Filed: January 7, 2019
    Publication date: July 11, 2019
    Inventors: Hideki Kobayashi, Akihiro Muguruma, Yukiya Sugiyama, Shota Higashihara, Riho Matsuo, Naoki Yamamuro
  • Publication number: 20190214004
    Abstract: A speech output device includes: an acquisition section configured to acquire information held by an appliance regarding contents inside the appliance; and an output section configured to output speech according to the information acquired by the acquisition section from a speech output section.
    Type: Application
    Filed: January 2, 2019
    Publication date: July 11, 2019
    Inventors: Hideki Kobayashi, Akihiro Muguruma, Yukiya Sugiyama, Shota Higashihara, Riho Matsuo, Naoki Yamamuro
  • Publication number: 20190214006
    Abstract: A communication system includes a pair of speech recognition devices that are capable of communicating with each other, each of the speech recognition devices including a speech input section into which speech is input, a speech recognition section that recognizes speech input to the speech input section, and a speech output section that outputs speech. The communication system also includes an information generation section that generates notification information corresponding to speech recognized by the speech recognition section in one speech recognition device from out of the pair of speech recognition devices, and a speech output control section that performs control to output notification speech corresponding to the notification information at a specific timing from the speech output section of the other speech recognition device from out of the pair of speech recognition devices.
    Type: Application
    Filed: January 8, 2019
    Publication date: July 11, 2019
    Inventors: Hideki Kobayashi, Akihiro Muguruma, Yukiya Sugiyama, Shota Higashihara, Riho Matsuo, Naoki Yamamuro
  • Publication number: 20190212969
    Abstract: A vehicle sound output device including: an acquiring section configured to acquire wakefulness level information that indicates a degree of a wakefulness state of a driver of a vehicle; and a control section configured to, in a case in which the degree of the wakefulness state indicates a decreased level of wakefulness, control a sound output section to output a sound based on at least one of a predetermined frequency, a predetermined tone, or a predetermined content that stimulates a sympathetic nerve of the driver.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 24, 2018
    Publication date: July 11, 2019
    Inventors: Hideki Kobayashi, Akihiro Muguruma, Yukiya Sugiyama, Shota Higashihara, Riho Matsuo, Naoki Yamamuro
  • Publication number: 20190210607
    Abstract: A vehicle control device includes: a speech acquiring section that acquires speech data related to a speech of a speaker; a state acquiring section that acquires information indicating whether or not a driver attempting to start driving a vehicle is in an intoxicated state based on the speech data; and a control section configured to limit a start operation of the vehicle in a case in which the information indicates that the driver is in the intoxicated state, the start operation being an operation performed by the driver with respect to the vehicle to start driving the vehicle.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 28, 2018
    Publication date: July 11, 2019
    Inventors: Hideki Kobayashi, Akihiro Muguruma, Yukiya Sugiyama, Shota Higashihara, Riho Matsuo, Naoki Yamamuro
  • Publication number: 20190213858
    Abstract: A server for controlling an output of a sound from a sound output device provided in a room of a destination of a moving user, the server including: an information acquiring section configured to acquire position information indicating a position of the user, the destination, and route information indicating a route of the user to the destination; and a control section configured to, in a case in which the user reaches a position within a predetermined range from the destination, control the sound output device to start the output of a sound that simulates a situation in which a person is present in the room based on the position of the user indicated by the position information and the route of the user indicated by the route information.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 21, 2018
    Publication date: July 11, 2019
    Inventors: Hideki Kobayashi, Akihiro Muguruma, Yukiya Sugiyama, Shota Higashihara, Riho Matsuo, Naoki Yamamuro
  • Publication number: 20190214008
    Abstract: An information processing device is provided that includes (i) an acquisition unit that can acquire utterances from plural passengers who are on board a vehicle, (ii) a recognition unit that, in a case in which an utterance is acquired by the acquisition unit, recognizes one of the passengers who emitted the utterance, and (iii) a control unit that controls driving operation of the vehicle indicated by the utterance from the passenger, based on a recognition result of the passenger who emitted the utterance, the recognition result being obtained by the recognition unit, and setting information that is information having been set in advance with respect to each of the plural passengers and that is information about whether or not the passenger is a passenger who is permitted to perform the driving operation of the vehicle.
    Type: Application
    Filed: January 8, 2019
    Publication date: July 11, 2019
    Inventors: Hideki Kobayashi, Akihiro Muguruma, Yukiya Sugiyama, Shota Higashihara, Riho Matsuo, Naoki Yamamuro