Fuji Photo Film Company, Limited

Fujifilm Corporation

Fuji Photo Film Col., Ltd.

Hideyuki Kokubo

Tomoko Taki

Hitoshi Saito

Masamichi Sato

Takao Miyazaki

Satoshi Ueda

Tomoyoshi Nishimura

When a choice is made between several items offered in a first window on a display screen, a second window is displayed in front of the first window. An image of an watcher who is watching the display screen is captured to detect watcher's eye position relative to the display screen. When the watcher's eye position moves, the second window is displaced to uncover the first window in such a way that the second window moves upward in response to a downward movement of the eye position, downward in response to an upward movement of the eye position, rightward in response to a leftward movement of the eye position or leftward in response to a rightward movement of the eye position.

Window display system and window display method

A flat-type fluorescent lamp is used as a light source of a color thermal printer. The flat-type fluorescent lamp has a yellow luminescent surface for emitting yellow fixing rays, and a magenta luminescent surface for emitting magenta fixing rays. The respective luminescent surfaces are disposed back to back and are selectively activated by a lamp driving circuit. The flat-type fluorescent lamp is rotatable between a first position where the yellow luminescent surface confronts a recording surface of a color thermosensitive recording paper, and a second position where the magenta luminescent surface confront the recording surface of the recording paper.

Color thermal printer having a light source

A color thermal printer includes a photo fixer, which is constituted by a Braun tube. An electron beam gun emits electron. A fluorescent screen is excited by the electron, for generating near ultraviolet rays or ultraviolet rays. An image on thermosensitive recording material is fixed by application of the near ultraviolet rays or ultraviolet rays.

Photo fixer and thermal printer having the same

A fluorescent lamp comprises a cathode panel, an anode panel and a light-output panel. A filament and grid electrodes are attached to the cathode panel. The anode panel is provided with a reflection layer and a fluorescent layer. The light-output panel is made of a transparent glass plate and is disposed on a plane different from the cathode panel and the anode panel. An electron beam emitted from the filament collides with the fluorescent layer. Upon this, the fluorescent layer is excited to emit light. The emitted light is reflected by the reflection layer to radiate from the light-output panel toward the outside of the fluorescent lamp. At this time, the light does not pass through the grid electrodes and the filament so that optical unevenness is prevented from occurring.

Flat-surface fluorescent lamp

A color thermal printer includes feeder rollers for feeding thermosensitive recording material through a feeding path. A thermal head operates for thermal recording of an image in a recording region of the recording material being fed. An unused region is defined outside the recording region. A photo fixer fixes the image on the recording material by application of ultraviolet or violet rays thereto. A liquid crystal shutter unit is disposed between the photo fixer and the recording material, and includes plural shutter segments. The plural shutter segments are arranged in a form of plural parallel lines, and changeable independently between an opaque state and a transparent state, and when in the opaque state, block the ultraviolet or violet rays, and when in the transparent state, cause the rays to pass. A controller controls the liquid crystal shutter unit in synchronism with the feeder rollers, sets at least one of the shutter segments in the transparent state if the at least one is opposed to the recording region in feeding of the recording material, and sets at least one of the shutter segments in the opaque state if the at least one is opposed to the unused region in feeding of the recording material.

Thermal printer having shutter unit

There is disclosed a heat sensitive type printer wherein glass plates ( ) are secured at one ends to thermal heads ( ), and extend substantially in parallel to a paper transport path of a heat sensitive color recording paper ( ). Surface luminous devices ( ) for fixing coloring layers of the recording paper optically are disposed adjacent to heat sinks of the thermal heads with their light emission surfaces facing the paper transport path through the glass plates. Cooling fans send air into between the heat sinks and the surface luminous devices, to cool the heat sinks. Thereafter, the air guide guides the air to flow along a gap between the light emission surface and the glass plate, thereby to cool the light emission surface.

Heat sensitive type printer

An optical fixing unit for yellow fixes a yellow thermosensitive coloring layer of a color thermosensitive recording paper. This fixation is carried out by simultaneously driving two ultraviolet lamps for yellow. The respective ultraviolet lamps are repeatedly energized since switching transistors corresponding thereto are repeatedly turned on and off based on switching signals. The switching signals respectively inputted to the switching transistors have phases shifted by 180&deg; with each other so that emission phases of the ultraviolet lamps are shifted. As a result, a peak value of a total current flowing in the ultraviolet lamps is reduced, and a change thereof is kept in a narrow range.

Device for controlling light sources

A thermal head has plural heating elements arranged in line in a main scan direction. The heating elements are supplied with a train of drive pulses while the thermosensitive recording sheet is conveyed in a sub scan direction crosswise to the main scan direction, for thermal recording to the recording material by one line. The heating elements are grouped into first and second groups. The drive pulse train for the first group of the heating elements is determined by starting the drive pulse train at a start of the one line. The drive pulse train for the second group of the heating elements is determined by ending the drive pulse train at an end of the one line.

Thermal printing method and apparatus having groups of separately drive heating elements in the thermal head

A color thermal printing method capable of preventing a color registration shift and shading. A color thermosensitive recording sheet has cyan, magenta, and yellow thermosensitive coloring layers, respectively formed on a base in this order. A thermal sensitivity becomes lower the nearer the thermosensitive coloring layer is to the base. The thermosensitive coloring layer having a lower sensitivity is printed at an earlier timing to make the centers of three color print areas coincident with each other. According to a preferred embodiment, a preliminary pressed running section is provided in front of each print area. In the preliminary pressed running section, a thermal head is preheated and pressed against a color thermosensitive recording sheet. In order to reduce a change in the friction coefficient between the preliminary pressed running section and the print area, the heat energy for the preheating is set to a bias heat energy having a level just under a coloring energy. This bias heat energy having a level just under a coloring energy changes with color so that the preliminary pressed running section is set differently for each color. During the preliminary pressed running operation, a pulse motor for driving a platen drum is driven by the same predetermined number of drive pulses for all three colors.

Color thermal printing method

A color thermal printing method capable of preventing a color registration shift and shading is unable with a color thermosensitive recording sheet having cyan, magenta, and yellow thermosensitive coloring layers, respectively formed on a base in this order. A thermal sensitivity becomes lower the nearer the thermosensitive coloring layer is to the base. The thermosensitive coloring layer having a lower sensitivity is printed at an earlier timing to make the centers of three color print areas coincident with each other. According to a preferred embodiment, a preliminary pressed running section is provided in front of each print area. In the preliminary pressed running section, a thermal head is preheated and pressed against a color thermosensitive recording sheet. In order to reduce a change in the friction coefficient between the preliminary pressed running section and the print area, the heat energy for the preheating is set to a bias heat energy having a level just under a coloring energy. This bias heat energy having a level just under a coloring energy changes with color so that the preliminary pressed running section is set differently for each color. During the preliminary pressed running operation, a pulse motor for driving a platen drum is driven by the same predetermined number of drive pulses for all three colors.

Thermosensitive color recording paper includes a support and three thermosensitive coloring layers formed thereon for yellow, magenta and cyan colors. The uppermost yellow coloring layer has the highest heat sensitivity. The undermost cyan coloring layer has the lowest heat sensitivity. When the yellow or magenta coloring layer is colored at high density, the next-underlying coloring layer is inevitably colored at a small amount. A thermal head has heating elements which are respectively driven by a pulse train constituted of a bias pulse and gradation pulses. The bias pulse raises the temperature up to coloring temperature to record one pixel in each coloring layer. The number of the gradation pulses represents the density of recording on the pixel. The bias pulse is divided into two. The gradation pulses are grouped into two groups. To record the one pixel, the pulse train is generated so as to supply the thermal head with the first subsidiary bias pulse, the first gradation pulse group, the second subsidiary bias pulse, and then the second gradation pulse group, while the recording paper is moved. Although each gradation pulse group is related to a density lower than a desired final density of the pixel, the pixel is recorded to have appearance of such a final density, so as to obtain a well reproduced full-color image on the recording paper.

Color thermal printing method and apparatus

A direct color thermal printer and method for direct color thermal recording of a full-color image on a thermosensitive color recording material is provided having yellow, magenta and cyan recording layers formed in this order from the outside, by sequentially recording yellow, magenta and cyan frames of the full-color image in this order in yellow, magenta and cyan recording layers. The recording speed of the yellow frame is set higher than the recording speed of the magenta and cyan frames by predetermining a recording cycle of one pixel or a recording time per pixel which is shorter for the yellow recording layer than the recording cycles for the magenta and cyan recording layers.

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Saitama, Japan

Hideyuki Kokubo