Patents by Inventor Tomoya Ishitani

Tomoya Ishitani 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: 20240097544
    Abstract: Provided is a vibration actuator that includes: a coil; a core around which the coil is wound, the core including both ends projecting from the coil; a yoke formed of a magnetic material and disposed opposite to the both ends of the core at a position adjacent to the both ends of the core with a gap provided between the yoke and the both ends of the core in a direction orthogonal to a winding axis of the coil; and an elastic part fixed between the core and the yoke and configured for elastic support to enable a movement between the core and the yoke in a direction opposite to at least one of the both ends of the core.
    Type: Application
    Filed: November 22, 2023
    Publication date: March 21, 2024
    Applicant: MINEBEA MITSUMI Inc.
    Inventors: Yuki TAKAHASHI, Tomoya ISHITANI
  • Patent number: 11863039
    Abstract: Provided is a vibration actuator that includes: a coil; a core around which the coil is wound, the core including both ends projecting from the coil; a yoke formed of a magnetic material and disposed opposite to the both ends of the core at a position adjacent to the both ends of the core with a gap provided between the yoke and the both ends of the core in a direction orthogonal to a winding axis of the coil; and an elastic part fixed between the core and the yoke and configured for elastic support to enable a movement between the core and the yoke in a direction opposite to at least one of the both ends of the core.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 8, 2022
    Date of Patent: January 2, 2024
    Assignee: MINEBEA MITSUMI Inc.
    Inventors: Yuki Takahashi, Tomoya Ishitani
  • Publication number: 20230400925
    Abstract: The present invention provides a tactile feedback device that detects a user operation based on touch without erroneous detection, providing stable tactile feedback. This device includes: an operated section that receives a user operation based on touch; a touch detection section for detecting touch on the operated section; a load detection section that detects a load on the operated section due to touch; a vibration actuator that generates vibration and outputs the vibration to the operated section; and a driving control section that drives, in response to the detection of touch and detection of load, the vibration actuator to vibrate the operated section, feeding back tactile sensation to a user, wherein the load detection section stops detection of a load during vibration.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 28, 2021
    Publication date: December 14, 2023
    Applicant: MINEBEA MITSUMI Inc.
    Inventors: Yuki TAKAHASHI, Yasutaka KITAMURA, Takahiko IRIE, Tomoya ISHITANI
  • Publication number: 20230344376
    Abstract: Provided is an actuator, the actuator comprising: an actuator body and a control device that includes a circuitry configured to supply a main driving current pulse and a sub-driving current pulse to the coil, both of which are driving current pulses for driving the operation device in one direction in a vibrating direction thereof, in accordance with a touch operation of an operation device supported so as to be elastically vibrated, the main driving current pulse being capable of starting an elastic vibration, the sub-driving current pulse being capable of adjusting attenuation period of the elastic vibration after the starting the elastic vibration, and polarities of the main driving current pulse and the sub-driving current pulse being all identical.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 29, 2023
    Publication date: October 26, 2023
    Applicant: Minebea Mitsumi Inc.
    Inventors: Tomoya ISHITANI, Yuki TAKAHASHI
  • Patent number: 11728756
    Abstract: Provided is a control device for controlling an electromagnetic actuator that vibrates an operation device by driving the operation device supported by an elastic support part so as to be elastically vibrated in one direction in a vibrating direction thereof, the control device comprising: a current pulse supply unit configured to supply a driving current pulse to a coil of the electromagnetic actuator as a driving current for driving the operation device in accordance with a touch operation of the operation device, wherein the current pulse supply unit supplies the drive current pulse capable of starting the elastic vibration as a main driving current pulse, and then supplies the drive current pulse capable of adjusting attenuation period of the elastic vibration as a sub-driving current pulse.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 8, 2020
    Date of Patent: August 15, 2023
    Assignee: Minebea Mitsumi Inc.
    Inventors: Tomoya Ishitani, Yuki Takahashi
  • Publication number: 20230067284
    Abstract: Provided is a vibration actuator that includes: a coil; a core around which the coil is wound, the core including both ends projecting from the coil; a yoke formed of a magnetic material and disposed opposite to the both ends of the core at a position adjacent to the both ends of the core with a gap provided between the yoke and the both ends of the core in a direction orthogonal to a winding axis of the coil; and an elastic part fixed between the core and the yoke and configured for elastic support to enable a movement between the core and the yoke in a direction opposite to at least one of the both ends of the core.
