Patents by Inventor Tetsuya Maruoka

Tetsuya Maruoka 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: 11787386
    Abstract: A driving support device that controls a steering unit such that a hitch angle between a tow vehicle, which tows a towed vehicle, and the towed vehicle becomes a target angle set as a target includes: an image control unit that causes a display unit to perform display of a captured image obtained by an imaging unit provided in the tow vehicle or the towed vehicle in a mirror image state and display of a setting image including a slider indicating the target angle input through an input unit; an acquisition unit that acquires input of the target angle at the time of backward movement of the tow vehicle from the input unit, in a state where the setting image is displayed; and a setting unit that sets the target angle based on the input.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 27, 2019
    Date of Patent: October 17, 2023
    Assignee: AISIN CORPORATION
    Inventors: Kazuya Watanabe, Tetsuya Maruoka, Kinji Yamamoto
  • Patent number: 11648932
    Abstract: A periphery monitoring device includes a coupling determiner that determines whether a towed vehicle is coupled to a towing vehicle to which the towed vehicle can be coupled; a target setter that sets a target moving position to be a target for moving at least the towed vehicle coupled to the towing vehicle; a storing controller that stores, as a moving target image, an image, including the target moving position, of a peripheral image generated by as imager provided at the towing vehicle; and an image controller that displays the stored moving target image in association with the towing vehicle or the towed vehicle included in a current image generated by the imager and currently displayed on a display device.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 29, 2018
    Date of Patent: May 16, 2023
    Assignee: AISIN CORPORATION
    Inventors: Kinji Yamamoto, Kazuya Watanabe, Tetsuya Maruoka, Takayuki Nakasho, Itsuko Fukushima
  • Patent number: 11591018
    Abstract: A parking assistance device includes an overhead image generation unit generating an overhead image from a captured image obtained by capturing an image around a towing vehicle, a towing determination unit determining whether a towed vehicle is towed, an overhead image display range setting unit selecting a trimming range from a plurality of display ranges at least including a first display range and a second display range wider than the first display range, and a display image generation unit generating an overhead image for display by trimming the trimming range of the overhead image, and a display image including the overhead image for display on which the towing vehicle is superimposed. The overhead image display range setting unit selects the first display range when the towing vehicle does not tow the towed vehicle, and selects the second display range when the towing vehicle tows the towed vehicle.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 5, 2018
    Date of Patent: February 28, 2023
    Assignee: AISIN CORPORATION
    Inventors: Tetsuya Maruoka, Kazuya Watanabe, Kinji Yamamoto, Itsuko Fukushima, Takayuki Nakasho
  • Patent number: 11584436
    Abstract: A driver assistance device according to an embodiment includes a coupling angle acquirer that acquires a coupling angle between a towing vehicle and a towed vehicle coupled to the towing vehicle; and a notifier that issues a given notification in the towing vehicle when the towing vehicle is driven with the towing vehicle and the towed vehicle differing in orientation at a given value or more based on the coupling angle, the towing vehicle moves in a given distance or less while maintaining a steering angle, and the steering angle of the towing vehicle enables the towing vehicle and the towed vehicle to be placed in a serial state with the towing vehicle and the towed vehicle substantially matching with each other in orientation.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 3, 2018
    Date of Patent: February 21, 2023
    Assignee: AISIN CORPORATION
    Inventors: Tetsuya Maruoka, Kazuya Watanabe, Kinji Yamamoto, Itsuko Fukushima, Takayuki Nakasho
  • Patent number: 11523053
    Abstract: An image processing apparatus includes a hardware processor configured to: acquire a plurality of pieces of image information including image-capturing regions overlapping partially; to set first and second correction values with a predetermined value, the first correction value being used for correction of luminance of a first region of interest included in a first overlap region in which a first image-capturing region overlaps an adjacent second image-capturing region, the second correction value being used for correction of luminance of a second region of interest included in a second overlap region in which the first image-capturing region overlaps an adjacent third image-capturing region; and to set with the first and second correction values an individual correction value used for correction of luminance of a region between the first region of interest and the second region of interest in the first image-capturing region.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 25, 2019
    Date of Patent: December 6, 2022
    Assignee: AISIN CORPORATION
    Inventors: Kinji Yamamoto, Kazuya Watanabe, Tetsuya Maruoka, Itsuko Fukushima
  • Patent number: 11475676
