Patents by Inventor Yamato Kanda

Yamato Kanda 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: 9053533
    Abstract: An image processing apparatus includes a low-luminance area detecting unit that detects a low-luminance area based on pixel values of pixels of the intraluminal image; a peripheral feature data calculating unit that calculates peripheral feature data based on pixel values of periphery of the low-luminance area; and a dark portion area determining unit that determines whether or not the low-luminance area is the dark portion area based on the peripheral feature data.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 6, 2011
    Date of Patent: June 9, 2015
    Assignee: OLYMPUS CORPORATION
    Inventors: Masashi Hirota, Yamato Kanda, Makoto Kitamura, Takehiro Matsuda, Takashi Kono
  • Patent number: 9031882
    Abstract: A determination device includes a region information recording unit that records therein region information regarding a closed region corresponding to a data distribution shape of a same category within a feature space, the closed region being formed by a plurality of nodes and line segments connecting the plurality of nodes. The determination device also includes a category deciding unit that decides a category of a determination target based on the region information and a position of the determination target within the feature space.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 9, 2010
    Date of Patent: May 12, 2015
    Assignee: Olympus Corporation
    Inventor: Yamato Kanda
  • Publication number: 20150112135
    Abstract: An image processing apparatus performs positioning between a plurality of spectral band images obtained by capturing images inside a lumen using a plurality of rays of light having wavelength bands different from one another. The image processing apparatus includes: a spectral band image acquisition unit configured to acquire the spectral band images; a spatial frequency component extraction unit configured to extract feature data for each spatial frequency band from each pixel in at least one spectral band image of the spectral band images; a weight calculation unit configured to calculate weights for each spatial frequency band given to the at least one spectral band image, based on the feature data for each spatial frequency band extracted from each pixel in the at least one spectral band image; and a positioning unit configured to perform positioning between the spectral band images based on the weights for each spatial frequency band.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 22, 2014
    Publication date: April 23, 2015
    Applicant: OLYMPUS CORPORATION
    Inventors: Masashi Hirota, Yamato Kanda
  • Publication number: 20150092993
    Abstract: An image processing apparatus includes: an imaging distance estimating unit configured to estimate an imaging distance to a subject shown in an image; an examination region setting unit configured to set an examination region in the image such that an index indicating a spread of a distribution of imaging distances to the subject shown in the examination region is within a given range; and an abnormal structure identifying unit configured to identify whether or not a microstructure of the subject shown in the examination region is abnormal, by using texture feature data that enables identification of an abnormality in the microstructure of the subject shown in the examination region, the texture feature data being specified according the examination region.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 9, 2014
    Publication date: April 2, 2015
    Applicant: OLYMPUS CORPORATION
    Inventors: Yamato KANDA, Makoto KITAMURA, Takashi KONO, Masashi HIROTA, Toshiya KAMIYAMA
  • Patent number: 8989467
    Abstract: An image processing apparatus includes a reference surface generating unit that generates a reference surface indicating a reference value of each of a plurality of color elements of pixels constituting an intraluminal image at a pixel position of the each color element by performing a morphology process using pixel values of the color elements; and an abnormal area detecting unit that detects an abnormal area from the intraluminal image based on a difference for each of the color elements between the pixel value of each pixel and the reference surface.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 6, 2011
    Date of Patent: March 24, 2015
    Assignee: Olympus Corporation
    Inventors: Masashi Hirota, Yamato Kanda, Makoto Kitamura, Takehiro Matsuda, Takashi Kono
  • Publication number: 20150063641
    Abstract: An image processing apparatus includes: an abnormality candidate region identifying unit configured to identify a candidate region for an abnormality from an image obtained by imaging inside of a lumen of a living body; a surrounding region determining unit configured to determine a surrounding region surrounding the candidate region; a shape information calculating unit configured to calculate shape information of the candidate region and shape information of the surrounding region in a depth direction with respect to a screen; and an abnormality region determining unit configured to determine whether or not the candidate region is an abnormality, based on a correlation between the shape information of the candidate region and the shape information of the surrounding region.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 21, 2014
    Publication date: March 5, 2015
    Applicant: OLYMPUS CORPORATION
    Inventors: Makoto KITAMURA, Yamato KANDA, Takashi KONO, Masashi HIROTA
  • Patent number: 8948479
    Abstract: An image processing device includes: a feature data calculator configured to calculate the feature data of each pixel in an image; an approximate shape calculator configured to calculate an approximate shape approximating a profile of a distribution area in which the feature data is distributed in a feature space having the feature data as an element; and an abnormal area detector configured to detect an abnormal area in the image based on the approximate shape and the profile of the distribution area.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 30, 2012