    Type: Application
    Filed: November 8, 2022
    Publication date: March 2, 2023
    Applicant: MINEBEA MITSUMI Inc.
    Inventors: Yuki TAKAHASHI, Tomoya ISHITANI
  • Patent number: 11575302
    Abstract: A vibration actuator that cooperates with a coil and a magnet to vibrate a movable body with respect to a stationary body, including: the stationary body including the coil and a core around which the coil is wound; a shaft part; and the movable body including the magnet, the movable body being movably supported by the stationary body via the shaft part, wherein the core is disposed along an axial direction of the shaft part, and includes a core-side magnetic pole to be excited by energization to the coil, the magnet includes a magnet-side magnetic pole disposed so as to face the core-side magnetic pole with a gap therebetween, and the vibration actuator further includes a spring part elastically supporting the movable body with respect to the stationary body, linearly movably in the axial direction in a reciprocating manner, and rotationally movably about an axis in a reciprocating manner.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 29, 2019
    Date of Patent: February 7, 2023
    Assignee: MINEBEA MITSUMI INC.
    Inventors: Yuki Takahashi, Chikara Sekiguchi, Yuki Otsuka, Tomoya Ishitani, Kazutaka Sakaguchi, Shigenori Inamoto
  • Publication number: 20220415142
    Abstract: This bodily vibration generation device can be mounted to a bodily sensation presentation apparatus and generates, with a simple configuration, suitable vibration corresponding to a sound so that a user bodily senses the vibration. This device has: an electromagnetic actuator that causes, by an inputted drive signal, a movable body being supported so as to be elastically vibratable with respect to a fixed body, to vibrate by driving same in one direction of the vibration directions thereof; an AC signal input unit for inputting an AC signal; and a rectification unit that performs half-wave rectification of the AC signal and outputs the AC signal to the electromagnetic actuator as the drive signal.
    Type: Application
    Filed: November 27, 2020
    Publication date: December 29, 2022
    Applicant: MINEBEA MITSUMI Inc.
    Inventors: Yuki TAKAHASHI, Yasutaka KITAMURA, Tomoya ISHITANI
  • Patent number: 11522429
    Abstract: Provided is a vibration actuator that includes: a fixing part including a coil, and a core around which the coil is wound, the core including both ends projecting from the coil; a movable part disposed adjacent and opposite to the both ends of the core with a gap provided therebetween in a direction crossing with a winding axis of the coil, the movable part including a yoke formed of a magnetic material, the movable part being fixable to an operation contact surface part that is operated by contact; and a plate-shaped elastic part fixed between the movable part and the fixing part, the plate-shaped elastic part including an elastically deformable bellows-shaped part, the plate-shaped elastic part elastically supporting the movable part to be movable with respect to the fixing part in a direction opposite to at least one of the both ends.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 31, 2019
    Date of Patent: December 6, 2022
    Assignee: MINEBEA MITSUMI INC.
    Inventors: Yuki Takahashi, Tomoya Ishitani
  • Publication number: 20220247292
    Abstract: Provided is a vibration actuator including: a movable part that gives vibration to a vibration presenting part that receives a pressing operation; a vibration generating part that generates the vibration of the movable part in accordance with the pressing operation; a base part; and an elastic support part. The movable part includes: a load detecting part provided between a presentation-part side fixing part and a support-part side fixing part and detecting, as a load, strain due to the pressing operation; and a movement regulating part provided on a side of the presentation-part side fixing part rather than the load detecting part. The movement regulating part regulates movement of the movable part by engaging with an engaged part of the base part via a buffer member when the movable part moves in a direction separating from the base part.
    Type: Application
    Filed: January 26, 2022
    Publication date: August 4, 2022
    Applicant: Minebea Mitsumi Inc.
