Ricoh Company, Ltd.

Nec Corporation

Konica Minolta, Inc.

Nippon Steel Corporation

Konica Minolta Business Technologies, Inc.

Nippon Hoso' Kyokai

Nemoto Project Industry Co., Ltd.

Hitachi, Ltd.

Shigeru Yamazaki

Yasushi Nakazato

Takashi Yokota

Hidetake Tanaka

Hiroaki Kotabe

Masahiko Banno

Koji Yamanobe

Shigeru Suzuki

Satoru Tomita

Masaichi Niro

Yutaka Kodama

Masaru Kaneko

Kunihiko Ikeda

Akira Shimura

Akihiko Motegi

Hiroki Murayama

Shigeru Hatakeyama

Yasuhiro Ito

Mineo Yamamoto

Noboru Murayama

Satoshi Yamauchi

Tomonobu Tamura

Yuhei Tatsumoto

Hiroshi Eguchi

Kosuke Masumoto

Shiro Umeda

Masahiro Uematsu

Shinichiro Wada

Yoshiaki Kanmoto

Masaki Narita

Kazuya Iwasaki

Motoaki Kawazu

Kouji Yamanobe

Ryuichi Hiratsuka

Daisuke Abe

Hiroshi Komai

Kazuro Kato

Kenji Ohmaru

Isao Nemoto

Takashi Nishizawa

Tetsumi Harakawa

Koichi Hirano

Kouichi Hirano

An image forming apparatus comprises: a piezoelectric sensor that produces an variable output signal depending on the amount of infrared energy; a human body detecting device having a lens that forms a detecting area serving for detecting if the person enters; a peak detector that detects a peak of an output signal produced when the person enters the detecting area; an offset voltage judgment portion that judges if the output signal falls to the offset voltage after the peak; a moving direction judgment portion that judges the direction in which the person moves in the detecting area; and a mode controller that switches the power supply mode to a first mode if the power supply mode is found to be a second mode requiring less power than the first mode while the moving direction judgment portion judges that the person moves toward the image forming apparatus.

Image forming apparatus, power control method, and recording medium

An image forming apparatus includes a charging device for performing charging and discharging using a power storage device, and a plurality of loads each serving as a target of power supply from said charging device and being used in operation of the image forming apparatus. The image forming apparatus obtains information about an operation status of the image forming apparatus and sets priorities for being a target of power supply from the charging device for the plurality of loads, according to the obtained information. The image forming apparatus controls power supply operation of the charging device according to the information about the remaining capacity of the power storage device and the set priorities.

Image forming apparatus performing control of changing targets of power supply from charging device

A wireless communication system includes: a main antenna for radiating an electromagnetic wave to wireless IC chips; a reflecting plate for reflecting the electromagnetic wave from the main antenna to the wireless IC chips; and a control unit which supports the wireless IC chips. The control unit causes a difference between the receiving electromagnetic wave levels of a direct wave from the main antenna and a reflected wave from the reflecting plate received by the antenna of the wireless IC chip.

Wireless communication system and method

It is to provide a radio communication system capable of performing highly reliable reading/writing communication even though the RFID tags face in the random directions. The radio communication system comprises an RFID tag used for identification, a reader/writer for performing transmission and reception of information between the RFID tag by radio waves, and a plurality of reflecting plates in a space where a plurality of RFID tags are accumulated. The reflecting plates direct traveling direction of the radio wave irradiated from the reader/writer towards the RFID tags. A part of the radio waves irradiated from an antenna of the reader/writer is directed to travel three-dimensionally towards the space by the effect of the reflecting plates. Moreover, the radio waves traveling in the same direction among the reflected radio waves by the plurality of reflecting plates together allow attenuation caused due to distance to be reduced extremely.

Radio communication system

A compact printer has a sheet feeder positioned at its front wall and electrophotographic components arranged along a sheet moving path for receiving a sheet from the sheet feeder and for exposing, developing, then transferring a toner image onto the sheet. At its rear side, the printer has an image fixing unit and a discharge portion for discharging the sheet to a side output tray or onto the top wall of the printer. The discharge portion is provided with a detachably hinged, sheet turning apparatus when it is desired to discharge sheets onto the top wall, or with a detachably hinged cover with a rear opening to discharge sheets onto a rear side output tray.

Printer with face-down delivery of collated printed sheets at the top, and a manually removable PC/developer cartridge

In an image forming system, an image forming apparatus with an optional main box having a plurality of bins prevents the cover of each bin from being locked in its closed position unless papers output to all the bins are taken out. Hence, all the bins are empty when they are used later, and can be used by any users. This implements a mail box which can be efficiently used by many users.

Image forming system

An image forming apparatus includes a laser beam scanning unit for scanning a recording medium in synchronism with a writing clock signal so that a dotted image is formed on the recording medium, a counter for carrying out a count operation in synchronism with the writing clock signal so that one count value or a plurality of count values determining a scanning area is/are obtained, a first controller for activating or inactivating the laser beam scanning unit based on one or the plurality of count values, a dip switch unit for specifying a dotting density, a second controller for controlling the frequency of the writing clock signal and/or a speed of scanning; and a changing unit for changing one or the plurality of count values, which should be obtained by the counter, based on the dotting density specified by the dip switch unit, so that the position of the scanning area with respect to the recording medium is constant even if the frequency of the writing clock signal and/or the scanning speed are changed by the second controller.