    Date of Patent: February 3, 2015
    Assignee: Olympus Corporation
    Inventors: Yamato Kanda, Makoto Kitamura, Takehiro Matsuda, Takashi Kono, Masashi Hirota
  • Patent number: 8938122
    Abstract: An image processing apparatus includes a small area divider that divides, on the basis of edge information of an image, the image into multiple small areas each including multiple pixels; an attribute probability estimator that estimates attribute probability for each of the small areas, which is probability that the small area is attributed to a specific area to be detected; an adjacent-small-area connection strength calculator that calculates connection strength that quantitatively indicates a degree to which small areas adjacent to each other among the multiple small areas are attributed to the same area that is the specific area or a non-specific area; and a specific area detector that detects the specific area on the basis of the attribute probability and the connection strength.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 4, 2012
    Date of Patent: January 20, 2015
    Assignee: Olympus Corporation
    Inventors: Yamato Kanda, Makoto Kitamura, Masashi Hirota, Takashi Kono, Takehiro Matsuda
  • Patent number: 8917920
    Abstract: An image processing apparatus for performing an image processing on a body cavity image captured in a living body includes: a storage unit which stores information including image information of the body cavity image; a change amount calculator which reads out the image information of the body cavity image from the storage unit and calculates, in the read body cavity image, a pixel value change amount of a pixel of interest with a plurality of surrounding pixels located around the pixel of interest; and a candidate lesion region detector which detects a candidate lesion region in the body cavity image based on a calculation result of the change amount calculator.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 23, 2013
    Date of Patent: December 23, 2014
    Assignee: Olympus Corporation
    Inventors: Takehiro Matsuda, Yamato Kanda
  • Patent number: 8913806
    Abstract: An image identifying device includes a mechanism that sets an evaluation area whose category is to be identified in an in-vivo image; a mechanism that acquires texture components from the evaluation area in the in-vivo image; a mechanism that calculates an evaluation value indicating homogeneity of the texture components; and a mechanism that identifies the category of the evaluation area on the basis of the evaluation value.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 23, 2011
    Date of Patent: December 16, 2014
    Assignee: Olympus Corporation
    Inventors: Takashi Kono, Yamato Kanda, Makoto Kitamura, Masashi Hirota
  • Patent number: 8897520
    Abstract: An image processing apparatus includes an approximate value calculating unit that calculates an approximate value that becomes consecutive inside an examination area for a pixel value of each pixel of the examination area based on the pixel value inside an image, a validity evaluating unit that evaluates whether the approximate value is valid on the pixel value, an area dividing unit that divides the examination area with the approximate value that is evaluated as being invalid, an examination area re-setting unit that sets each divided area obtained by the area dividing unit as a new examination area and controls a repetition of processing, and an abnormal portion detecting unit that detects an abnormal portion based on the pixel value inside the image and the approximate value that has been evaluated as being valid by the validity evaluating unit.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 16, 2011
    Date of Patent: November 25, 2014
    Assignee: Olympus Corporation
    Inventors: Yamato Kanda, Makoto Kitamura, Takehiro Matsuda, Takashi Kono, Masashi Hirota
  • Publication number: 20140270377
    Abstract: An image processing apparatus includes an abnormal portion candidate region detection unit configured to detect a candidate region of an abnormal portion based on color information of each pixel constituting an image obtained by capturing an image of an inside of a lumen of a subject, a border neighboring pixel identifying unit configured to identify a border neighboring pixel which is a pixel existing in proximity to a border of the candidate region, a feature data calculation unit configured to calculate feature data based on a pixel value of the border neighboring pixel, and an abnormal portion region distinguishing unit configured to distinguish an abnormal portion region based on the feature data.
    Type: Application
    Filed: May 28, 2014
    Publication date: September 18, 2014
    Applicant: OLYMPUS CORPORATION
    Inventors: Yamato KANDA, Makoto KITAMURA, Takashi KONO, Masashi HIROTA
  • Publication number: 20140270499
    Abstract: An image processing apparatus includes: a color feature data calculation unit configured to calculate color feature data of each pixel in an intraluminal image or color feature data of each small region obtained by dividing the intraluminal image into a plurality of small regions; a residue candidate distribution determination unit configured to determine, from among the color feature data, color feature data distributed on a side comparatively strong in redness to be a mucosa distribution and determine color feature data distributed on a side comparatively weak in redness to be a residue candidate distribution; and a residue distribution determination unit configured to determine, from among distributions of the color feature data determined to be the residue candidate distribution, a residue candidate distribution distributed on a side strong in yellowness with reference to the mucosa distribution to be a residue distribution.
