Minolta Company, Ltd.

Shoichi Minato

Yoshiharu Tanaka

Daigo Yoshioka

Junichi Tanii

Hideo Hotomi

Koji Yamamoto

Akira Fukuda

Hisanori Itoh

Tohru Murakami

Yoshio Nakagawa

Akira Kosaka

Toru Ishii

Eiichi Sano

Yoshiyuki Inoue

Naohiko Hayashi

Yoshihiro Hara

Hideki Nagata

Noriyuki Okisu

Naoki Matsui

Toshihiko Karasaki

Shinichi Fujii

Kusunoki Higashino

Shigeto Ohmori

Jun Minakuti

Masaki Asano

Ayumi Itoh

Motohiro Nakanishi

Tatsuya Suzuki

Hisashi Takata

Tatsuro Izumi

Keishi Sawada

Toru Ishi

Yayoi Kasai

Junko Yoshida

An ink jet printer ejects ink droplets of a plurality of sizes based on image data, and prints dots of a plurality of sizes corresponding to the ink droplets of the plurality of sizes for recording the image. In the ink jet printer, in order to print a smoothing dot close to a normal dot, pulse voltage having a waveform having its printing timing changed from a waveform for printing the normal dot is applied to a piezoelectric element. As a result, an ink jet printer capable of recording high definition images can be provided.

Ink jet printer capable of forming high definition images

An information communication apparatus for conducting information communication such as a telephone conversation, sending and reception of E-mails and the like and for capturing an image of a subject comprises an image capturing unit for capturing an image through the zoom optical system, and a body unit for displaying an image and accepting a user's input. A rotating mechanism is provided between the image capturing unit and the body unit. When a user conducts information communication or carries the information communication apparatus, the image capturing unit is positioned so that the optical axis of the zoom optical system is substantially parallel to a display screen of a display. This prevents impairment of the portability of the information communication apparatus. When the user captures an image, the image capturing unit is positioned so that the optical axis of the zoom optical system is substantially perpendicular to the display screen of the display. This allows the user to capture images of a subject behind the body unit and the face of the user while viewing the display.

Portable information communication apparatus with rotating mechanism

A digital-type camera having a printing mechanism which assures a high quality of prints in an environment with a low temperature. The digital-type camera has an arrangement in which an ink cartridge, for storing ink fed to a printer head of a printing part, is installed on a rear surface of a substrate on a front surface of which a CCD of a heat-generating component is installed. Heat generated from the CCD is conducted to the ink cartridge via the substrate, so that the ink stored inside the ink cartridge is prevented from dropping down in temperature, and so that the temperature of the ink is kept within a thermal region within which its printing operation is guaranteed.

Digital camera unified with printer

A digital camera having a taking lens, a finder for viewing light transmitted through the taking lens, an image sensing element for optoelectrically converting light which passes through the taking lens, a light splitter capable of changing transmittance and dividing the light transmitted through the taking lens to the image sensing element and the finder, a light splitter driver for driving the light splitter to a position to split the light between the image sensing element and the viewfinder when viewing and driving the light splitter to retract a position for directing the light only to the image sensing element during photography, and a controller for controlling the light splitter to a semi-transparent state to direct light to the image sensing element and the viewfinder when viewing and controlling the light splitter to a blocking state during photography.

Digital camera

There is provided a digital camera having a printing function, the camera having a moving member for moving from an out-of-use position to an in-use position to perform a shooting operation, a selector for selecting a printing operation to be performed, and a controller for bringing the moving member into the out-of-use position in response to the selection of the printing operation by the selector.

Digital camera having a printing function in which a movable camera part is moved from an in-use position to an out-of-use position during printing

In a digital camera having a self-timer function, the time for which the shot image is displayed in a self-timer shooting mode is longer than the time for which the shot image is displayed in a normal shooting mode.

Digital camera having a self-timer shooting function

A digital camera having a printing function which is driven by a battery comprises a printer unit operable when the voltage of the battery is equal to or higher than a first voltage, a camera unit operable when the voltage of the battery is equal to or higher than a second voltage, and a voltage detecting unit for detecting the voltage of the battery. The digital camera further comprises controller which compares the voltage of the battery detected by the voltage detecting unit with the first and second voltages and performs, based on the result of comparison, a control operation whereby the respective operations of the printer unit and the camera unit are enabled or disabled.

Digital camera having a battery level check

There is provided a digital camera having a printing function, the camera comprising a detector for detecting the amount of camera shake during shooting, a recording medium for recording each of shot images and camera shake data on the amount of camera shake detected by the detector, a selector for selecting a shot image to be printed from the shot images recorded on the recording medium, and a controller for judging, for the shot image selected by the selector, whether or not proper printing of the shot image can be performed. The digital camera further comprises an indicator for giving a warning when it is judged that proper printing cannot be performed.

Digital camera having blur detection

Image forming apparatus and image forming method

Openings (OPa, OPb) corresponding to respective card slots ( ) are formed in a side face of a digital camera, and a slot cover ( ) having a size covering both of the openings (OPa, OPb) is placed in a manner so as to shift thereon, thereby allowing either of the openings of the card slots to be selectively exposed. A CPU, installed therein, is allowed to access a card-type medium attached to the card slot that is not exposed, and is not allowed to access a card-type medium attached to the card slot that is exposed. A card-type medium can be detachably attached to the card slot that is exposed, and with respect to the card slot that is not exposed, the attaching and removing operations of a card-type medium are restricted.

Electronic device using card-type media

An image formation apparatus is provided that carries out printing efficiently to improve the printout speed. In the ink jet printer, a straight line formed of dots ejected from a large diameter nozzle and a straight line formed of dots ejected from a small diameter nozzle can have a similar configuration. By the continuous output of two dots from the small diameter nozzle, a combination of these dots are substantially equal to dots ejected from the large diameter nozzle.

Image formation apparatus that can form an image efficiently

An actuator applied with shape memory alloy which can be operated in a wide operating temperature range and has a long life time. At a normal ambient temperature, when the first wire of the acting member made of shape memory alloy in which predetermined shape is memorized in advance, is heated, it is transformed to the memorized shape to enable the acting member to be moved. A relative low stress is generated at the first wire and its life-time is not shortened. In the case that the ambient temperature is increased to exceed a transformation starting temperature of the shape memory alloy, the second wire of shape memory alloy is transformed to the memorized shape to generate a high stress at the first wire and to increase the transformation starting temperature of the first wire. With such an arrangement as above, it is possible to operate the actuator applied with the shape memory alloy in a wide operating temperature range.

Actuator

An electronic camera is provided with an image pickup device for photoelectrically picking up a light image of an object to generate image data, an oblique angle information provider for providing information on an oblique angle between a sensing surface of the image pickup device and a surface of the object, a distance detector for detecting a distance to the object, and a corrector for correcting, based on the provided oblique angle information and the detected distance, the generated image data so as to produce a pseudo object image whose surface resides on a plane parallel with the sensing surface of the image pickup device.

Electronic camera with oblique view correction

Growing community of inventors

Sakai, Japan

Shoichi Minato