    Abstract: A periphery monitoring device according to an embodiment includes: an acquisition unit configured to acquire captured image data from an image-capturing unit that captures a region including a road surface in a traveling direction of a vehicle and a region above the road surface; a storage unit configured to store the captured image data; and an image processing unit configured to display, in a case of displaying a peripheral image in the traveling direction of the vehicle on a display unit, a first region including a road surface on a under-floor portion of the vehicle or a road surface on a vicinity of the under-floor portion by using a corresponding image in past captured image data stored in the storage unit, and display a second region including the region above the road surface by using a corresponding image in current captured image data acquired by the acquisition unit.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 26, 2018
    Date of Patent: October 18, 2022
    Assignee: AISIN CORPORATION
    Inventors: Kazuya Watanabe, Tetsuya Maruoka
  • Patent number: 11477373
    Abstract: A periphery monitoring device according to an embodiment includes, as an example: a processor that generates a display image obtained by viewing, from a virtual viewpoint received through an operation input unit, a point of gaze in a virtual space including a model obtained by pasting a captured image obtained by imaging a surrounding area of a vehicle in a first position of the vehicle at a first time using imaging units provided on the vehicle to a three-dimensional plane around the vehicle, and including a three-dimensional vehicle image provided in a second position of the vehicle at a second time after the first time; and outputs the display image to a display.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 5, 2018
    Date of Patent: October 18, 2022
    Assignee: AISIN CORPORATION
    Inventors: Kazuya Watanabe, Tetsuya Maruoka
  • Patent number: 11420678
    Abstract: A traction assist apparatus includes a memory and a hardware processor coupled to the memory. The hardware processor is configured to: acquire first coupling information representing a current coupling posture of a towed vehicle to a towing vehicle and acquire second coupling information representing a future coupling posture of the towed vehicle where the towing vehicle moves backward at a current steering angle; and display a first indicator and a second indicator on a display device in a comparable mode, the first indicator indicating the towed vehicle corresponding to the first coupling information, the second indicator indicating the towed vehicle corresponding to the second coupling information.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 21, 2018
    Date of Patent: August 23, 2022
    Assignee: AISIN CORPORATION
    Inventors: Tetsuya Maruoka, Kazuya Watanabe
  • Patent number: 11292387
    Abstract: A towing assistance apparatus includes an image acquisition unit successively acquiring a rear image and a lateral image serving as a surrounding image captured by an imaging unit that is provided at a towing vehicle to which a towed vehicle is configured to be connected, an angle acquisition unit acquiring a connection angle between the towing vehicle and the towed vehicle, and a display processing unit switching the surrounding image displayed at a display unit from the lateral image to the rear image in a case where the connection angle becomes equal to or greater than a first angle at which a change control for decreasing the connection angle is impossible by a steering of the towing vehicle during a rearward driving thereof in a state where the lateral image is displayed and the towing vehicle to which the towed vehicle is connected is in a rearward driving available state.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 3, 2019
    Date of Patent: April 5, 2022
    Assignee: AISIN CORPORATION
    Inventors: Tetsuya Maruoka, Kazuya Watanabe, Kinji Yamamoto
  • Patent number: 11260794
    Abstract: A peripheral monitoring device according to one embodiment includes an acquirer configured to acquire a first rear image of a vehicle at first timing, the vehicle including a first coupler device which couples a towed vehicle; and an image processing unit configured to superimpose first identification information on the first rear image at second timing being after the first timing, the first identification information representing a position of the first coupler device at the second timing, and to display, on a display screen, the first rear image on which the first identification information has been superimposed, the display screen configured to be installed in the vehicle.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 30, 2017
    Date of Patent: March 1, 2022
    Assignee: AISIN CORPORATION
    Inventors: Tetsuya Maruoka, Itsuko Fukushima, Kazuya Watanabe, Kinji Yamamoto, Takashi Hiramaki, Naotaka Kubota
  • Publication number: 20210370912
    Abstract: A periphery monitoring device includes a coupling determiner that determines whether a towed vehicle is coupled to a towing vehicle to which the towed vehicle can be coupled; a target setter that sets a target moving position to be a target for moving at least the towed vehicle coupled to the towing vehicle; a storing controller that stores, as a moving target image, an image, including the target moving position, of a peripheral image generated by as imager provided at the towing vehicle; and an image controller that displays the stored moving target image in association with the towing vehicle or the towed vehicle included in a current image generated by the imager and currently displayed on a display device.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 29, 2018
