Minolta Company, Ltd.

Konica Minolta Photo Imaging, Inc.

Konica Minolta Opto, Inc.

Hideaki Nakanishi

Nobukazu Kawagoe

Yoshiaki Hata

Yuichi Kawakami

Tougo Teramoto

Naoki Kubo

Hiroaki Hasegawa

Jun Koreishi

Kazuhiko Kojima

Hideki Morinaga

Takashi Kondo

Koji Yamamoto

Ryuichi Yoshida

Keizou Ochi

Takayuki Hoshino

Kyoko Nakamura

Shigeru Oyokota

Takayuki Hamaguchi

Kazumi Sugitani

Shuichi Fujii

Hirohisa Sueyoshi

Natsuko Waki

In an electronically zoomable digital camera having a hand shake correction mechanism, when electronic zoom operates, pixel shift is carried out in such manner of capturing a reference image and then capturing a shifted image after moving an image capturing element from the reference image by a prescribed amount of shift by means of the hand shake correction mechanism and thereafter interpolating pixels of the shifted image between pixels of the reference image. The amount of shift is changed according to a magnification of the electronic zoom. The hand shake correction mechanism has a continuous mode in which the movement is effected by a continuous amount and a fixed amount mode in which movement is effected by only a fixed amount and is driven in the fixed amount mode when the pixel shift is carried out.

Digital camera performing pixel shift based on electronic zoom

The image capturing apparatus extracts and records an effective image Ap from a captured image Ao obtained by imaging of incident light from a subject on an image capturing element by an optical system composed of optical members. When an angle of view of an image that is to be recorded is large, the image capturing apparatus adjusts an angle of view of the effective image Ap by an optical zoom unit and records the effective image Ap while correcting camera shake by a mechanical camera-shake correction unit. Only when a magnification of the optical zoom unit for the captured image Ao is maximal, the image capturing apparatus further adjusts the angle of view of the effective image Ap by an electronic zoom unit and records the effective image Ap while correcting camera shake by an electronic camera-shake correction unit.

Image capturing apparatus

A drive unit in accordance with the present invention is provided with a magnetic field generating member generating a magnetic field, a magnetic field detecting device constituted by first, second and third magnetic field detecting elements detecting the magnetic field, and a piezoelectric actuator moving the magnetic field generating member. When executing a relative positioning between the magnetic field generating member and the magnetic field detecting device on the basis of a detection result by the magnetic field detecting device, a first positioning is executed on the basis of the detection result of the first and second magnetic field detecting elements in a predetermined region, and a second positioning is executed on the basis of the detection result of the third magnetic field detecting element at a predetermined point apart from the predetermined region, within a movable range in which the magnetic field generating member moves. In accordance with the structure, it is possible to position the movable body at a high precision, even in the case that a plurality of position detecting points of the movable body of the drive unit exist at a wide interval.

Drive unit provided with position detecting device

An actuator is disclosed which has a driving section driven by means of electro-mechanical displacing members such as a piezoelectric members. The electro-mechanical displacing members are connected to a driving piece at one ends thereof and the driving piece is driven by the composition of displacements of the electro-mechanical displacing members. The movement of the driving piece is transmitted to a driven section. The electro-mechanical displacing members are also connected to a base member at the other ends thereof. A restraining member restrains unnecessary movement of the actuator which is composed of the electro-mechanical displacing members, the driving piece and the base member, thereby insuring stable operation of the actuator.

Actuator

Ejection nozzles ( ) are located in a nozzle surface ( ) of an ejection head ( ). A distance (H: Ha-Hg) between each of the ejection nozzles ( ) and a printing object ( ) is obtained and compared with a permissible distance (H ) which is determined by the required level of print quality. The ejection nozzles ( ) whose distances (H) from the printing object ( ) are not more than the permissible distance (H ) are enabled for ink ejection, while the ejection nozzles ( ) whose distances (H) are greater than the permissible distance (H ) are disabled for ink ejection. The surface of a printing object ( ) is divided into a plurality of target areas ( ), each of which is then approximated by a projective plane ( ). Then, image data about a projected image ( ) which is obtained by orthogonal projection of a print image ( ) onto the projective planes ( ), is obtained from print image data about an image to be printed on the surface of the printing object ( ). According to the projected image data obtained, printing is performed on the target area ( ) while moving a ink-jet printhead ( ) in parallel with the projective planes ( ). This inhibits image degradation during printing on a three-dimensional printing object and also facilitates control of the inclination and position of the ejection head relative to the printing object, thereby permitting high-speed printing.

