Patents by Inventor Takatoshi Sekizawa

Takatoshi Sekizawa 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: 11872856
    Abstract: A wheel position detection apparatus applied to a vehicle including a vehicle body attached with multiple travelling wheels. The apparatus includes: multiple transmitters respectively disposed at travelling wheels; and a receiver disposed at the vehicle body. The transmitter includes: an acceleration sensor outputting a detection signal according to an acceleration including a gravitational acceleration component being varied by a rotation of the corresponding travelling wheel attached with the transmitter; and a first controller creating a frame including unique identification information, and transmit the frame in response to the receiver outputting a transmission command.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 4, 2021
    Date of Patent: January 16, 2024
    Assignee: DENSO CORPORATION
    Inventor: Takatoshi Sekizawa
  • Patent number: 11846502
    Abstract: A tire device has a tire side device and a vehicle body side system, and determines a road surface condition and detects a tire wear state. The tire side device includes a vibration detection unit that outputs a detection signal according to a magnitude of a tire vibration, a control unit extracts a feature amount during one rotation of the tire, and a first data communication unit that transmits a road surface data including a feature amount. The vehicle body side system includes a second data communication unit that receives road surface data, a road surface determination part that determines a road surface condition based on the road surface data, an integral calculation part that calculates an integral value of the feature amount in a specific frequency band included in the road surface data, and a wear determination part that detects the tire wear state from the integral value.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 28, 2022
    Date of Patent: December 19, 2023
    Assignee: DENSO CORPORATION
    Inventors: Youichiro Suzuki, Takatoshi Sekizawa
  • Patent number: 11841219
    Abstract: A control unit of a tire side device has a feature amount extraction part, a feature amount storage part, a change determination part, a vehicle speed estimation part, and an algorithm switching part. The change determination part determines whether or not there is a change in the road surface condition based on a present feature amount and a previous feature amount stored in the feature amount storage part, and transmits a road surface data including the present feature amount when there is a change in the road surface condition. The algorithm switching part switches based on the vehicle speed estimation by the vehicle speed estimation part whether to transmit the road surface data from the transmission unit when the road surface condition is changed, or to transmit the road surface data without determining whether or not the road surface condition is changed by the change determination part.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 28, 2022
    Date of Patent: December 12, 2023
    Assignee: DENSO CORPORATION
    Inventors: Youichiro Suzuki, Takatoshi Sekizawa
  • Patent number: 11833864
    Abstract: A transceiver of a spare wheel includes a sensing unit having a pressure sensor and an acceleration sensor configured to output a detection signal according to a tire pressure of the spare wheel and an acceleration generated in the spare wheel, a first control unit configured to create a frame that processes the detection signal indicating the tire pressure and stores it as data related to the tire pressure, and a first transmitter receiver configured to transmit the frame. A receiver includes a second transceiver configured to receive a frame and transmit a response signal indicating that the frame is received and a second control unit configured to detect the tire pressure and transmit a response signal from the second transceiver when the frame is received.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 7, 2021
    Date of Patent: December 5, 2023
    Assignee: DENSO CORPORATION
    Inventors: Ryosuke Kanbayashi, Takatoshi Sekizawa, Masashi Mori
  • Patent number: 11833862
    Abstract: A tire side device includes a vibration detection unit that outputs a detection signal according to a magnitude of vibration of a tire, an air pressure detection unit that detects the tire pressure, a data acquisition unit that calculates a contact length of the tire with a road surface based on the detection signal and acquires a wheel load data that is a data related to the wheel load based on the contact length, and a data transmission unit that transmits a data related to the tire pressure and the wheel load data. A vehicle side device includes a receiving unit that receives data on tire pressure and wheel load data, a threshold setting unit that sets an alarm threshold for tire pressure based on the wheel load data, and an alarm determination unit that determines that the tire pressure has decreased when the tire pressure indicated by the data on the tire pressure decreases below the alarm threshold.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 21, 2021
