Eastman-Kodak Company

Ronald R Firth

Jerry R Horak

Peter L Dillon

Charles D DeBoer

Douglass L Blanding

Seung-Ho Baek

William F Garbe

Lee N Davy

R Jack Harshbarger

William G Fahey

An imaging system having a source of light movable with respect to a writing element and projectable thereon to generate an image. A focusing system is provided for focusing a light source which generates a first beam of light of a wavelength selected to be actinic with respect to the writing element. At least a portion of the first beam of light is absorbed by the writing element, The apparatus includes a material supply to automatically supply donor sheets and receiver sheets independently to a writing platen or drum, and to selectively load and unload the donor sheets from superposition with the receiver sheet without disturbing the registration of the receiver sheet.

Laser thermal printer with an automatic material supply

A roller over which advances a web of material such as paper, photographic film or the like includes a plurality of staves organized in first and second arrays with the staves of the first array alternating with the staves of the second array to provide surfaces for supporting the web. The staves are each individually mounted on the roller by separate spring legs which center the staves. Flanges are located at the ends of the roller to position the web laterally. When the web obliquely approaches the axis of the roller so as to helically advance thereover, the staves sequentially and independently shift axially due to engagement with the helically advancing web. After the web leaves the roller, the stave that the web was most recently supported by returns under the bias of the spring legs to its central, unbiased position. In this way, damage to the edges of the web, due to engagement with the flanges, is minimized.

Roller for supporting a web having axially slidable staves

To prevent banding in a flat field exposed--by means of a linear array of photosources--upon a moving photosensitive web, the invention not only provides that the photosources be pulsed in correspondence with the movement of the photosensitive web, but that the lengths of the printing spots which are employed be equal (or approximately so) to the raster line spacing, whereby smear of any one exposure spot will blend into the smear from the next exposure spot to provide a perfectly flat field exposure.

Banding-free printing by linear array of photosources

In an electronic copier of a type that includes a document scanner, a memory device and a printer, a complex servo system is generally used to provide phase synchronous operation between such copier components. In accordance with the present invention, methods and apparatus are provided wherein an electronic copier is operated in a 'free running' mode without such phase synchronization. Specifically, in accordance with a disclosed embodiment of the invention, a composite information signal corresponding to an original document is stored in the memory device in the form of document information sandwiched by leading and trailing pilot signals. Upon playback, certain copier functions are so coordinated with the termination of the leading pilot signal that problems which would be expected in the absence of a servo system, such as image registration errors, are avoided.

Non-synchronous operation of an electronic copier

A color video signal composed of successive groups of analog color samples, successive samples in at least some of said groups alternating between one color and another, wherein such groups represent successively scanned rows or lines of video frames or fields, is processed, prior to recording, by assigning respective samples to one of a plurality of channels of substantially equal bandwidth in a manner such that respective channels contain subgroups of samples representing only one color per subgroup, thereby minimizing the power at the sampling frequency in such channels. The information in the channels is recorded on a corresponding plurality of tracks on a recording medium by multi-channel essentially-fixed-head recording apparatus thereby realizing the manufacturing economy of essentially-fixed-head type apparatus. In one embodiment of the invention, samples of a first color occur more frequently in the color video signal than do samples of a second color, thereby maximizing the utilization of the information storage capacity of the recording medium. In a preferred implementation, the color video signal is generated by a solid state image sensing array having discrete image sensing elements selectively sensitized to green, red, or blue. Green-sensitive elements occur more frequently in the array than do red- or blue-sensitive elements in recognition of the fact that human visual acuity is higher for green, than for red or blue. The signal is separated sample-by-sample and the samples assigned to eight channels in a manner such that for each group of samples, the samples representing green (green samples) occupy four of the eight channels, and the samples representing red (red samples) and/or blue (blue samples) occupy the other four channels.

Multichannel recording format for a sampled-analog color video signal

Apparatus for correcting time base error (such as flutter, scatter, and skew) in a multichannel, sampled-analog type video signal includes means for clocking the signal portions carried by respective channels into respective deflutter buffers by respective input clock signals derived from horizontal sync information appearing in respective channels. Each buffer contains input register means capable of receiving a signal portion containing flutter distortion, storage means for holding the signal portion received, and output register means for delivering the signal at a substantially constant periodic rate. The input register means is controlled by the input clock signal, which contains flutter distortion corresponding to the flutter distortion in the signal portion. By synchronously delivering the signal portions from the output register means in all of the buffers, under control of a common output clock signal, flutter is removed from the signal portion in each channel, and inherently, scatter and skew among the signal portions in respective channels are removed from the signal.

Apparatus for correcting time base error in a multichannel,

An edge guide is provided for use in a narrow-track linear transport recorder. The guide forms a straight edge near a magnetic head for referencing the location of a magnetic tape with respect to the head. when a coaxial-reel tape cassette is inserted into the recorder, a pair of conical rollers provided in the cassette for use with the guide cooperatively urge an edge of the tape against the guide. The edge guide extends substantially the full distance between the rollers to minimize any tendency of the tape to buckle as it is urged against the guide. A tape drive engages the tape at a position outside of the span between the rollers to move the tape past the head without interfering with the cooperative action of the rollers and the edge guide. Thus, the critical edge guide requirements for narrow-track recording are met entirely outside of the mass-produced cassette.

Edge guide for cooperation with a coaxial reel cassette

In a video recorder having a fully rotatable drum over which a recording tape is advanced, lateral tape wander is controlled by the use of apparatus which provides edge guidance for the advancing tape while the tape is still on the rotating drum surface. The invention proposes the use of a rotatable drum having a groove which extends circumferentially around the outer drum surface. An edge guide member extends into the groove, providing tape edge guidance while permitting the drum to rotate freely.

Growing community of inventors

Fairport, NY, United States of America

Ronald R Firth