Minolta Camera Kabushiki Kaisha

Minolta Company, Ltd.

Konica Minolta Opto, Inc.

Konica-Minolta Holdings, Inc.

Masayuki Ueyama

Hiroshi Ootsuka

Masataka Hamada

Minoru Kuwana

Kenji Ishibashi

Tokuji Ishida

Toshihiko Ishimura

Katsumi Kozakai

Norio Ishikawa

Shinya Matsuda

Masayuki Miyazawa

Yasuaki Serita

Takashi Matsuo

Masaaki Miyano

Toshio Norita

Hideki Nagata

Takehiro Katoh

Hisashi Tokumaru

Hideo Kajita

Yoshihiko Azuma

Tetsuro Kanbara

Tetsuya Arimoto

Yoshihiro Hara

Toshihiko Karasaki

Hiroyuki Okada

Yasumasa Sawai

Kazuhiro Shibatani

Kenji Mizumoto

Toyotoshi Kawasaki

Shinichi Suzuki

Yoshihiro Tasaka

Hiroshi Ueda

Junichi Tanii

Takashi Kondo

Kenji Tsuji

Akira Kosaka

Akira Sato

Tougo Teramoto

Takashi Iida

Kentaro Iida

Shigeaki Tochimoto

Tomoyuki Terada

Tamotsu Kume

Naoki Kubo

Akira Kawabata

Hiroshi Oosuka

Tetsuro Kanabara

An optical scanner capable of preventing breakage of a shaft section due to stress concentration is provided. A mirror frameis shaped so as to enclose a mirror, and holds the mirror, via torsion barsand, so as to be vibratable. A unimorphis constituted by four unimorphs, andformed on upper left, lower left, upper right, and lower right sides, and holds the mirror frame, via a shaft section, so as to be vibratable. The shaft sectionhas a connection section. On the mirror frame, an adjustment memberfor increasing a moment of inertia mof the mirror frameis provided.

Optical scanner

An optical scanner including a mirror part for reflecting light, a main axis part for supporting the mirror part in a pivotable manner, and a deformable holding part for holding the main axis part. A torsion bar for converting a deformation of the holding part itself into a deformation in torsion is disposed adjacent to the main axis part and is formed in at least one of the holding part and the mirror part. The deformation in torsion generated in the torsion bar makes the mirror part tilt.

Microscanner and optical equipment with the same

An optical scanner is provided with a mirror section; a movable frame positioned to surround the mirror section and to support the mirror section with a pair of torsion bars to hold the mirror section therebetween; a stationary frame to surround the movable frame and to support the movable frame with at least a pair of bendable beams, wherein one end of each of the pair of bendable beams is jointed to the stationary frame and the other end is jointed at a pair of joint sections to hold the movable frame therebetween and a first axis connecting the pair of torsion bars is arranged to be perpendicular to a second axis connecting the pair of joint sections; and a pair of actuators provided on the pair of bendable beams and to make the pair of bendable beams to cause a bending oscillation.

Optical scanner and scanning type projector

In an image capturing apparatus which can be remotely operated from an operation terminal, to carry out image transmission control in accordance a communication form between the image capturing apparatus and the operation terminal. An image capturing apparatushas a judging sectionand judges a communication form between an operation terminal with which the image capturing apparatuscommunicates. The transmission control sectioncarries out a control regarding transmission of an image based on a result of judgment by the judging sectionWhen the current communication form is judged as low-speed communication from the result of judgment, the transmission control sectionperforms a process such as decreasing the operation speed of panning, tilting and zooming of the image taking sectionor decreasing the resolution of an image to be transmitted. When the current communication form is judged as being of an amount-dependent charge system from the result of judgment, a process such as decreasing the frame rate of image transmission or increasing the compression rate of image is performed.

Image capturing apparatus with variable communication forms

When an image capturing apparatus and an operation apparatus become connected to each other, function information is transmitted from the image capturing apparatus to the operation apparatus. The operation apparatus can recognize the functions effective in the image capturing apparatus by receiving the function information from the image capturing apparatus. The operation apparatus compares the received function information with the functions that can be processed by the operation apparatus, and sets the protocol. The protocol includes ones that is associated with a moving image attribute associated with moving image data and that is associated with the shooting function of the image capturing apparatus. Then, the operation apparatus transmits protocol information to the image capturing apparatus. Thereafter, the image capturing apparatus and the operation apparatus perform data communication based on the protocol.

Image capturing system

Actuator using displacement element

An electronic camera is provided with an image pickup unit in a casing at a position opposite to an opening of the casing. The image pickup unit includes an image pickup device and an optical system. The electronic camera is further provided with a rotating mechanism for rotating the image pickup unit, a changer for changing over a photographing possible state and a photographing impossible state, and a controller for controlling the rotating mechanism to rotate the image pickup unit into a target position in response to the changer.

Electronic camera and image processing system

A truss type actuator including two piezoelectric devices drives a chip member provided at a crossing point of the piezoelectric devices for moving along an elliptic or a circular trail. The piezoelectric devices are respectively driven by driving signals having a frequency equal to or near to the resonance frequency of the piezoelectric devices. By utilizing the resonance phenomenon, the displacements of the piezoelectric device can be increased as larger as possible.

Actuator and driving method thereof

High resolution composite images and ultra wide composite images are produced in a digital camera which combines a plurality of images to form a composite image on a single sheet. An image sensing unit includes a movable image sensing optical unit having a first and second focal lengths and a two-dimensional image sensing device. The image sensing unit is driven to control the optical axis of the image sensing optical unit so as to capture a plurality of images via the two-dimensional image sensing device. The plurality of images are combined to produce a composite image. An ultra wide composite image at standard resolution is produced by setting the focal length of the image sensing optical unit at a first focal length on the wide angle side, and a high resolution composite image is produced by setting the focal length of the image sensing optical unit at a second focal length on the telephoto side.

Image sensing device

A projector has a liquid crystal display panel for displaying an image, a lamp for illuminating the liquid crystal display panel, and a projection optical system for projecting light modulated by the image displayed. The lamp is held by a member whose position is variable to allow fitting of different types of lamp. The projector acquires data related to the lamp currently fitted and controls the light emission of the lamp on the basis of that data. The data includes the life of the lamp, so that the projector prevents the lamp to be lit longer than its remaining life. The remaining life is updated in accordance with how long the lamp has been lit. In addition to the lamp that is lit, an auxiliary lamp may be fitted so that the lamp that is lit can be switched to the auxiliary lamp as required. The lamp is formed into a single lamp unit together with a reflector or a casing to prevent the user from touching the lamp. The lamp is accessible for replacement only when it is in a predetermined position, where the lamp is never allowed when hot.

Projector and lamp unit

An actuator includes at least two piezoelectric devices arranged for crossing displacing directions thereof at a predetermined angle, a chip member provided at a coupling point of the piezoelectric devices, and a spring for contacting the chip member to a rotor driven by the actuator. The piezoelectric device is driven for moving the chip member trailing an elliptical trail. The rotation velocity or the driving torque of the rotor is controlled by varying at least one of a length of a major axis or a minor axis of the elliptical trail and an inclination angle of the major axis or the minor axis with respect to a normal at a contacting point of the chip member and the rotor.

A lens driving device which does not make larger an apparatus in which the device is installed, which ensures a longer span for preventing a tilt of a lens therein, and which allows an easy access to the lens after assemblage is disclosed. The lens driving device includes a stationary board; a lens frame holding a lens group; a moving body like a flat plate one end of which is fixed to the lens frame in which the moving body is slid over the stationary board; and a rod, extending in an optical direction of the lens, which guides the moving body in the optical direction and is driven by a piezoelectric element. In the arrangement, the other end of the flat plate is frictionally held by the rod over a predetermined distance in the optical direction. When the piezoelectric element is supplied with a voltage with a predetermined waveform, the lens frame is driven in the direction of the optical axis by the moving body frictionally engaging the rod.

Drive and guide mechanism and apparatus using the mechanism

A piezoelectric transducer of a new laminated structure is provided that is easy to fabricate, produces a large amount of motive energy and has high mechanical strength. Electrodes are installed on one of the surfaces of respectively a first and a second piezoelectric element formed in a thin shape, a second piezoelectric element formed without an electrode is laminated onto the top of the surface of the first piezoelectric element having an electrode to form a laminated piece. The laminated piece is wound to form a tube or folded to form a rod. The tube or rod-shaped laminate is then baked and polarized to produce a piezoelectric transducer.

Piezoelectric transducer and actuator using said piezoelectric transducer

A linear actuator using a piezoelectric element having high mechanical strength, high driving efficiency and high reliability in which left and right end portions of the piezoelectric element in a tubular shape whose major component is PZT are fixedly supported by supporting members and a slider is frictionally coupled to the piezoelectric element, the slider frictionally coupled to the piezoelectric element is moved by causing elongation displacement and contraction displacement respectively to electrodes at the left and right end portions of the piezoelectric element when drive pulses each in a saw tooth wave having gradual rise portion and steep fall portion are applied to the electrodes at the left and right end portions of the piezoelectric element in a tubular shape and the slider can continuously be moved by continuously applying the drive pulses.

Actuator using electromechanical transducer and apparatus employing the

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Takarazuka, Japan

Masayuki Ueyama