Brother Kogyo Kabushiki-Kaisha

Masaaki Wakizaka

Koji Akagi

Keita Inoue

Shinta Sugiura

Toshinori Araki

Osamu Takahashi

Toshinari Watanabe

Seiya Sato

Tatsuro Yokoi

Shoji Sato

Kentaro Aoyama

Akikazu Murata

Shunsuke Hachiya

Takahiro Ikeno

Noriko Misumi

Masahiko Kimura

Hiroki Asai

Shunsuke Aiba

Ayako Sakai

A drum unit detachably attachable to an image forming apparatus includes: a frame; a photosensitive drum; a toner cartridge including a toner casing and a toner memory; a connector electrically connected to the image forming apparatus; and a relay board electrically relaying the toner memory and the connector. The toner memory performs communication according to a standard that sets a value of data on a basis of a voltage for data communication at a timing when a prescribed period of time has elapsed since the voltage has made a prescribed change. The toner memory consists of three terminals as electrical contacts. The three terminals are a power supply terminal for supplying a supply voltage to the toner memory, a ground terminal, and a data terminal for communication of data to be written into the toner memory and data to be read from the toner memory.

Drum unit attachable to image forming apparatus and including toner cartridge having toner memory including three terminals

An image forming apparatus includes a main body, a drum cartridge removably attached to the main body, and a belt unit removably attached to the main body. The main body includes a drum power supply, a belt power supply, and a controller configured to start supplying power from the drum power supply to a drum memory of the drum cartridge, start supplying power from the belt power supply to a belt memory of the belt unit, stop supplying the power from the drum power supply to the drum memory after starting supplying the power from the drum power supply to the drum memory, and stop supplying the power from the belt power supply to the belt memory after starting supplying the power from the belt power supply to the belt memory.

Image forming apparatus, method, and computer-readable medium for preventing failures and errors in drum memory and belt memory due to hot-swapping

An image forming apparatus includes a housing, a drawer, an operation panel, and a sensor. The housing includes a first side wall having a first opening, and a second side wall having a vent and extending in a direction crossing the first side wall. The drawer supports a cartridge. The drawer is movable through the first opening between an inner position at which the drawer is accommodated in the housing and an outer position at which a part of the drawer is exposed to outside the housing. At least part of the operation panel protrudes from an outer surface of the second side wall. The sensor is arranged in the housing between the drawer and the second side wall. The sensor is configured to detect at least temperature or humidity of ambient air taken in through the vent.

Image forming apparatus

A high-voltage electrical circuit board is located in a first region that is a region at one side of photosensitive drums in a first direction and outside of the photosensitive drums in the first direction. A first motor drives a conveyance mechanism. A second motor is located in a second region and drives each photosensitive drum. A third motor is located in the second region and drives each developing roller to rotate and to drive a separation mechanism configured to individually move the developing rollers between a contact position and a separation position. A control board is located in the second region. The control board includes a controller configured to control a first applying circuit, the first motor, the second motor, and the third motor. The first motor, the second motor, the third motor, and the control board are located at different positions from one another in the second region.

Image forming apparatus in which high-voltage electrical circuit board is located in first region and motors and control board are located in second region

An image forming apparatus includes a controller, a main body frame, a cartridge and a display. The cartridge includes a memory, a cartridge data terminal and a cartridge detection terminal. The controller includes a main body data terminal and a main body detection terminal. The main body data terminal is electrically connected to the cartridge data terminal. The main body detection terminal is electrically connected to the cartridge detection terminal in the case where the cartridge is attached to the main body frame. The controller is configured to perform determining whether the main body detection terminal and the cartridge detection terminal are electrically connected with each other. The controller is configured to perform displaying a determination result of the determining whether the main body detection terminal and the cartridge detection terminal are electrically connected with each other on the display.

Image forming apparatus to which cartridge is attachable and including controller capable of determining whether cartridge is attached to image forming apparatus

A communication device, including: a touch sensor configured to detect a touch or an approach of an input object by detecting a change in capacitance; and a near field communicator configured to perform near field communication with an information processing terminal present in a communication area in which near field communication is possible, the information processing terminal being capable of performing the near field communication, wherein a distance within which the touch or the approach of the input object is detectable by the touch sensor is shorter than a distance within which the near field communication by the near field communicator with the information processing terminal is possible.

