Asahi Kogaku Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha

Pentax Corporation

Otsuka Pharmaceutical Company, Limited

Hoya Corporation

Asahi Kogaku Kogyo K.k.

Asahi Kogaku Kabushiki Kaisha

Masahiro Oono

Koichi Maruyama

Tatsuya Yoshida

Noboru Saitoh

Nobuyuki Nagai

Sukenori Shiba

Koji Sato

Masato Noguchi

Hisao Iwanade

Makoto Iki

Hiroshi Kanazawa

Mitsunori Iima

Tadashi Minakuchi

Isao Okuda

Masahiko Sasaki

Hitoshi Kimura

Toshiyuki Kase

Tsuyoshi Itoh

Hiroshi Nishikawa

Katsuki Hayashi

Hiroshi Yamamoto

Suguru Takishima

Ryota Ogawa

Satoru Tachihara

Tunehiko Sonoda

Tsuyoshi Ishikawa

Masato Hara

Toshio Nakagishi

Hisashi Konno

Isao Takahashi

Yoshihiro Yamazaki

Moriyasu Kanai

Masakazu Saori

Hiroyuki Kimura

Takashi Morita

Hirofumi Matsuo

Makoto Iwaki

Shigeto Uchiyama

Tomomi Ueno

Taku Ito

Ikutaro Sato

Kentaro Tadano

Takeshi Yamauchi

Toshimi Suzuki

Hiroshi Kitsutaka

Syun'itirou Wakamiya

Kiyoshi Araki

Masatoshi Mizuno

Tohru Chiba

Ryoto Ogawa

Hisao Iwande

An object of the invention is to provide an equol-containing fermented soybean hypocotyl material that is useful for foods, pharmaceutical preparations, cosmetic products, etc. The equol-containing fermented soybean hypocotyl material of the invention is obtained by fermenting soybean hypocotyls using at least one microorganism having an equol-producing ability by utilizing at least one daidzein compound selected from the group consisting of diadzein glycosides, daidzein, and dihydrodaidzein.

Equol-containing fermentation product of soybean embryonic axis, and method for production thereof

The present invention relates to a container for sheet products that makes it easy to take out each individual piece of the sheet products stacked in the container. The container having a tray-like container body (), an opening/closing lid () that is slidably mounted on the container body (), a pressing member () elastically pressing the sheet products () stored in the container () toward the inner surface of the opening/closing lid (), a friction drag member () that is installed on the inner surface of the opening/closing lid () to feed out the sheet products () according to the closing operation of the opening/closing lid (), and a stopper () formed in the container body () to stop the backward movement of the sheet products () by the friction drag member () when the opening/closing lid () is opened.

Container for sheet products

An image pickup apparatus includes a multifocal optical system having at least two different focal lengths; an image pickup device for converting an optical image formed by the multifocal optical system into an image signal; a first image processor for forming an original image defined by an object image at each focal length of the multifocal optical system with the image signal received from the image pickup device; and a second image processor for trimming the original image formed by the first image processor. An object image of an angle-of-view corresponding to an intermediate focal length between the two focal lengths of the multifocal optical system is complemented by a trimmed image formed by the second image processor.

Image pickup apparatus

An optical low-pass filter used in association with an imaging element which has a plurality of pixels arranged in vertical and horizontal direction with regularity, is provided with first through third birefringent plates arranged in the order from a light incident side. The low-pass filter separates an incident ray into four rays, a separation width of the rays in the vertical direction being &dgr;v, and a separation width of the rays in the horizontal direction being &dgr;h. A separation angles of the first through third birefringent plates are &thgr;, (&thgr;&minus;90&deg;) and 0&deg;, respectively, and separation widths of the first through third birefringent plates are (&dgr;v&times;sin &thgr;), (&dgr;v&times;cos &thgr;) and &dgr;h, respectively.

Optical low-pass filter

A beam splitter for a digital camera splits light passed through a photographing lens into beams directed to a CCD and a finder optical system. The beam splitter includes at least one optical element provided with a beam splitting surface that is inclined with respect to an optical axis of the photographing lens, and a multi-layer film including a plurality of layers of dielectric materials is formed on the beam splitting surface. The multi-layer film is configured such that the beam splitting surface exhibits a substantially constant reflectivity at least for visible light that is incident on the beam splitting surface at any incident angle within a predetermined range.

Beam splitting for camera using a multilayer film

A lens position adjusting method for a zoom lens includes at least two movable lens groups, one lens group being primarily utilized for focusing and the other lens group being primarily utilized for magnification, wherein an object at a predetermined distance is in-focus when each movable lens group is positioned at each of respective initialized positions thereof with the zoom lens being set at a first focal length, and wherein each movable lens group is moved to vary magnification in accordance with a moving amount from the initialized positions of the movable lens groups. The lens position adjusting method includes: arranging a testing object at a position corresponding to a predetermined distance from the zoom lens; arranging a focal point detecting device at a reference focal plane or in the vicinity of the reference focal plane of the zoom lens; moving each movable lens group to each position at the first focal length; moving each movable lens group along an optical axis of the zoom lens so that a lens moving amount of each movable lens group is detected when a sharp image of the testing object is formed on the focal point detecting device via the zoom lens; making each of the positions of the movable lens groups as provisional initialized positions after completion of movement by the lens moving amount from the initialized positions; moving each movable lens group from the provisional initialized positions to positions at a predetermined focal length; detecting the lens moving amount by moving the movable lens group being chiefly utilized for focusing; obtaining a defocus amount from the lens moving amount; and obtaining an adjusting amount according to the defocus amount detected at given plurality of focal lengths so that each position of the movable lens group at which the in-focus state with the testing object is obtained at the first focal length serves as each adjusted initialized position.