Image forming apparatus capable of changing dotting density

A modular type image forming system includes a laser printer main unit and a plurality of optional units, such as a both side processing unit, a large quantity paper feeding unit and a mail box unit, each of which is operatively coupled to said main unit through a commonly usable optical fiber cable through a commonly usable connector. Each unit has its own CPU and serial communications between the CPUs of different units may be carried out through the optical cables. The CPU of the main unit may determine the identity of each of the optional units connected thereto through such communications. The main unit also includes an interface circuit through which the main unit is operatively coupled to each of the optional units. The interface circuit includes a port selector which establishes a connection pattern between the main and optional units in accordance with the identity information of each of the optional units connected. When paper is fed into a transportation path, paper ID is assigned to the paper and retained until the paper is discharged. If the paper is removed from the path without passing a predetermined location, the same image is printed again.

Duplex image forming system with number of single side printed sheets in

Attitude control is implemented by detecting the phase difference between signals received by at least two antennas and detecting the angle of deflection between the direction of arrival of radio signals and the antenna beams. By using antennas that are separately driven, within the plane of rotation in which the deflection angle is to be detected, the phase of the received signals can be shifted equivalently to when the antennas are driven as a consolidated unit. Also, when at least three antennas are used in an orthogonal arrangement for detecting the deflection angle in two directions, the antennas are divided into two groups which are individually driven. This reduces the inertia of the moving parts and enables the size and weight of the drive mechanisms to be reduced. In addition, two orthogonal functions are used to represent the phase of the deflection angle of the direction of arrival of the radio wave and the antenna beam as a multiplicity of quadrants, and by storing these, when there is a change in the deflection angle, the sequence of change can be traced back and the control effected accordingly. This enables error to be eliminated.

Antenna apparatus and attitude control method

An image printing apparatus includes first and second write-width determining circuits. The first write-width determining circuit determines a first write-width in a first direction of the paper by using paper size information for the paper and a first counted value obtained by counting the write clock signal. The second write-width determining circuit determines a second write-width in a second direction of the paper by using the paper size information and a second counted value obtained by counting a number of the recording performed for every scanning line, the second direction being perpendicular to the first direction and corresponding to a direction of a paper transportation. The image signal supplied to a light source is recorded on an area of a recording medium corresponding to an area on the paper defined by the first and second write widths.

Image printing apparatus

A modular type image forming system includes a laser printer main unit and a plurality of optional units, such as both side processing unit, a large quantity paper feeding unit and a mail box unit, each of which is operatively coupled to said main unit through a commonly usable optical fiber cable through a commonly usable connector. Each unit has its own CPU and serial communications between the CPUs of different units may be carried out through the optical cables. The CPU of the main unit may determine the identity of each of the optional units connected thereto through such communications. The main unit also includes an interface circuit through which the main unit is operatively coupled to each of the optional units. The interface circuit includes a port selector which establishes a connection pattern between the main and optional units in accordance with the identity information of each of the optional units connected. When paper is fed into a transportation path, paper ID is assigned to the paper and retained until the paper is discharged. If the paper is removed from the path without passing a predetermined location, the same image is printed again.

Image system with connection to operational units

Printer

A lateral registration adjusting device for use in an optical writing system, such as a laser beam printer, is provided. When a sheet of recording paper has arrived at a registration roller which is driven to rotate intermittently in association with the rotation of a photosensitive drum, a discrepancy between the sheet of recording paper and a reference position in the lateral direction transverse to the direction of transportation of the sheet of recording paper is detected. Based on this information of lateral discrepancy, the writing start position for writing an image on the photosensitive drum in a scan line is adjusted such that the lateral discrepancy is absorbed. Thus, when the image is formed on the drum and then transferred onto the sheet of recording paper, there is obtained a predetermined relative positional relationship between the sheet of recording paper and the image in the lateral direction at all times.

Lateral registration adjusting device for use in a laser beam printer

A solid-state scanning apparatus for scanning the surface of an original to convert light information into electrical signals suitable for application to a facsimile system is provided. The scanning apparatus comprises a stationary original holder, on which an original to be scanned is placed, a stationary optical system including a solid-state line sensor comprised of at least two CCD image sensing devices arranged in a line to carry out the split scanning with a predetermined overlapping scanning section between the two adjacent scanning sections, a pair of first and second storing devices provided for each of said CCD image sensing devices, a control circuit for controlling the operation of the CCD image sensing devices and the storing devices, and a reciprocatingly movable mirror system for leading the light information of the original to the solid-state line sensor.

Solid-state scanning apparatus

An intercommunication system in a group teaching or training system in which a teacher station and a plurality of student stations are interconnected with a common outgoing line and a common incoming line, and each station includes a transmitter and a receiver, and wherein the teacher station includes a switching circuit for selectively connecting the incoming line to the outgoing line, the transmitter and receiver in each student station are selectively connected through switching circuits to the incoming and outgoing lines, respectively, and the switching circuits in each student station may be selected in synchronism with the timing with which the teacher station sequentially scans the student station.

Teacher-students' intercommunication system

Growing community of inventors

Tokyo, Japan

Shigeru Yamazaki