The 7th Engineering Co., Ltd., Patent Holder of IVI-360
Company and patent
The 7th Engineering Co., Ltd. owns Japanese Patent No. 7750589 for the visual inspection apparatus known as IVI-360. The company’s role is to hold and license the patent.
One reference machine has been built. It operates with fixed motion programs and a task-specific image classifier. It does not autonomously generate inspection procedures with a VLA or foundation model.
Research and evaluation in Japan
The 7th Engineering Co., Ltd. is preparing a no-charge patent-license program for research and evaluation conducted in Japan, with prior registration. The scope, conditions and registration procedure will be set out in formal guidance. This page is not a license grant. Please contact us about licensing.
We hope that this patent may be of some use in research or manufacturing, and that any knowledge arising from its use may benefit society more broadly.
Company and intellectual property information
Company: The 7th Engineering Co., Ltd.
Japanese name: 株式会社第七機械設計
Representative Director: Shinya Kataoka
Location: Okayama Prefecture, Japan
Founded: April 2025
Role: Patent ownership and licensing of IVI-360
Japanese patent: Japanese Patent No. 7750589 (title of invention: Appearance Inspection Apparatus)
Trademark: IVI-360, Japanese Trademark Registration No. 6941983
Inventor: Shinya Kataoka
From the inventor
Through my work in manufacturing and quality management, I have seen visual inspection tasks in which people change the orientation of a product or the way light reaches it. I wondered whether a camera could change its viewpoint while a heavy product rotates only horizontally. That idea led to the IVI-360 mechanism.
What I could do as the inventor was devise the mechanism, obtain the patent and have it built as a reference machine.
Most of my career has involved manufacturing operations outside Japan, and I have had relatively few opportunities to contribute directly to industry in Japan. I hope this patent may be of some use to researchers and manufacturers in Japan.
The 7th Engineering Co., Ltd.
Shinya Kataoka, Representative Director and Inventor
Contact
For research and evaluation conducted in Japan, please contact us at: