Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba

Toshiba Medical Systems Corporation

Kazuhiko Higuchi

Shuzo Hirahara

Kiyoshi Yamada

Hitoshi Nagato

Tutomu Saito

Hidekazu Sekizawa

Tadayoshi Ohno

Naofumi Yamamoto

Tsutomu Kanai

Haruko Kawakami

Toshikazu Matsui

Isao Amemiya

Eiichi Sakaue

Akito Iwamoto

Yuzo Koike

Kenichi Mori

Noriko Yamamoto

Koichi Ishii

Chiaki Tanuma

Hideyuki Nakao

Yuko Nomura

Kazuhiro Itsumi

Yohachi Yamashita

Yasuharu Hosono

According to one embodiment, an ultrasonic probe includes a single crystal piezoelectric body with first and second planes facing each other and having a crystal orientation of [100], first and second electrodes on the respective first and second plane of the piezoelectric body, an acoustic matching layer on the first electrode, and a backing member under the second electrode, wherein the piezoelectric body is polarized along a first direction passing through the piezoelectric body and first and second electrodes, a fracture surface of the piezoelectric body that includes the first direction has a multilayer shape along one of the first and second electrodes, and a thickness of each layer of the multilayer shape is not less than 0.5 &#x3bc;m and not more than 5 &#x3bc;m.

Ultrasonic probe, piezoelectric transducer, method of manufacturing ultrasonic probe, and method of manufacturing piezoelectric transducer

An inkjet recording apparatus includes: an ink holding chamber having a through hole to jet ink, and holding the ink; and a head unit jetting the ink held in the ink holding chamber from the through hole. The head unit includes an ultrasonic wave generation member, an ultrasonic wave focusing member focusing the ultrasonic waves generated at the ultrasonic wave generation member in a vicinity of the through hole, an ultrasonic wave propagation portion propagateting the ultrasonic waves leaving the ultrasonic wave focusing member, and a container portion containing the ultrasonic wave generation member, the ultrasonic wave focusing member, and the ultrasonic wave propagation portion.

Inkjet recording apparatus

An ink jet recording device comprises an ultrasonic generating element array having a plurality of ultrasonic generating elements, a driving circuit for emitting ink droplets for each of element groups by setting a predetermined number of the ultrasonic generating elements out of the plurality of ultrasonic generating elements as one element group to drive individually each of the ultrasonic generating elements in the element group in accordance with the driving data corresponding to the image data, a driving data series buffer for storing a driving data series comprising at least one set of driving data for driving each of the ultrasonic generating elements in the element group, and a driving data generation circuit for reading repeatedly the driving data series which is stored in the driving data series buffer to generate the driving data corresponding to the image data.

Ink jet recording device

An image recording system superimposes, on an original image, an additional image which is same as at least any one of visible characters, symbols and numerals recorded on a recorded product and records the superimposed image on the recorded product as an image for certification. The additional image superimpose-recorded on the recorded product cannot visually be recognized and it is permitted to be visible when a universal optical filter is used.

Image recorded product, image recording system, image reproducing

An optical recording head comprises a cathode for emitting electrons, and an emission element array, provided apart from the cathode. The emission element array has a substrate, a plurality of anodes arranged at predetermined intervals on the substrate, a plurality of phosphor cells, arranged in contact to the anodes on the substrate, for emitting light based on the electrons from the cathode, and an insulation layer formed on the substrate, and a control electrode, laid out on the insulation layer while being electrically insulated from the anodes, in such a way as to surround the phosphor cells. The control electrode accelerates the electrons from the cathode.

Optical recording head and image recording apparatus

An image recording apparatus according to the present invention is characterized by comprising first signal conversion section for converting a pixel density value of an current pixel of an input image signal into a first recording control signal for defining a recording amount, second signal conversion section for referring to an adjacent-pixel recording control signal for defining a recording amount of at least one adjacent pixel connected to the current pixel to convert the first recording control signal into a second recording control signal, being closest to the first recording control signal, for defining a recording amount at which pixel formation for the current pixel is stabilized, recording section for recording an image based on the second recording control signal, and error diffusion section for diffusing an error between the pixel density value and a recording density value of the second recording control signal to a pixel density value of each of non-processed pixels located around the current pixel.

Error diffusion method in a multi-level image recording apparatus

An image forming apparatus includes an image carrier, a means for forming colorant holding regions on the image carrier, the colorant holding regions having better ink or developing agent holding properties than the image carrier, a means for supplying a colorant to the colorant holding regions, and a means for transferring the colorant, held in the colorant holding regions, onto a printing medium.

Image forming apparatus having colorant holding regions and a colorant

An apparatus for printing images on a booklet comprises, first and second paired pinch rollers for conveying pages of the opened booklet to a printing head, located between these paired pinch rollers, a rotatable platen opposed to the printing head and located between the paired pinch rollers, guide plate for guiding one page of the opened booklet to the platen, and a press member for fixing the free end of the one page to the platen. The second paired rollers hold the other page of the booklet but may slipe the page when the free end of the one page is fixed onto the platen thereby adding tension to the other page of the booklet as the platen is rotated. The layout of the recorded images are changed and then printed on the page.

Apparatus for printing images on booklets

A picture printing apparatus is disclosed which includes a picture type judgement means, and a best mode printing system is determined according to the judging result. A mixed mode picture including a binary picture element and a gradational picture element is printed to utilize selectively the binary method, multivalence concentration pattern method and the dither method.

Picture printing apparatus using multivalued patterns, binary patterns

A halftone image printing device for printing an image consisting of picture elements arrayed in a zig-zag fashioning. Each picture element is composed of dots forming a quasi-diamond-shaped matrix. The dot matrix is a 2 (row) x 3 (column) matrix with two additional dots located at the top and bottom, respectively. The range of optical density, within which the densities represented by the picture elements fall, is segmented into sub-ranges. Different heating-resistors are assigned to each sub-range of density. The dots printed by the heating-resistors assigned to any sub-range of density forms a 'dot pattern' of a specific shape. The first dot pattern has one dot printed on the upper-central part of the rectangular matrix. The second dot pattern has three dots forming an L-shaped pattern, the first dot printed on the upper-central part of the matrix, the second dot printed above the first dot, and the third dot printed to the right of the first dot. The third dot pattern consists of five dots forming a cross, the first dot printed on the upper-central part of the matrix, the second dot printed above the first dot, the third dot printed to the right of the first dot, the fourth dot printed below the first dot, and the fifth dot printed to the left of the first dot. And the fourth dot pattern consists of five dots forming a cross and an additional dot printed immediately below the cross. Of the dots of each dot pattern, the dot on which energy concentrates more than any other dot assumes the same location for all dot patterns.

Halftone image printing device

A color multi-function type copying machine is disclosed which includes an image input unit for optically sensing an input image and generating an image signal. A function memory stores an ink color used in a color frame to be written in the input image in order to designate its partial image region and a specific image edit function assigned to the ink color and desired to be executed by an operator so that the ink color and the specific image edit function can be rewritten. When a closed loop-like color frame of a selected color is written in the input image, a color frame region detecting unit detects a shape and a color of the color frame. In response to the detection result, the memory is accessed to determine an image edit function corresponding to a first selected ink color of the detected color frame. A color edit unit executes one or a plurality of image signal processing corresponding to the determined image edit function for the input image signal. The edited image signal is supplied to a color printing unit via a signal processing unit and is reproduced therein.

Image signal processing apparatus for use in color image reproduction

An improved thermal recording head having a large number of heating elements connected in parallel between a plurality of pairs of electrodes for recording halftone images is provided. Each of the heating elements has end portions divided into two leg sections, and the center portion is narrowed. This configuration allows the thermal recording head to reduce image-roughness to the naked eye. In addition, the variable range of recording density can be significantly expanded.

Thermal recording head

A color copying machine has a scanning-type proximity linear image sensor unit for optically scanning an input image and producing an image read signal, and a color printer unit for producing a copy image corresponding to the input image at limited levels of printing density. An image type discrimination circuit receives the image read signal, and at least partially discriminates the type of image based on a pattern matching technique, thereby producing a discrimination signal for specifying the image type in a pixel region of a predetermined size of the input image. An adaptive signal processing circuit also receives the image read signal, and performs different image signal correction processing in accordance with the discriminated image type, thus producing a corrected image signal, which is supplied to a multi-value dithering processor. The multi-value dithering processing circuit performs multi-value dither processing of the corrected image signal, and produces a printer drive signal for defining a printing pixel pattern for each pixel of the input image.

Color image processing apparatus with image corrector

A half-tone image reproduction apparatus, which comprises a Dither matrix memory, constituted by a plurality of elements, for storing a multi-level Dither matrix having multi threshold levels assigned to the individual elements, input data supplying means for supplying the element on the Dither matrix and an input density level, and print dot forming means for forming print dots in accordance with the energy control level selectively read out from the Dither matrix memory. The energy control level stored in the Dither matrix memory is set in accordance with rules for changing the energy control level in accordance with a change in input density level. These rules are independently suitably determined for the respective partial density ranges which constitute a whole density range for the input density. According to this invention, gradation jump and deformation at a high density region can be prevented so that a half-tone image with smooth gradation and high resolution can be attained.

Half-tone image reproduction method and apparatus using partial density

A halftone image printing device represents an image using a pixel matrix, prints each pixel as a dot pattern constituted by predetermined dots in a dot matrix, and controls the dot pattern and the printing density (multilevel density) of each dot included in the dot pattern in accordance with the density (multilevel) of the pixel. An overall printing density range is divided into four density ranges, i.e., from the lowest to the highest density ranges, and each pixel is defined by a 3.times.3 dot matrix. A dot pattern in the lowest density range has a dot at the center of the matrix, a dot pattern in the next lowest range has dots at the center of the matrix and at positions above and to the right of the center, a dot pattern in the next highest density range has dots at the center of the matrix and at positions above, below, and to the right and left of the center, and a dot pattern in the highest density range has dots at the center of the matrix and at positions above, below, to the right, left, and upper right of the center. In order to print each dot at each density level in each density range, the level of energy supplied to the heating element of the thermal head corresponding to each dot is precisely controlled.

Growing community of inventors

Kawasaki, Japan

Kazuhiko Higuchi