    Inventors: Yuki TAKAHASHI, Tomoya ISHITANI, Junichi HASHINO, Soichi SATO
  • Patent number: 11392205
    Abstract: Provided is a vibration actuator that gives vibration to a vibration presenting unit that presents vibration depending on a pressing operation, the vibration actuator comprising: a fixing part; a movable part fixed to the vibration presenting unit; an elastic support part connected to the fixing part and the movable part, and movably supports the movable part with respect to the fixing part; and a support-part side fixing part fixed to the elastic support part in the movable part; wherein a strain body that is strained in accordance with the pressing operation on the vibration presenting unit and a strain detection unit configured to detect strain of the strain body are provided between the support-part side fixing part and a presenting-unit side fixing part fixed to the vibration presenting unit, and the movable part is configured to vibrate by electromagnetic driving in accordance with the strain of the strain body.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 15, 2020
    Date of Patent: July 19, 2022
    Assignee: Minebea Mitsumi Inc.
    Inventors: Yuki Takahashi, Tomoya Ishitani, Takayuki Numakunai
  • Publication number: 20220111418
    Abstract: Provided is a control device capable of reducing cost and thickness by using an electromagnetic actuator, and capable of efficiently generating a thrust suitable for a haptic feeling feedback to an operator who touches and operates thereto. The control device controls the electromagnetic actuator that drives an operation device supported to be elastically vibrated in one direction of a vibrating direction thereof; includes a current pulse supply unit configured to supply a plurality of drive current pulses to a coil of the electromagnetic actuator as a drive current for driving the operation device in response to a touch operation of the operation device; and an interval between peaks for each of the drive current pulses is in a range of ½ times to 1 times a vibration period of an elastic vibration.
    Type: Application
    Filed: November 26, 2019
    Publication date: April 14, 2022
    Applicant: MINEBEA MITSUMI Inc.
    Inventors: Yuki TAKAHASHI, Tomoya ISHITANI, Takahiko IRIE, Yasutaka KITAMURA
  • Publication number: 20220103055
    Abstract: A vibration actuator includes a fixing body including a base part, and a magnetic suction force generation part provided at a core on which a coil is wound; a movable body including a connecting part, and a suction part suctioned by the magnetic suction force generation part through energization to the coil; and a plurality of elastic support parts. The suction part is disposed in a vicinity of a magnetic pole of the core of the magnetic suction force generation part with an air gap between the suction part and the magnetic pole in a vibration direction, and the suction part is disposed at a center portion in the vibration direction of the movable body supported by the plurality of elastic support parts.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 28, 2021
    Publication date: March 31, 2022
    Applicant: Minebea Mitsumi Inc.
    Inventors: Yuki TAKAHASHI, Kazutaka SAKAGUCHI, Tomoya ISHITANI
  • Publication number: 20220103054
    Abstract: A vibration actuator includes: a fixing body including a base part and a magnetic suction force generation part including a core on which a coil is wound; a movable body including a presentation part connecting part connectable to a vibration presentation part, and a suction part composed of a magnetic material; and a first elastic support part and a second elastic support part, the first elastic support part and the second elastic support part being configured to elastically support the movable body. A suction force of the magnetic suction force generation part is generated by energization to the coil, and a vibration along the base extending direction is applied to the vibration presentation part through the movable body.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 28, 2021
    Publication date: March 31, 2022
    Applicant: Minebea Mitsumi Inc.
    Inventors: Yuki TAKAHASHI, Kazutaka SAKAGUCHI, Tomoya ISHITANI
  • Patent number: 11133736
    Abstract: In the movable body one of a magnet and a core that has a magnetic pole surface disposed so as to face a magnetic pole surface of the magnet via an air gap and around which a coil is wound is provided on each of both sides across the shaft of the support shaft part in the movable body, and in the fixing body the other is provided facing the magnet or core disposed on both sides of the shaft of the support shaft part in the movable body. The movable body is elastically supported by magnetic attractive force generated between the magnetic pole surfaces at each of both sides across the shaft and vibrates back and forth in the direction of the shaft of the support shaft part with respect to the fixing body by the coil interacting with the magnet.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 19, 2017
    Date of Patent: September 28, 2021
    Assignee: MITSUMI ELECTRIC CO., LTD.