    Date of Patent: December 5, 2023
    Assignee: DENSO CORPORATION
    Inventors: Yoichiro Suzuki, Takatoshi Sekizawa
  • Patent number: 11731466
    Abstract: A tire wear detection apparatus for a vehicle includes a tire side apparatus and a vehicle body side system. In response to a wet road surface being detected, from a vibration waveform of a tire indicated by a detection signal according to a magnitude of a vibration of the tire, the tire side apparatus is configured to (i) acquire a peak level value of a vibration level at a stepping time at which an apparatus corresponding position in the tire corresponding to an arranged position of the tire side apparatus starts to contact the road surface, and/or (ii) calculate a level value of the vibration level in a post-kicking range after the apparatus corresponding position kicks to separate from the road surface, so as to generate a wear data indicating a wear state of the tire.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 21, 2021
    Date of Patent: August 22, 2023
    Assignee: DENSO CORPORATION
    Inventors: Yoichiro Suzuki, Takatoshi Sekizawa
  • Patent number: 11654730
    Abstract: A tire system is configured to enable a general-purpose communication device to establish data communication with a tire-side device, thereby enabling transmission of data indicating a tire-related condition from the tire-side device to the general-purpose communication device. The general-purpose communication device acquires the tire-related condition, and reports the tire-related condition to the user via a notification unit. Based on the above, it is possible to report the tire-related condition via the general-purpose communication device based on the communication between the general-purpose communication device and the tire-side device.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 8, 2020
    Date of Patent: May 23, 2023
    Assignee: DENSO CORPORATION
    Inventors: Yoichiro Suzuki, Takatoshi Sekizawa, Kenichiro Sanji, Naohito Takasuka
  • Patent number: 11639869
    Abstract: A road surface condition identification apparatus for identifying a road surface condition is provided. The road surface condition identification apparatus includes a vibration detector unit configured to output a detection signal being an analog signal according to magnitude of vibration of the tire. For identifying the road surface condition, the road surface condition identification apparatus performs A-D conversion of converting the detection signal of the vibration detector unit into a digital signal. Based on data on vehicle speed, the road surface to condition identification apparatus sets a conversion range of the magnitude of the vibration of the tire used in the AD conversion from the detection signal into the digital signal.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 21, 2020
    Date of Patent: May 2, 2023
    Assignee: DENSO CORPORATION
    Inventors: Ryosuke Kanbayashi, Masashi Mori, Takatoshi Sekizawa, Yoichiro Suzuki
  • Patent number: 11578972
    Abstract: A tire-side device is attached to a tire included in a vehicle and applied to a tire apparatus for estimating a condition of a road surface on which the vehicle travels. The tire-side device includes: a vibration detector outputting a detection signal according to a level of vibration of the tire; a controller having a feature quantity extraction device extracting a feature quantity of the detection signal in one rotation of the tire; and a transmitter transmitting road surface data including the feature quantity extracted by the feature quantity extraction device.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 22, 2019
    Date of Patent: February 14, 2023
    Assignee: DENSO CORPORATION
    Inventors: Yoichiro Suzuki, Takatoshi Sekizawa, Masashi Mori
  • Patent number: 11565704
    Abstract: When information related to road surface conditions is conveyed from a vehicle body side system to a tire-mounted sensor and the tire-mounted sensor determines the road surface condition, an integrated voltage value is corrected based on the information related to the road surface condition. It is thus possible to estimate the road surface condition more accurately. Furthermore, in as much as the road surface condition is estimated at each tire-mounted sensor, the road surface condition can be estimated for each wheel.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 4, 2017
    Date of Patent: January 31, 2023
    Assignee: DENSO CORPORATION
    Inventors: Ryosuke Kanbayashi, Takatoshi Sekizawa, Masashi Mori
  • Patent number: 11565705