    Publication date: December 2, 2021
    Applicant: AISIN SEIKI KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventors: Kinji YAMAMOTO, Kazuya WATANABE, Tetsuya MARUOKA, Takayuki NAKASHO, Itsuko FUKUSHIMA
  • Patent number: 11082631
    Abstract: An image processing device includes a hardware processor configured to: acquire items of image information; determine lateral image information as a particular state of luminance when a first region of interest exhibits luminance of a first given value or more and a difference in luminance between the first region of interest and a second region of interest is a second given value or more, the first region of interest and the second region of interest being included in a vehicular front region and a vehicular rear region of the lateral image information, respectively; set, in the particular state of luminance, a first correction value in accordance with luminance of the vehicular front region and set a second correction value in accordance with luminance of rear image information; and set, according to the first second correction values, an individual correction value for correcting luminance of a region between the first and second regions of interest.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 25, 2019
    Date of Patent: August 3, 2021
    Assignee: AISIN SEIKI KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventors: Kinji Yamamoto, Kazuya Watanabe, Itsuko Fukushima, Tetsuya Maruoka
  • Publication number: 20210160432
    Abstract: An image processing device includes a hardware processor configured to: acquire items of image information; determine lateral image information as a particular state of luminance when a first region of interest exhibits luminance of a first given value or more and a difference in luminance between the first region of interest and a second region of interest is a second given value or more, the first region of interest and the second region of interest being included in a vehicular front region and a vehicular rear region of the lateral image information, respectively; set, in the particular state of luminance, a first correction value in accordance with luminance of the vehicular front region and set a second correction value in accordance with luminance of rear image information; and set, according to the first second correction values, an individual correction value for correcting luminance of a region between the first and second regions of interest.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 25, 2019
    Publication date: May 27, 2021
    Applicant: AISIN SEIKI KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventors: Kinji YAMAMOTO, Kazuya WATANABE, Itsuko FUKUSHIMA, Tetsuya MARUOKA
  • Publication number: 20210105402
    Abstract: An image processing apparatus includes a hardware processor configured to: acquire a plurality of pieces of image information including image-capturing regions overlapping partially; to set first and second correction values with a predetermined value, the first correction value being used for correction of luminance of a first region of interest included in a first overlap region in which a first image-capturing region overlaps an adjacent second image-capturing region, the second correction value being used for correction of luminance of a second region of interest included in a second overlap region in which the first image-capturing region overlaps an adjacent third image-capturing region; and to set with the first and second correction values an individual correction value used for correction of luminance of a region between the first region of interest and the second region of interest in the first image-capturing region.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 25, 2019
    Publication date: April 8, 2021
    Applicant: AISIN SEIKI KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventors: Kinji YAMAMOTO, Kazuya WATANABE, Tetsuya MARUOKA, Itsuko FUKUSHIMA
  • Patent number: 10930070
    Abstract: A periphery monitoring device includes: an acquisition unit configured to acquire a captured image from an imaging unit that captures an image of a periphery of a vehicle; a generation unit configured to generate a vehicle surrounding image indicating a situation around the vehicle in a virtual space based on the captured image; and a processing unit configured to display, on a display device, an image in which an own vehicle image is overlapped on the vehicle surrounding image, the own vehicle image indicating the vehicle in which a transmissive state of a constituent plane representing a plane constituting the vehicle is determined according to a direction of the constituent plane, and the vehicle surrounding image being represented based on a virtual viewpoint facing the vehicle in the virtual space.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 22, 2019
    Date of Patent: February 23, 2021
    Assignee: AISIN SEIKI KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventors: Kazuya Watanabe, Tetsuya Maruoka
  • Patent number: 10909750