    Type: Application
    Filed: May 28, 2014
    Publication date: September 18, 2014
    Applicant: OLYMPUS CORPORATION
    Inventors: Takashi KONO, Yamato KANDA, Makoto KITAMURA, Masashi HIROTA
  • Patent number: 8837821
    Abstract: An image processing apparatus includes: a first judging unit that determines an unnecessary candidate region, on a basis of first feature data based on color information of an intraluminal image; and a second judging unit that judges whether the unnecessary candidate region is an unnecessary region, based on second feature data, which is different from the first feature data, of the unnecessary candidate region.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 4, 2011
    Date of Patent: September 16, 2014
    Assignee: Olympus Corporation
    Inventors: Masashi Hirota, Yamato Kanda, Makoto Kitamura, Takehiro Matsuda, Takashi Kono
  • Publication number: 20140257114
    Abstract: An image processing apparatus includes an abnormal candidate region detection unit configured to detect an abnormal candidate region, as a candidate for an abnormal portion, from an intraluminal image obtained by capturing an image of an inside of a lumen of a subject, a tubular region detection unit configured to detect a tubular region from the intraluminal image, a connectivity determination unit configured to determine whether the abnormal candidate region and the tubular region are connected in a region of a color similar to that of the tubular region, and an abnormality determination unit configured to determine whether the abnormal candidate region is the abnormal portion, based on results of determination by the connectivity determination unit.
    Type: Application
    Filed: May 20, 2014
    Publication date: September 11, 2014
    Applicant: OLYMPUS CORPORATION
    Inventors: Masashi HIROTA, Yamato KANDA, Makoto KITAMURA, Takashi KONO
  • Patent number: 8811698
    Abstract: An image processing apparatus includes: a gradient information calculating unit that calculates gradient information of each of pixels, based on pixel values of an intraluminal image; a closed region creating unit that, based on the gradient information, creates a closed region satisfying a condition where the closed region does not include, on the inside thereof, any pixel of which the gradient strength is equal to or higher than a predetermined value, and also, the boundary of the closed region does not curve toward the interior of the closed region, with a curvature equal to or larger than a predetermined value; and an abnormal part detecting unit that detects an abnormal part from the inside of the closed region.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 27, 2011
    Date of Patent: August 19, 2014
    Assignee: Olympus Corporation
    Inventors: Takashi Kono, Yamato Kanda, Makoto Kitamura, Takehiro Matsuda, Masashi Hirota
  • Patent number: 8811676
    Abstract: An image processing apparatus includes a distance information calculator that calculates distance information corresponding to a distance to an imaging object at each of portions in an image; a feature data calculator that calculates feature data at each portion in the image; a feature data distribution calculator that calculates a distribution of the feature data in each of regions that are classified according to the distance information in the image; a reliability determining unit that determines the reliability of the distribution of the feature data in each of the regions; and a discrimination criterion generator that generates, for each of the regions, a discrimination criterion for discriminating a specific region in the image based on a determination result of the reliability and the distribution of the feature data in each of the regions.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 26, 2012
    Date of Patent: August 19, 2014
    Assignee: Olympus Corporation
    Inventors: Makoto Kitamura, Yamato Kanda, Takehiro Matsuda, Takashi Kono, Masashi Hirota
  • Patent number: 8805086
    Abstract: An image processing apparatus to detect a bubble region included in image includes: a bubble candidate region setting unit which sets, from the image, a region as a bubble candidate region, the region having shape corresponding to a bubble region shape model stored in a storage unit; and a bubble region determination unit which determines, on the basis of information belonging to the bubble candidate region, whether the bubble candidate region is a bubble region.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 9, 2011
    Date of Patent: August 12, 2014
    Assignee: Olympus Corporation
    Inventors: Makoto Kitamura, Yamato Kanda, Takashi Kono, Masashi Hirota
  • Patent number: 8798344
    Abstract: An image processing apparatus includes: a candidate point extraction unit which extracts, from an image, candidate points which are candidates for points constituting a circular region that represents a bubble; and a circular-region detecting unit which detects a circular region in the image on the basis of information belonging to the candidate points.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 13, 2011
    Date of Patent: August 5, 2014
    Assignee: Olympus Corporation
    Inventors: Makoto Kitamura, Yamato Kanda, Takashi Kono, Masashi Hirota
  • Patent number: 8781233
    Abstract: An image processing apparatus includes: an area extracting unit that extracts a candidate area of a classification target area in which a pixel value does not correspond to a three-dimensional shape of an imaging target based on pixel values of an intraluminal image acquired by imaging the inside of a lumen or information of a change in pixel values of peripheral pixels; and an area classifying unit that classifies the classification target area out of the candidate area based on the pixel values of the inside of the candidate area, a boundary portion of the candidate area, or a periphery portion of the candidate area.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 5, 2011
    Date of Patent: July 15, 2014
    Assignee: Olympus Corporation
    Inventors: Yamato Kanda, Makoto Kitamura, Takehiro Matsuda, Takashi Kono, Masashi Hirota