Communication device and non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing program for controlling the communication device

An input apparatus including: a display device on which at least one operational image is displayed; a selected image determining section which determines, as a selected image, an operational image displayed at a position designated by an input operation; and a display updating section which updates a display from a first operational screen to a second operational screen where a display update condition has been satisfied, and which includes: a position specifying section which, where the input operation has been performed or expected to be performed within a period after the satisfaction of the display update condition and before the update, specify one of positions designated by the input operation and expected to be designated by the input operation; and an image arranging section which arranges the at least one operational image on the second operational screen after the update so as to avoid the specified position.

Input apparatus and storage medium storing input control program

An electric device, including a chassis and an operation panel, is provided. The operation panel is disposed on a face of the chassis and has one end and the other end opposite from the one end. The operation panel includes a first capacitive touch switch configured to be responsive to a touch and a second capacitive touch switch configured to be responsive to a touch. The first capacitive touch switch has a first sensitivity for responding to the touch, and the second capacitive touch switch has a second sensitivity for responding to the touch. The second capacitive touch switch is arranged in a position closer to the one end of the operation panel than the first capacitive touch switch, and the second sensitivity of the second capacitive touch switch is lower than the first sensitivity of the first capacitive touch switch.

Electric device

An input apparatus including: a display device which displays an operational image; an image-designation detecting device which detects designation of the operational image; a processing executing section configured to, where the image-designation detecting device has detected that the operational image has been designated, execute a processing assigned to the designated operational image; a display updating section which updates display on the display device from a state in which the operational image has been displayed; and a disabling section configured to, where the image-designation detecting device has detected a designation of an operational image which has been displayed on the display device after the update of the display by the display updating section and which is different from an operational image having been displayed on the display device before the update, disable an execution of a processing assigned to the designated operational image.

A display apparatus, wherein a display controller configured to perform a first display processing in which display informations from a starting point display number to a second target display number which is between the starting point display number and a first target display number corresponding to an approach-touch area are displayed on a display portion as to-be-displayed informations such that a difference between the display number of the to-be-displayed informations displayed at a start and an end of a unit time is a first value, and then perform a second display processing in which display informations from the second target display number to the first target display number are displayed as the to-be-displayed informations such that a difference between the display number of the to-be-displayed informations displayed at a start of an end of the unit time is a second value which is smaller than the first value.

Display apparatus and input apparatus

An inputting apparatus including: a detecting portion which detects an approach-touch area of a detecting area, the approach-touch area being an area detecting an approach or a touch of an input object; a first judging section which judges whether the approach-touch area has been moved in a direction other than a first direction in which the approach-touch area has initially started to be moved; a first-display-moving-amount determining section which determines, where the approach-touch area has been moved in the direction other than the first direction, a first display moving amount for moving an image to be displayed on a display portion, on the basis of a movement of the approach-touch area after the judgment of the first judging section; and a first-movement-display commanding section which provides a command for moving the image by the first display moving amount in a predetermined direction specified on the basis of the first direction.

Inputting apparatus and storage medium storing program

A display processing apparatus includes a display, a display control unit, and a detection unit configured to determine an inputted position of the display. The display processing apparatus includes a processing performing unit configured to determine a selected designator and to perform the processing indicated by the selected designator. The display processing apparatus further includes a judging unit configured to judge whether or not the inputted position determined by the detection unit is included in a direction selecting portion of the display. When the judging unit judges that the inputted position determined by the detection unit is included in the direction selecting range of the display, the display control unit changes a display direction of the designator in such a way that the designator orients the direction selecting portion which is judged to include the inputted position.

Display processing apparatus

A communication device, including: a near field communicator configured to perform near field communication with an information processing terminal; a display configured to display an image; and a controller configured to execute specific processing in which the controller obtains data from the information processing terminal utilizing the near field communication and executes process in accordance with the obtained data, wherein the controller is configured to determine, when an image is being displayed on the display, whether displayed-image-based processing that is processing in accordance with the image displayed on the display is the specific processing, and wherein the controller is configured to inactivate a communication function of the near field communicator if it is determined that the displayed-image-based processing is not the specific processing and to activate the communication function of the near field communicator if it is determined that the displayed-image-based processing is the specific processing.

An image processing device includes a first display section configured to display an image, an input receiving device configured to receive an input associated with the image, and a computer processing unit (CPU). The CPU is configured to determine a selected portion of the image based on the input, to reduce a scaling factor associated with the selected portion of the image as an amount of time that the input device continuously receives the input increases, and to apply the scaling factor to the selected portion of the image to generate a scaled image. The device also includes a second display section configured to display the scaled portion of the image.

Growing community of inventors

Ichinomiya, Japan

Masaaki Wakizaka