Lens position adjusting method for zoom lens

A scanning optical device includes a light source that emits a light beam; a deflector for deflecting and scanning the light beam from the light source; a scanning lens for converging the deflected light beam onto an image surface; and a mechanism for adjusting the relative position of at least one lens element of the scanning lens with respect to other lens elements of the scanning lens in an auxiliary scanning direction. Preferably, the adjustable lens element of the scanning lens be provided with an anamorphic surface having relatively larger power in the auxiliary scanning direction than in the main scanning direction. Alternatively, the above-mentioned at least one lens element may have the largest absolute value of refractive power of the lenses in the scanning lens. Further alternatively, the above-mentioned at least one lens element may be provided with a surface having the smallest absolute value of radius of curvature of all surfaces in the scanning lens.

Scanning optical device

An auto-focusing device of a camera includes a photographic lens having a focusing lens group guided along an optical axis, a stepping motor for moving the focusing lens group along the optical axis to bring an object into focus; and a controller for controlling the stepping motor to rotate stepwise when the depth of focus is smaller than a predetermined value and for controlling the stepping motor to rotate the rotor by even-numbered steps when the depth of focus of the photographic lens is greater than the predetermined value.

Motor-driven auto-focusing system

A stepping motor driving apparatus for a camera includes 1-2 phase excitation type stepping motors and a drive controller for driving and stopping the stepping motors so that the driven stepping motors are stopped always at a detent position.

Apparatus for driving stepping motor of camera

A stepping motor driving apparatus for a camera having a 1-2 phase excitation type stepping motor which is driven by a 1-2 phase excitation in response to a drive signal includes a drive control device for stopping the stepping motor at a 1-phase excitation position by de-energizing the stepping motor at the 1-phase excitation position and for stopping the stepping motor at a 2-phase excitation position while maintaining the excitation in a high precision drive control in which the stepping motor is driven at high precision. The drive control device stops the stepping motor by de-energizing the stepping motor always at the 1-phase excitation position in a normal drive control in which no precise drive control of the stepping motor is needed.

Apparatus for driving stepper motor of camera

A time-sharing drive apparatus for a camera having a plurality of motors includes a motor drive control system which alternately drives the motors in a time-sharing control. When the camera includes a zoom lens provided with a first stationary lens group, a second movable lens group and a third movable lens group, the motors are composed of a first motor which opens and closes a diaphragm of the zoom lens, a second motor which moves the second lens group, and a third motor which drives the third lens group. The motor drive control system which drives the first, second and third motors is controlled via a time-sharing system.

Time-sharing drive apparatus for motor of camera

A beam projecting apparatus which includes a light source emitting a laser beam; and a beam projecting device which includes a beam projecting portion from which the laser beam is projected outwardly so that the laser beam has a beam waist position at a predetermined position apart from the beam projecting apparatus. The beam projecting apparatus further includes a beam waist position adjusting optical system which is disposed along a light path from the light source to the beam projecting portion, at least one lens element of the beam waist position adjusting optical system being movable along an optical axis thereof; a temperature detecting device for detecting a temperature in the beam projecting apparatus; and a controller for controlling a movement of the at least one lens element in association with the temperature detected by the temperature detecting device so that a deviation of the beam waist position from the predetermined position due to a temperature change is minimized.

Beam protecting device

A beam projecting apparatus includes a light source that emits a laser beam and a colliminating lens that renders the emitted laser beam a substantially parallel beam. A beam projecting device includes a beam projecting portion from which the laser beam is projected outwardly so that the laser beam has a beam waist located at a predetermined position spaced from the beam projecting apparatus. The beam projecting apparatus further includes a system that detects a curvature of wavefront of the substantially parallel beam at the predetermined position.

Beam projecting device

An automatic focusing apparatus of a camera includes a photographing lens having a focusing lens group and a focus control mechanism which moves the focusing lens group to a hyper-focal distance position when no effective object distance is obtained.

Automatic focusing apparatus in a camera

A drive apparatus for a zoom lens barrel having at least two movable zooming lens groups which are moved upon zooming, comprising: two lens frames which support the movable zooming lens groups, two cam pins integral with the lens frames and extending in the same direction, two parallel rotatable drive plates which are provided with cam grooves in which the cam pins are fitted, and two drive units which drive the respective drive plates upon zooming. The cam profile of the cam grooves of the drive plates is such that the movable zooming lens groups are moved in predetermined directions by the rotation of the drive plates during zooming.

Drive apparatus for zoom lens barrel

Growing community of inventors

Tokyo, Japan

Masahiro Oono