Three-dimensional object printing apparatus and method

A plurality of linear actuators ( ) connected in sequence orthogonally to one another constitute rectilinear movement means having a plurality of degrees of freedom in rectilinear movement. Further, a rotary actuator ( ) has one end connected to the linear actuator ( ) on the last stage and the other end connected to a base side of an end effector ( ) and works as attitude change means for changing an attitude of the end effector ( ). When the rotary actuator ( ) changes the attitude of the end effector ( ), the linear actuators ( ) are driven to offset a positional movement of an object occurring with the attitude change. This makes it possible to offset the positional movement of the object occurring with the rotary operation with a relatively simple constitution, and further the actuators can be constituted of the minimum elements, thereby providing a downsized micromanipulator.

Manipulator

A three-dimensional object printing apparatus according to the present invention comprises: a shape recognition section for obtaining three-dimensional shape data about a surface shape of a three-dimensional object by measurement or the like; an ejection section for ejecting ink toward the three-dimensional object; a scanning section for causing the ejection section to scan relative to the three-dimensional object; and a control section for controlling an operation of the ejection section and/or the scanning section in accordance with information about inclination of the surface of the three-dimensional object, the information being indicated in the data obtained by the shape recognition section. The printing apparatus performs printing in accordance with the information obtained by measurement on the surface inclination of the object to achieve a high-quality printing process. More specifically, a mode of operation is determined for each of a main scanning direction and a sub-scanning direction in accordance with an inclination angle of an inclined surface with respect to each of the main scanning direction and the sub-scanning direction. The printing operation is performed based on the mode of operation.

Apparatus for and method of printing on three-dimensional object

A camera shoots an image of a two-dimensional object by a line sensor for main scanning and a rotation scanning mechanism for secondary scanning. The image pickup angle range in the secondary scanning direction is altered according to modification of the focal length of the objective lens by a zooming mechanism. The angular velocity of secondary scanning is altered according to the angular position of subscanning and the focal length so that the image pickup range on the object plane of one line is substantially equal over the entire area of the image pickup angle range. Thus, a line sensor camera is provided that can photograph an image with no distortion in the secondary scanning direction.

Line sensor camera without distortion in photo image

The system includes a mobile work robot and a separate station. The mobile robot is equipped to perform prescribed tasks, such as cleaning building floors. The station is equipped to remotely control the movement of the mobile work robot and to perform maintenance on the mobile work robot, such as the replacement of parts as well as replenishment of consumable goods necessary for the mobile work robot to move and work. In addition, the cleaning means equipped on the station performs the cleaning and disinfection of the mobile work robot.

Mobile work robot system

The robot according to the present invention sequentially performs a collecting operation in which dust and particles on the floor are collected, and a cleaning or waxing operation. The cleaning robot includes a moving unit including driving wheels or crawlers, a collecting unit for suctioning dust from the floor, and a wiping unit for wiping the floor with a detergent, disinfectant, wax, etc. The collecting unit is positioned on the front of the cleaning robot with respect to the moving direction while the wiping unit is positioned on the back of the cleaning robot. Thus, the robot prevents secondary contamination of the floor and slippage or failure of the moving means caused by soiling of the moving means. The cleaning unit and the wiping unit include sensors which sense an obstacle and determine whether the obstacle is one which can be moved over, such as a cord, or whether the obstacle is one which must be avoided, such as a wall.

Cleaning robot

A running member is attached rotatably to a body member, and a working member is attached movably to the body member. Therefore, in a large area, a work can be carried out efficiently even in a corner portion, and a desired work can be implemented even in a narrowed portion by shifting the working member to a working area and directly operating the working member in the narrowed portion.

Running robot carrying out prescribed work using working member and

A cleaner comprises a driving unit which moves the cleaner, a cleaner unit which cleans an object to be cleaned, a sensor by which a degree of dirt on the object is detected, and a driving controller which controls the driving unit on the basis of the detected degree of dirt. The cleaner unit further comprises a controller which compares the degrees of dirt detected by the sensor before and after a cleaning operation.

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Osaka, Japan

Hideaki Nakanishi