Patents by Inventor Tomoharu Awano

Tomoharu Awano 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).

  • Publication number: 20240048900
    Abstract: A sound collection device performs Fourier transform on a first sound reception signal outputted from a first microphone and outputs a first signal, performs Fourier transform on a second sound reception signal outputted from a second microphone and outputs a second signal, estimates an arrival direction of the voice, calculates a phase of a cross-spectrum of the first signal and the second signal, determines a mask coefficient based on an arrival direction phase table indicating a relationship between the phase and the arrival direction regarding each frequency band, the calculated phase, and the estimated arrival direction, separates a signal from the first signal or the second signal by using the mask coefficient, and performs inverse Fourier transform on the separated signal and outputs a signal of a target voice.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 12, 2023
    Publication date: February 8, 2024
    Applicant: Mitsubishi Electric Corporation
    Inventors: Tomoharu AWANO, Masaru KIMURA, Shigeaki SUZUKI
  • Publication number: 20230276777
    Abstract: A wave transmission control device to control a transmitter to form a sound field in water includes processing circuitry to, when detection information is input from a sensor to detect an organism in water, determine a characteristic of the organism and a distribution state for every characteristic using the detection information, to acquire sound information based on the characteristic by referring to a database in which a characteristic of an organism and sound information are associated with each other, and to determine a sound output condition in such a manner that a distribution state changes from the distribution state which is set for the characteristic received before processing starts and to cause the transmitter to output a sound based on sound information using the output condition.
    Type: Application
    Filed: May 15, 2023
    Publication date: September 7, 2023
    Applicant: Mitsubishi Electric Corporation
    Inventors: Koji IBATA, Jin HIRANO, Tomoharu AWANO, Tai TANAKA
  • Patent number: 11472432
    Abstract: An information presentation control device includes: an analyzer to calculate a degree of risk based on information regarding an object located around a vehicle; an occupant monitor to determine whether a driver is aware of approach of the object, based on information obtained by imaging the driver with a camera; an image processor to cause at least one of the displays to perform alerting display, based on the degree of risk; and a sound processor to cause the sound output device to generate, as an alerting sound, a sound whose sound image is controlled so that a virtual sound source is localized at a position of at least one of the at least one display, based on the degree of risk. When the driver is aware of the object, the sound processor stops generation of the alerting sound or decreases a sound volume of the alerting sound.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 5, 2021
    Date of Patent: October 18, 2022
    Assignee: MITSUBISHI ELECTRIC CORPORATION
    Inventors: Tomoharu Awano, Masaru Kimura
  • Publication number: 20220295180
    Abstract: An information processing device includes a sound signal acquisition unit that acquires sound signals outputted from a mic array, an analysis unit that analyzes frequencies of the sound signals, an information acquisition unit that acquires predetermined information indicating a steering vector in a first direction as a direction from the mic array to a target sound source, and a calculation unit that calculates a filter for formation in a second direction as a direction different from the first direction based on the frequencies and the information indicating the steering vector in the first direction and calculates a steering vector in the second direction by using an expression indicating a relationship between the calculated filter and the steering vector in the second direction.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 2, 2022
    Publication date: September 15, 2022
    Applicant: Mitsubishi Electric Corporation
    Inventors: Tomoharu AWANO, Masaru KIMURA
  • Patent number: 11245981
    Abstract: A microphone array includes first and second microphones (Ma, Mb) placed on a first axis (f), a third microphone (Mc) placed on a plane (fg) formed by the first axis and a second axis (g) and at a position other than on the first axis, and a fourth microphone (Md) placed on a third axis (h), and at a position other than on the plane formed by the first and the second axes, and a processing circuit generates signals (Cx, Cy, Cz) having bidirectionality in first, second and third mutually perpendicular directions (x, y, z), and an omnidirectional signal (Cw), based on signals (Ba to Bd) obtained by sound collection by means of the first to fourth microphones. It is possible to generate signals having bidirectionality in mutually perpendicular directions, and an omnidirectional signal, without using special microphones, and without excessive restrictions with regard to the placement of the microphones.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 15, 2017
    Date of Patent: February 8, 2022
    Assignee: MITSUBISHI ELECTRIC CORPORATION
    Inventors: Tomoharu Awano, Masaru Kimura, Satoru Furuta, Jin Hirano, Atsuyoshi Yano, Nobuaki Tanaka
  • Publication number: 20210221396
    Abstract: An information presentation control device includes: an analyzer to calculate a degree of risk based on information regarding an object located around a vehicle; an occupant monitor to determine whether a driver is aware of approach of the object, based on information obtained by imaging the driver with a camera; an image processor to cause at least one of the displays to perform alerting display, based on the degree of risk; and a sound processor to cause the sound output device to generate, as an alerting sound, a sound whose sound image is controlled so that a virtual sound source is localized at a position of at least one of the at least one display, based on the degree of risk. When the driver is aware of the object, the sound processor stops generation of the alerting sound or decreases a sound volume of the alerting sound.
    Type: Application
    Filed: April 5, 2021
    Publication date: July 22, 2021
    Applicant: MITSUBISHI ELECTRIC CORPORATION
    Inventors: Tomoharu AWANO, Masaru KIMURA
  • Publication number: 20210080937
    Abstract: An information analysis device includes a processor and a storage unit. The processor includes: a worker information calculator to calculate worker information including at least one of an action speed of a worker and a position of the worker based on first information acquired from a first detector; a progress information calculator to calculate work progress information including a progress speed of the work based on second information acquired from a second detector; a product information calculator to calculate product information including at least one of a stock quantity of the product and a position of the product based on third information acquired from a third detector; and an information connection extractor to generate data indicating a connection between at least two types of information, among the worker information, the work progress information and the product information, in regard to each of a plurality of predetermined time slots.
    Type: Application
    Filed: February 15, 2018
    Publication date: March 18, 2021
    Applicant: MITSUBISHI ELECTRIC CORPORATION
    Inventors: Satoshi SAKURAI, Hiroyasu NEGISHI, Masaru KIMURA, Tomoharu AWANO, Kosuke HOSOYA
  • Publication number: 20200245064
    Abstract: A microphone array includes first and second microphones (Ma, Mb) placed on a first axis (f), a third microphone (Mc) placed on a plane (fg) formed by the first axis and a second axis (g) and at a position other than on the first axis, and a fourth microphone (Md) placed on a third axis (h), and at a position other than on the plane formed by the first and the second axes, and a processing circuit generates signals (Cx, Cy, Cz) having bidirectionality in first, second and third mutually perpendicular directions (x, y, z), and an omnidirectional signal (Cw), based on signals (Ba to Bd) obtained by sound collection by means of the first to fourth microphones. It is possible to generate signals having bidirectionality in mutually perpendicular directions, and an omnidirectional signal, without using special microphones, and without excessive restrictions with regard to the placement of the microphones.
    Type: Application
    Filed: November 15, 2017
    Publication date: July 30, 2020
    Applicant: MITSUBISHI ELECTRIC CORPORATION
    Inventors: Tomoharu AWANO, Masaru KIMURA, Satoru FURUTA, Jin HIRANO, Atsuyoshi YANO, Nobuaki TANAKA
  • Patent number: 10498389
    Abstract: Disclosed is an echo canceller (10) including: a false echo calculator (32) that acquires current and previous filter-coefficient groups used by an adaptive filtering unit (20), and that calculates plural false echo signals by performing a filtering operation using each of the current and previous filter-coefficient groups on a sequence of reception signals (x(n)); a voice-transmission signal buffer that outputs a previous voice-transmission signal (y(n?1)); an evaluation value calculator (34) that calculates plural evaluated values of an echo cancellation quantity by using the previous voice-transmission signal; a filter selector (36) that selects a new filter-coefficient group on the basis of the plural evaluated values of the echo cancellation quantity; a foreground filter (39) that performs a filtering operation using the new filter-coefficient group on the sequence of reception signals (x(n)) to generate an estimated echo component; and a subtractor (25) that subtracts the estimated echo component from a
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 16, 2015
    Date of Patent: December 3, 2019
    Assignee: MITSUBISHI ELECTRIC CORPORATION
    Inventors: Tomoharu Awano, Satoru Furuta, Jun Ishii
  • Patent number: 10367949
    Abstract: Disclosed is an echo canceller including: a false echo calculator that calculates false echo signals by performing a filtering operation using each of current and previous filter-coefficient groups which used by an adaptive filtering unit on a sequence of reception signals (x(n)); an evaluation value calculator that calculates evaluated values of an echo cancellation quantity on the basis of a voice-transmission signal (y(n)) and the false echo signals; a false echo selector that selects an estimated echo component from the false echo components on the basis of the evaluated values of the echo cancellation quantity; and a signal output unit (Sout) that outputs a residual signal (e(n)).
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 16, 2015
    Date of Patent: July 30, 2019
    Assignee: MITSUBISHI ELECTRIC CORPORATION
    Inventors: Tomoharu Awano, Satoru Furuta, Jun Ishii
  • Publication number: 20180343345
    Abstract: Disclosed is an echo canceller including: a false echo calculator that calculates false echo signals by performing a filtering operation using each of current and previous filter-coefficient groups which used by an adaptive filtering unit on a sequence of reception signals (x(n)); an evaluation value calculator that calculates evaluated values of an echo cancellation quantity on the basis of a voice-transmission signal (y(n)) and the false echo signals; a false echo selector that selects an estimated echo component from the false echo components on the basis of the evaluated values of the echo cancellation quantity; and a signal output unit (Sout) that outputs a residual signal (e(n)).
    Type: Application
    Filed: November 16, 2015
    Publication date: November 29, 2018
    Applicant: Mitsubishi Electric Corporation
    Inventors: Tomoharu AWANO, Satoru FURUTA, Jun ISHII
  • Publication number: 20180331719
    Abstract: Disclosed is an echo canceller (10) including: a false echo calculator (32) that acquires current and previous filter-coefficient groups used by an adaptive filtering unit (20), and that calculates plural false echo signals by performing a filtering operation using each of the current and previous filter-coefficient groups on a sequence of reception signals (x(n)); a voice-transmission signal buffer that outputs a previous voice-transmission signal (y(n?1)); an evaluation value calculator (34) that calculates plural evaluated values of an echo cancellation quantity by using the previous voice-transmission signal; a filter selector (36) that selects a new filter-coefficient group on the basis of the plural evaluated values of the echo cancellation quantity; a foreground filter (39) that performs a filtering operation using the new filter-coefficient group on the sequence of reception signals (x(n)) to generate an estimated echo component; and a subtractor (25) that subtracts the estimated echo component from a
    Type: Application
    Filed: November 16, 2015
    Publication date: November 15, 2018
    Applicant: Mitsubishi Electric Corporation
    Inventors: Tomoharu AWANO, Satoru FURUTA, Jun ISHII
  • Patent number: 10129410
    Abstract: An echo canceller device includes a band adjuster including a filter for performing band adjustment by applying a gain to a signal in a specific frequency band of an input signal, an adaptive filter for inputting a speech reception signal, updating a filter coefficient, and generating a pseudo echo signal using the updated filter coefficient, a band corrector including a filter for correcting a frequency characteristic of a signal obtained by subtracting the pseudo echo signal from an input signal, to a frequency characteristic of the input signal prior to the band adjustment, and a residual echo suppressor for suppressing an echo component that remains in a signal, by a suppression amount, and the residual echo suppressor sets the suppression amount for a signal in a specific frequency band that has been subjected to the band adjustment.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 15, 2014
    Date of Patent: November 13, 2018
    Assignee: MISTUBISHI ELECTRIC CORPORATION
    Inventors: Tomoharu Awano, Satoru Furuta, Tadashi Yamaura
  • Patent number: 9830900
    Abstract: A variable update step size is determined in proportion to a magnitude ratio or magnitude difference between a first residual signal and a second residual signal. The first residual signal is obtained by using adaptive filter coefficient sequence, where the adaptive filter coefficient sequence has been obtained in previous operations of the adaptive equalizer. The second residual signal is obtained by using a prior update adaptive filter coefficient sequence, where the prior update adaptive filter coefficient sequence is obtained by performing a coefficient update with an arbitrary prior update step size on the adaptive filter coefficient sequence having been obtained in previous operations of the adaptive equalizer.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 29, 2012
    Date of Patent: November 28, 2017
    Assignee: Mitsubishi Electric Corporation
    Inventors: Atsuyoshi Yano, Tomoharu Awano
  • Publication number: 20170195496
    Abstract: An echo canceller device includes a band adjuster including a filter for performing band adjustment by applying a gain to a signal in a specific frequency band of an input signal, an adaptive filter for inputting a speech reception signal, updating a filter coefficient, and generating a pseudo echo signal using the updated filter coefficient, a band corrector including a filter for correcting a frequency characteristic of a signal obtained by subtracting the pseudo echo signal from an input signal, to a frequency characteristic of the input signal prior to the band adjustment, and a residual echo suppressor for suppressing an echo component that remains in a signal, by a suppression amount, and the residual echo suppressor sets the suppression amount for a signal in a specific frequency band that has been subjected to the band adjustment.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 15, 2014
    Publication date: July 6, 2017
    Applicant: MITSUBISHI ELECTRIC CORPORATION
    Inventors: Tomoharu AWANO, Satoru FURUTA, Tadashi YAMAURA
  • Patent number: 9530428
    Abstract: An echo cancellation device includes: a full-band echo canceller that generates a pseudo-echo signal; a downsample processor that downsamples a received signal and extracts a low-band component delayed by a delay amount D1; a delay controller that delays the low-band component by a delay amount D2; a delay controller that delays an output signal of the delay controller by a delay amount D3; a low-band echo canceller that generates a pseudo-echo signal delayed by a delay amount D1+D2; and an upsample processor that upsamples the low-band pseudo-echo signal to generate a full-band pseudo-echo signal delayed by the delay amount 2D1+D2. The delay controllers control the delay amounts D2 and D3 such that a tap length LA satisfies a condition of LA?2D1+D2=D2+D3, the tap length LA indicating a response time of the adaptive filter in the full-band echo canceller.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 14, 2013
    Date of Patent: December 27, 2016
    Assignee: Mitsubishi Electric Corporation
    Inventors: Tomoharu Awano, Takashi Sudo, Atsuyoshi Yano, Atsushi Hotta
  • Patent number: 9503809
    Abstract: A beam-forming device includes a first target sound blocker 103 and a second target sound blocker 104 that remove a target signal having a correlation mutually from a first sound signal x1 and a second sound signal x2 which are converted by first and second microphones 101 and 102, a phase synchronizer 105 that synchronizes the phases of the first sound signal x1 and the second sound signal x2 and synthesizes these sound signals by using information acquired when the first target sound blocker 103 removes the target signal, and a noise learner 106 that learns a noise component included in an output signal of the phase synchronizer 105 from signals from which the target signal is removed by the first target sound blocker 103 and the second target sound blocker 104.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 6, 2012
    Date of Patent: November 22, 2016
    Assignee: Mitsubishi Electric Corporation
    Inventors: Takashi Mikami, Tomoharu Awano
  • Patent number: 9286881
    Abstract: An echo canceler includes a signal-to-echo ratio calculating unit 103 and a residual echo suppressing unit 105. The signal-to-echo ratio calculating unit 103 computes a signal-to-echo ratio SE(n) indicating a ratio of an echo component to a received signal x(n) from a first residual signal and a second residual signal. The first residual signal is obtained using a filter coefficient sequence of an update filter 102, which is obtained up to the previous operation. The second residual signal is obtained using an updated filter coefficient sequence that undergoes a coefficient update which is performed, using an arbitrary update step size ?(n), on the filter coefficient sequence of the update filter 102, which is obtained up to the previous operation. The residual echo suppressing unit 105 suppresses the echo component contained in the microphone input signal in accordance with the signal-to-echo ratio the signal-to-echo ratio calculating unit 103 computes.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 29, 2012
    Date of Patent: March 15, 2016
    Assignee: Mitsubishi Electric Corporation
    Inventors: Tomoharu Awano, Atsuyoshi Yano, Bunkei Matsuoka
  • Publication number: 20150381822
    Abstract: An echo cancellation device includes: a full-band echo canceller that generates a pseudo-echo signal; a downsample processor that downsamples a received signal and extracts a low-band component delayed by a delay amount D1; a delay controller that delays the low-band component by a delay amount D2; a delay controller that delays an output signal of the delay controller by a delay amount D3; a low-band echo canceller that generates a pseudo-echo signal delayed by a delay amount D1+D2; and an upsample processor that upsamples the low-band pseudo-echo signal to generate a full-band pseudo-echo signal delayed by the delay amount 2D1+D2. The delay controllers control the delay amounts D2 and D3 such that a tap length LA satisfies a condition of LA ?2D1+D2=D2+D3, the tap length LA indicating a response time of the adaptive filter in the full-band echo canceller.
    Type: Application
    Filed: May 14, 2013
    Publication date: December 31, 2015
    Applicant: MITSUBISHI ELECTRIC CORPORATION
    Inventors: Tomoharu AWANO, Takashi SUDO, Atsuyoshi YANO, Atsushi HOTTA
  • Patent number: 9210502
    Abstract: An echo cancelling device splits a low-band signal through LPFs having characteristics which do not cause aliasing during downsampling of downsamplers, and splits a high-band signal through HPFs having characteristics which do not cause aliasing during downsampling of downsamplers. The echo canceling device generates a mid-band signal by subtracting the low-band signal and the high-band signal from a pre-split signal by adder-subtractors, and cancels an echo on a band-by-band basis.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 25, 2012
    Date of Patent: December 8, 2015
    Assignee: Mitsubishi Electric Corporation
    Inventors: Takashi Sudo, Atsuyoshi Yano, Tomoharu Awano