    Abstract: A road surface state determination device includes a tire-side device and a vehicle-body-side system. The tire-side device is attached to a back surface of a tread of each of a plurality of tires included in a vehicle. The vehicle-body-side system is included in a body of the vehicle. The tire-side device outputs a detection signal corresponding to a magnitude of vibration applied to the tire. The tire-side device generates road surface data indicative of a road surface state appearing in a waveform of the detection signal. The tire-side device transmits the road surface data. The vehicle-body-side system performs bidirectional communication with the tire-side device and receives the road surface data. The vehicle-body-side system determines the road surface state of a road surface on which the vehicle is traveling based on the road surface data.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 17, 2020
    Date of Patent: January 31, 2023
    Assignee: DENSO CORPORATION
    Inventors: Yoichiro Suzuki, Takatoshi Sekizawa
  • Patent number: 11560110
    Abstract: A collision detection unit corrects a threshold value to a larger value, which a collision check unit uses to compare an output value of a collision detection unit, in case of a rough road surface than in case of a flat road surface. Thus, it becomes possible to suppress erroneous detection on the rough road surface while detecting a collision sensitively on a flat road surface. The rough road is detected by a vibration detection unit provided in a tire side device.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 4, 2019
    Date of Patent: January 24, 2023
    Assignee: DENSO CORPORATION
    Inventors: Yoichiro Suzuki, Naohito Takasuka, Takatoshi Sekizawa
  • Patent number: 11549809
    Abstract: A road surface state determination device includes a tire-side device and a vehicle-body-side system. The tire-side device is attached to a tire of a vehicle. The vehicle-body-side system is included in a vehicle body. The tire-side device outputs a detection signal corresponding to a magnitude of vibration of the tire. The tire-side device generates road surface data indicative of a road surface state shown in a waveform of the detection signal. The tire-side device transmits the road surface data. The vehicle-body-side system receives the road surface data transmitted from the tire-side device. The vehicle-body-side system determines the road surface state of a road surface on which the vehicle is traveling based on the road surface data and learning data.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 27, 2020
    Date of Patent: January 10, 2023
    Assignee: DENSO CORPORATION
    Inventor: Takatoshi Sekizawa
  • Patent number: 11549808
    Abstract: In a road surface condition determining device, when determining a road surface condition, a vibration detection unit, a waveform processing unit and a data transmission unit for implementing a sensing function and a data transmission function are not set continuously to an active state for all tire side device, but at least only one tire side device is set to an active state. Remaining one or more is set to a sleep state. A reduction in power consumption of the tire side devices set to the sleep state can thus be achieved. Further, with regard to the at least one tire side device, since the sensing function and the data transmission function remain in the active state, the road surface condition can be reliably determined based on the road surface data of the tire side device.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 10, 2020
    Date of Patent: January 10, 2023
    Assignee: DENSO CORPORATION
    Inventors: Yoichiro Suzuki, Takatoshi Sekizawa, Nobuya Watabe
  • Patent number: 11498571
    Abstract: A road surface state estimation device includes a tire-side device and a vehicle-body-side system. The tire-side device is disposed in a tire. The vehicle-body-side system is disposed in a vehicle body. The tire-side device outputs a detection signal corresponding to a magnitude of vibration of the tire, generates road surface data based on the detection signal, and performs data communication with the vehicle-body-side system. The vehicle-body-side system acquires information related to the road surface state, performs the data communication with the tire-side device, transmits vehicle-body-side information indicating that the change in the road surface state occurs to the tire-side device when determining that a change in the road surface state occurs based on the information related to the road surface state, and estimates the road surface state based on the road surface data received by the second transceiver.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 27, 2020
    Date of Patent: November 15, 2022
    Assignee: DENSO CORPORATION
    Inventor: Takatoshi Sekizawa
  • Patent number: 11467028