    Inventors: Yuki Takahashi, Chikara Sekiguchi, Tomoya Ishitani, Shigenori Inamoto
  • Publication number: 20210273543
    Abstract: This vibration actuator has a movable body having a coil, a fixed body having magnets, and a shaft part that rotatably supports the movable body, wherein the movable body reciprocally and rotationally vibrates around the shaft part with respect to the fixed body through the interaction of the coil and the magnets. The magnets are arranged in a direction perpendicular to the axial direction of the shaft part and each have two magnetic poles that face the movable body in the coil axial direction of the coil, the shaft part supports the movable body at a position shifted from the center position of the movable body in a direction perpendicular to the axial direction of the shaft part, and the coil axis of the coil of the movable body is located at a position facing a switching position of the magnetic pole of the magnet.
    Type: Application
    Filed: July 9, 2019
    Publication date: September 2, 2021
    Applicant: Minebea Mitsumi Inc.
    Inventors: Yuki TAKAHASHI, Masaharu KAGAMI, Tomoya ISHITANI, Takanori KATO, Yoshihiro GOMI
  • Patent number: 11069466
    Abstract: A vibration actuator includes: a fixing body having N-fold (N is a natural number) of 2 of core pole parts and a coil wound around each of the core pole parts; a movable body having a magnet part disposed being separated from each of the core pole parts in an axial direction of each of the core pole parts, for each of the core pole parts; and an elastic support part that movably supports the movable body, in which the magnet part has a magnetic pole disposed on each of the core pole part sides and facing each of the core pole parts, and in which the movable body vibrates in a direction orthogonal to both directions including a direction in which the N-fold of 2 of the core pole parts are aligned and the axial direction of the coil by the energization of the coil.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 27, 2019
    Date of Patent: July 20, 2021
    Assignee: MITSUMI ELECTRIC CO., LTD.
    Inventors: Yuki Takahashi, Tomoya Ishitani
  • Publication number: 20210149491
    Abstract: Provided is a vibration actuator that gives vibration to a vibration presenting unit that presents vibration depending on a pressing operation, the vibration actuator comprising: a fixing part; a movable part fixed to the vibration presenting unit; an elastic support part connected to the fixing part and the movable part, and movably supports the movable part with respect to the fixing part; and a support-part side fixing part fixed to the elastic support part in the movable part; wherein a strain body that is strained in accordance with the pressing operation on the vibration presenting unit and a strain detection unit configured to detect strain of the strain body are provided between the support-part side fixing part and a presenting-unit side fixing part fixed to the vibration presenting unit, and the movable part is configured to vibrate by electromagnetic driving in accordance with the strain of the strain body.
    Type: Application
    Filed: November 15, 2020
    Publication date: May 20, 2021
    Applicant: Minebea Mitsumi Inc.
    Inventors: Yuki TAKAHASHI, Tomoya ISHITANI, Takayuki NUMAKUNAI
  • Patent number: 10994304
    Abstract: A vibration apparatus, which is provided with vibration actuators with which a moving body elastically supported on a fixed body can be vibrated linearly with respect to the fixed body at a resonance frequency, has a mounting case in which multiple vibration actuators are mounted. The multiple vibration actuators oscillate at roughly the same resonance frequency, and in a manner such that the respective oscillation axis lines along the oscillation directions of the moving bodies are parallel to each other and that the center of gravity of the mounting case is interposed between the oscillation axis lines, the vibration actuators are disposed in orientations according to which the actuators excite oscillations in mutually opposite directions on the respective oscillation axis lines.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 25, 2018
    Date of Patent: May 4, 2021
    Assignee: MITSUMI ELECTRIC CO., LTD.
    Inventors: Yuki Takahashi, Chikara Sekiguchi, Tomoya Ishitani, Shigenori Inamoto
  • Publication number: 20210111654
    Abstract: Provided is a control device for controlling an electromagnetic actuator that vibrates an operation device by driving the operation device supported by an elastic support part so as to be elastically vibrated in one direction in a vibrating direction thereof, the control device comprising: a current pulse supply unit configured to supply a driving current pulse to a coil of the electromagnetic actuator as a driving current for driving the operation device in accordance with a touch operation of the operation device, wherein the current pulse supply unit supplies the drive current pulse capable of starting the elastic vibration as a main driving current pulse, and then supplies the drive current pulse capable of adjusting attenuation period of the elastic vibration as a sub-driving current pulse.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 8, 2020
    Publication date: April 15, 2021
    Applicant: Minebea Mitsumi Inc.
    Inventors: Tomoya ISHITANI, Yuki TAKAHASHI