Patents by Inventor Tetuya Tanigawa

Tetuya Tanigawa 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: 8477234
    Abstract: A brightness sensing system includes an image pickup unit for taking an image of a target space and a calculation unit for calculating the brightness of an image pickup area based on the image taken by the image pickup unit. In the brightness sensing system, if the difference or the ratio between an image as a whole and a pixel block formed of one or more pixels is equal to or greater than a threshold in terms of brightness change between a previously-taken reference image and a currently-taken target image, the calculation unit excludes the pixel block from comparison candidates and compares the brightness of the target image with the brightness of the reference image based on the remaining pixels other than the pixel block.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 22, 2010
    Date of Patent: July 2, 2013
    Assignee: Panasonic Electric Works Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Tetuya Tanigawa, Shinji Matsuda, Tosikazu Kawasima
  • Patent number: 8446110
    Abstract: An illumination system includes illumination devices, an imaging device and a control device. Each of the illumination devices includes a light source, a lighting circuit unit and a transmission control unit. The control device includes a storage unit, a transmission processing unit and a main control unit for selecting a control-target illumination area, reading out the identification code corresponding to the selected illumination area from the storage unit and causing the transmission processing unit to transmit a signal containing a control command on the illumination device. The main control unit is operable in an initial setting mode in which the correlations between the identification codes of the illumination devices and the illumination areas are set by causing the imaging device to take an image of the illumination space while turning on the illumination devices and detecting the illumination area of each of the illumination devices from the image thus taken.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 12, 2011
    Date of Patent: May 21, 2013
    Assignee: Panasonic Corporation
    Inventors: Tetuya Tanigawa, Yuichi Ejiri, Tosikazu Kawasima
  • Publication number: 20120091901
    Abstract: An illumination device, includes: a photovoltaic power generation unit; a battery unit for storing the electric power generated in the photovoltaic power generation unit; a light source to be turned on using the battery unit as a power source; a human detecting sensor; a human determining unit for determining presence/absence of the human based on a detection result of the human detecting sensor; a season determining unit; and a lighting control unit for, if the human determining unit determines that the human exists, turning on the light source at a specified dimming rate for a specified on-duration. The lighting control unit is configured to, based on a season determination result of the season determining unit, make power consumption of the light source in a season having a reduced daytime period smaller than power consumption of the light source in a season having an increased daytime period.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 12, 2011
    Publication date: April 19, 2012
    Applicant: Panasonic Electric Works Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Tetuya TANIGAWA, Kazufumi Nagazoe
  • Publication number: 20110260654
    Abstract: An illumination system includes illumination devices, an imaging device and a control device. Each of the illumination devices includes a light source, a lighting circuit unit and a transmission control unit. The control device includes a storage unit, a transmission processing unit and a main control unit for selecting a control-target illumination area, reading out the identification code corresponding to the selected illumination area from the storage unit and causing the transmission processing unit to transmit a signal containing a control command on the illumination device. The main control unit is operable in an initial setting mode in which the correlations between the identification codes of the illumination devices and the illumination areas are set by causing the imaging device to take an image of the illumination space while turning on the illumination devices and detecting the illumination area of each of the illumination devices from the image thus taken.
    Type: Application
    Filed: April 12, 2011
    Publication date: October 27, 2011
    Applicant: Panasonic Electric Works Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Tetuya TANIGAWA, Yuichi Ejiri, Tosikazu Kawasima
  • Publication number: 20110019031
    Abstract: A brightness sensing system includes an image pickup unit for taking an image of a target space and a calculation unit for calculating the brightness of an image pickup area based on the image taken by the image pickup unit. In the brightness sensing system, if the difference or the ratio between an image as a whole and a pixel block formed of one or more pixels is equal to or greater than a threshold in terms of brightness change between a previously-taken reference image and a currently-taken target image, the calculation unit excludes the pixel block from comparison candidates and compares the brightness of the target image with the brightness of the reference image based on the remaining pixels other than the pixel block.
    Type: Application
    Filed: July 22, 2010
    Publication date: January 27, 2011
    Applicant: Panasonic Electric Works Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Tetuya Tanigawa, Shinji Matsuda, Tosikazu Kawasima