Ricoh Company, Ltd.

Susumu Momma

Koji Masuda

Hidemasa Suzuki

Yasuo Katano

Shigenobu Hirano

Masahiro Itoh

Kenji Kameyama

Aino Hasegawa

Norikazu Igarashi

Shun Okazaki

Naoki Nakamura

Yoshifumi Sudoh

Masamichi Yamada

Takashi Maki

Kazuya Miyagaki

Satomi Tanaka

Shiori Ohsugi

Takemasa Tsutsui

A light guide includes light guiding members including first and second light guiding members, an optical entrance having a plane on which the light is incident, a light guiding unit to guide the light incident on the optical entrance with repeated reflection, a light beam ejection unit to eject the light to an outside of the light guide, and an extraction unit to reflect the light guided by the light guiding unit toward the light beam ejection unit. The light guiding members guide and eject a light, and the second light guiding member is bonded to, at least, the light guiding unit of the first light guiding member.

Light guide and virtual-image display device

A light guide member () includes a boundary surface () configured to reflect image light guided to the boundary surface () and emit the image light outside the light guide member (), an opposing surface () parallel to the boundary surface (), the opposing surface () facing the boundary surface (), a first inclined surface () having an inclination in which a distance between the first inclined surface () and the boundary surface () decreases in a guiding direction of the image light, and a second inclined surface () between the opposing surface () and the first inclined surface (), the second inclined surface () inclined at a different angle with the first inclined surface () in the guiding direction.

Light guide member and display device

A propagation optical system includes: a first optical system; an intermediate optical element; and a second optical system. The first optical system, the intermediate optical element, and the second optical system being sequentially arranged in a direction from the image display element toward the light guide member along an optical axis. The intermediate optical element has a non-rotationally symmetric curved surface, of which shape is non-rotationally symmetric about the optical axis. A cross-sectional shape, of the non-rotationally symmetric curved surface, in a first plane including the optical axis is non-arc shape. The first plane is a plane in which the non-rotationally symmetric surface has a strongest positive power among planes including the optical axis. The propagation optical system is configured to form, between the first optical system and the second optical system, an intermediate image corresponding to an image displayed on the image display element.

Propagation optical system and virtual image display device

A virtual image display device includes: an image display element that displays an image to be displayed as a virtual image; a propagation optical system that propagates light from the image display element; and a light guide member that guides the light propagated by the propagation optical system. The light guide member includes: a light beam incident part that introduces light including image information from the propagation optical system into the light guide member; an image extractor that extracts the light including image information from an inside of the light guide member; and an image emitter that emits the light including image information to an outside of the light guide member. The propagation optical system includes one or more optical members each having a curved surface shape that is non-rotationally symmetric with respect to an optical axis.

Virtual image display device

A head-mounted display device includes a display element to display an image; a light guide member to emit the image displayed on the display element to an eye of a wearer; a housing including an optical system to guide image light of the image displayed on the display element to the light guide member; and an adjustment member provided on a side of the light guide member opposite to the optical system, and to bend the housing on a side opposite to a face of the wearer.

Head-mounted display device with adjuster

A fixing device that fixes a toner image carried on a transfer sheet onto the transfer sheet includes a fixing belt that relatively moves, with its surface being in contact with the toner image during the fixing operation, with respect to the transfer sheet, surface information detecting devices that determine surface information of the fixing belt, a surface condition changing roller that is arranged so as to be capable of coming into contact with and separating from the fixing belt and abrades the surface of the fixing belt in contact with the fixing belt, and a surface condition changing controller that controls the contact and separation of the surface condition changing roller with and from the fixing belt based on detection results obtained by the surface information detecting devices.

Fixing device and image forming apparatus

An image forming apparatus includes a charging device configured to uniformly charge a surface of a photoconductive element; an image writing device configured to write an image in the charged photoconductive element by light to form an electrostatic latent image; a developing device configured to visualize the formed electrostatic latent image as a toner image; a transfer device configured to transfer the toner image to a sheet recording medium; a fixing device configured to fix the transferred toner image onto the medium; and a surface information detecting device configured to detect surface information of a fixing member of the fixing device. The surface information detecting device radiates optical spots on a surface of the fixing member in a direction crossing a conveying direction, receives reflected light of each optical spot, and detects the surface information of the fixing device based on the detection results of the reflective lights.

Image forming apparatus and image forming method

A reflective optical sensor for detecting surface information on a moving element moving in a certain direction includes at least one light emitter, a light emitting lens provided between the light emitter and a surface of the moving element and formed to become conjugated with the light emitter in the moving direction of the moving element in a longer distance from the light emitter than in a vertical direction relative to the moving direction, at least one light receiver, and a light receiving lens provided between the light receiver and the surface of the moving element.

Reflective optical sensor, image forming apparatus, and surface information detecting method

A reflection type optical sensor that detect a surface condition of a moving body and that is used for an image generation apparatus which forms images on a recording media includes a light-emitting device which has a plurality of light emitter systems including at least two light-emitting members and a light-emitting optical system having a plurality of light-emitting lenses corresponding to a plurality of the light emitter systems and guiding light emitted from the light emitter systems to the moving body and a light-receiving device which has a light receiver system including at least two light-receiving members and a light-receiving optical system having light-receiving lenses corresponding to the at least two light-receiving members and guiding light reflected by the moving body to the light receiver system. The image generation apparatus has further a surface condition judging device in addition to the reflection type optical sensor.

Reflection type optical sensor and image generation apparatus

An image forming apparatus includes a fixing member, at least one reflective optical sensor, a heat shielding member, and a processor. The fixing member fixes an image on a recording medium moving in a first axis direction. At least one reflective optical sensor emits light toward the fixing member and receives light reflected by the fixing member. The heat shielding member is arranged between the fixing member and the at least one reflective optical sensor, has a light passing part through which light directed to the fixing member from the at least one reflective optical sensor and light reflected by the fixing member and directed to the at least one reflective optical sensor passes, and prevents heat transfer from the fixing member to the at least one reflective optical sensor. The processor is configured to obtain a surface state of the fixing member on the basis of an output signal from the at least one reflective optical sensor.

Image forming apparatus

A fixing apparatus for fixing a toner image borne on a sheet-like recording medium onto the sheet-like recording medium, including: a fixing member relatively moving in a first direction with respect to the sheet-like recording medium, and having a surface in contact with the toner image during a fixing operation; a surface-information-detecting device for obtaining surface information of the fixing member; a surface-condition-changing device arranged to abut on and separate from the fixing member, and abrading the surface of the fixing member in contact with the fixing member; and a surface-condition-change controller for controlling an abutting and separating of the surface-condition-changing device with respect to the fixing member according to a detection result of the surface-information-detecting device. The surface-condition-change controller controls the surface-condition-changing device according to the detection result of the surface-information-detecting device with a criteria which varies before and after the surface-condition-changing device abrades the fixing device.

Fixing apparatus and image-forming apparatus

An image forming apparatus comprises: a sensor that includes a light-emitting part for emitting light to a moving body and a light-receiving part; a light-incidence adjusting mechanism that is able to alternatively select from a first state where the light-incidence adjusting mechanism causes light which have been emitted from the sensor and then reflected by the moving body to enter the sensor and a second state where the light-incidence adjusting mechanism causes a reflected light of light emitted from the sensor not to enter the sensor; and a processing unit that causes the sensor to emit light, and corrects output of the sensor when the light-incidence adjusting mechanism is in the first state on the basis of output of the sensor when the light-incidence adjusting mechanism is in the second state.

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Kanagawa, Japan

Susumu Momma