    Abstract: A periphery monitoring device includes: an image acquisition unit acquiring an image obtained from an imaging unit imaging a situation surrounding a towing vehicle to which a towed vehicle is connectable; a projection plane acquisition unit acquiring a three-dimensional virtual projection plane onto which the image can be projected and which is provided with a side plane rising in a height direction from a grounding surface of the towing vehicle; a projection processing unit projecting the image onto the virtual projection plane; a viewpoint setting unit setting a viewpoint position and a gazing point position with respect to the virtual projection plane; an image display unit causing a display device to display an image obtained by viewing the gazing point position from the viewpoint position with respect to the virtual projection plane; and a determination unit determining whether or not the towed vehicle is connected to the towing vehicle.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 19, 2018
    Date of Patent: February 2, 2021
    Assignee: AISIN SEIKI KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventors: Itsuko Fukushima, Kazuya Watanabe, Kinji Yamamoto, Tetsuya Maruoka, Takayuki Nakasho
  • Patent number: 10875577
    Abstract: A traction assist apparatus includes a memory and a hardware processor coupled to the memory. The hardware processor is configured to acquire a coupling angle between a towing vehicle and a towed vehicle towed by the towing vehicle and acquire a current steered angle of the towing vehicle. The hardware processor is configured to, when the towing vehicle is moved backward at the current steered angle, determine whether the towed vehicle is movable backward in a balance state where the coupling angle is maintained, and monitor whether steering of the towing vehicle is continued in the balance state. The hardware processor is configured to provide notification of presence or absence of the balance state and provide notification of whether the monitoring is continued.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 27, 2018
    Date of Patent: December 29, 2020
    Assignee: AISIN SEIKI KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventors: Kinji Yamamoto, Kazuya Watanabe, Tetsuya Maruoka, Itsuko Fukushima, Takayuki Nakasho
  • Patent number: 10857944
    Abstract: A periphery monitoring apparatus includes: a detector configured to detect a roughness state of a road surface in a traveling direction of a vehicle; an acquisition unit configured to acquire a guide marker to be superimposed onto an image based on captured image data output from an imager that captures an image of a peripheral region including the traveling direction of the vehicle, the guide marker being displayed in a manner that follows a roughness state of the road surface in the traveling direction of the vehicle; and a controller configured to superimpose the guide marker onto the image in the display manner that follows the roughness state and display the image on a display device.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 16, 2017
    Date of Patent: December 8, 2020
    Assignee: AISIN SEIKI KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventors: Takayuki Nakasho, Kazuya Watanabe, Tetsuya Maruoka, Kinji Yamamoto, Takashi Hiramaki, Takuya Hashikawa, Naotaka Kubota, Osamu Kimura, Itsuko Ohashi, Yasumasa Yamamoto
  • Publication number: 20200346690
    Abstract: A parking assistance device includes an overhead image generation unit generating an overhead image from a captured image obtained by capturing an image around a towing vehicle, a towing determination unit determining whether a towed vehicle is towed, an overhead image display range setting unit selecting a trimming range from a plurality of display ranges at least including a first display range and a second display range wider than the first display range, and a display image generation unit generating an overhead image for display by trimming the trimming range of the overhead image, and a display image including the overhead image for display on which the towing vehicle is superimposed. The overhead image display range setting unit selects the first display range when the towing vehicle does not tow the towed vehicle, and selects the second display range when the towing vehicle tows the towed vehicle.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 5, 2018
    Publication date: November 5, 2020
    Applicant: AISIN SEIKI KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventors: Tetsuya MARUOKA, Kazuya WATANABE, Kinji YAMAMOTO, Itsuko FUKUSHIMA, Takayuki NAKASHO
  • Patent number: 10807643
    Abstract: A peripheral monitoring device according to an embodiment includes an acquirer configured to acquire a first image generated by an imaging device, and acquire a steering angle of a vehicle, the imaging device that images an area behind the vehicle; a calculator configured to calculate an estimate of trajectory of a first coupling device from the steering angle, the first coupling device being mounted on the vehicle to couple the vehicle to a towed vehicle; and an output configured to display the first image on a display screen for use in an interior of the vehicle and to superimpose a second image on the first image on the display screen. The second image is of a linear shape representing the estimate of trajectory. The linear shape widens continuously or in stages as being away from a vehicle-side end.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 30, 2017
    Date of Patent: October 20, 2020
    Assignee: AISIN SEIKI KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventors: Tetsuya Maruoka, Kazuya Watanabe, Takayuki Nakasho, Masahiko Sakabe, Kazunori Ono