    Abstract: A road surface state determination device includes a tire-side device and a vehicle-body-side system. The tire-side device is attached to each of a plurality of tires included in a vehicle. The vehicle-body-side system is included in a body of the vehicle. The tire-side device may output a detection signal corresponding to a magnitude of vibration applied to the tire. The tire-side device may extract data items of a road surface state indicative of the vibration of the tire during one rotation of the tire from the detection signal. The tire-side device may generate road surface data. The tire-side device may transmit the road surface data. The vehicle-body-side system may receive the road surface data. The vehicle-body-side system may determine the road surface state based on the road surface data.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 24, 2020
    Date of Patent: October 11, 2022
    Assignee: DENSO CORPORATION
    Inventors: Kenichiro Sanji, Yoichiro Suzuki, Hidenori Osai, Takatoshi Sekizawa
  • Patent number: 11463024
    Abstract: A power generation device is provided. A weight may vibrate in one direction as an axial direction in response to an external vibration. A beam may be arranged in at least one side with respect to the weight in the axial direction of the weight, and vibrate together with the weight. A piezoelectric element may be mounted on the beam. A guide may include a hollow guiding a movement of the weight in the axial direction. A stopper may be included in the weight. The stopper may restrict an amount of the movement of the weight in the axial direction within a predetermined amount. A stopper wall may stop the movement of the weight in the axial direction by contacting with the stopper.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 30, 2019
    Date of Patent: October 4, 2022
    Assignees: DENSO CORPORATION, TOHOKU UNIVERSITY
    Inventors: Yoichiro Suzuki, Akira Takaoka, Takatoshi Sekizawa, Hiroki Kuwano
  • Publication number: 20220268577
    Abstract: A tire device has a tire side device and a vehicle body side system, and determines a road surface condition and detects a tire wear state. The tire side device includes a vibration detection unit that outputs a detection signal according to a magnitude of a tire vibration, a control unit extracts a feature amount during one rotation of the tire, and a first data communication unit that transmits a road surface data including a feature amount. The vehicle body side system includes a second data communication unit that receives road surface data, a road surface determination part that determines a road surface condition based on the road surface data, an integral calculation part that calculates an integral value of the feature amount in a specific frequency band included in the road surface data, and a wear determination part that detects the tire wear state from the integral value.
    Type: Application
    Filed: February 28, 2022
    Publication date: August 25, 2022
    Inventors: Youichiro SUZUKI, Takatoshi SEKIZAWA
  • Patent number: 11376901
    Abstract: A tire side device is provided with a vibration detection unit that outputs a detection signal corresponding to the magnitude of tire vibration, a control unit that performs to generate road surface data indicating a road surface condition that appears in the waveform of the detection signal, and a first data communication unit that transmits the road surface data. Furthermore, a vehicle body side system is provided with a second data communication unit that receives the road surface data transmitted from the first data communication unit, and a road surface determination unit that determines the condition of the road surface that the vehicle is traveling on the basis of the road surface data.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 28, 2020
    Date of Patent: July 5, 2022
    Assignee: DENSO CORPORATION
    Inventors: Yoichiro Suzuki, Masashi Mori, Takatoshi Sekizawa
  • Patent number: 11371880
    Abstract: A vehicle body side system is provided with a second data communication unit that performs bidirectional communication with a tire side device and receives road surface data and measurement data transmitted from a first data communication unit, a road surface determination unit that determines the road surface condition of a road surface on which a vehicle travels based on the road surface data, a reception strength measurement unit that measures the reception strength of the measurement data, and a transmission angle setting unit that stores the reception strength of the measurement data during one rotation of a tire, sets as a transmission angle, a presence angle when the reception strength of the measurement data during one rotation of the tire is high, and transmits data indicating the transmission angle to the tire side device via the second data communication unit.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 22, 2020
    Date of Patent: June 28, 2022
    Assignee: DENSO CORPORATION
    Inventors: Naohito Takasuka, Yoichiro Suzuki, Takatoshi Sekizawa