Patents by Inventor Takehiro Otani

Takehiro Otani 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: 12219274
    Abstract: An event can be detected quickly and accurately regardless of surrounding brightness. An imaging device includes: a photoelectric conversion element that photoelectrically converts incident light and generates an electrical signal corresponding to incident light intensity; a detection unit that outputs a detection signal indicating whether or not a change amount of the electrical signal exceeds a predetermined threshold value; and a threshold value selection circuit that selects the threshold value from among a plurality of threshold value candidates according to a magnitude of the electrical signal.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 30, 2021
    Date of Patent: February 4, 2025
    Assignee: SONY SEMICONDUCTOR SOLUTIONS CORPORATION
    Inventors: Yuki Ozawa, Takehiro Otani, Tomoyuki Hiro
  • Publication number: 20240205557
    Abstract: An imaging device capable of reducing erroneous detection of a luminance change is provided. According to one embodiment of the present disclosure, there is provided an imaging device including: a photoelectric conversion element configured to generate an optical current acquired by photoelectrically converting incident light; a current-voltage conversion circuit configured to convert the optical current into a voltage signal; a threshold monitoring circuit configured to monitor the optical current; a plurality of capacitance elements including a variable capacitance element of which a capacitance value changes on the basis of a monitoring result of the threshold monitoring circuit; and an event detecting circuit configured to detect a luminance change of the incident light on the basis of a result of comparison between an amplified voltage acquired by amplifying the voltage signal on the basis of a capacitance ratio of the plurality of capacitance elements and a threshold voltage.
    Type: Application
    Filed: February 28, 2022
    Publication date: June 20, 2024
    Inventors: Takehiro Otani, Yuki Ozawa, Takeru Matsuki, Shin Kitano
  • Publication number: 20230156354
    Abstract: An event can be detected quickly and accurately regardless of surrounding brightness. An imaging device includes: a photoelectric conversion element that photoelectrically converts incident light and generates an electrical signal corresponding to incident light intensity; a detection unit that outputs a detection signal indicating whether or not a change amount of the electrical signal exceeds a predetermined threshold value; and a threshold value selection circuit that selects the threshold value from among a plurality of threshold value candidates according to a magnitude of the electrical signal.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 30, 2021
    Publication date: May 18, 2023
    Inventors: YUKI OZAWA, TAKEHIRO OTANI, TOMOYUKI HIRO
  • Patent number: 11283417
    Abstract: A decline in image quality that is caused by a variation of a gain in an amplification circuit is suppressed. The amplification circuit includes an amplification transistor, a cascode transistor, and a control circuit. The amplification transistor amplifies an input signal. The cascode transistor is configured to, in a case where a drain-source voltage between a drain and a source is higher than a predetermined voltage, supply a substantially-constant drain current to a reference potential line with a predetermined reference potential via the amplification transistor. Further, the control circuit is configured to, in a case where an initialization instruction is issued, control the drain-source voltage to be a value higher than the predetermined voltage.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 4, 2018
    Date of Patent: March 22, 2022
    Assignee: Sony Semiconductor Solutions Corporation
    Inventors: Shinichi Watanabe, Takehiro Otani