Canon Kabushiki Kaisha

Takayuki Aizawa

Keiichi Iwamura

Izumi Narita

Masaharu Tsukada

Takatoshi Suzuki

Akitoshi Yamada

Yasuo Kotaki

Kentaro Yano

Hiroki Hayashi

Yasuyuki Tamura

Ryoji Inoue

Yasuo Suzuki

Masashi Ogawa

Tetsuya Ohashi

Haruo Uchida

Yusuke Hashii

Norihiro Ikebe

Hironori Murakami

Eiichi Fujii

Takeru Sasaki

Norio Hashimoto

Nobuhiro Kasama

Shigeru Aoi

Takaaki Ashinuma

Takehiko Shibata

Makoto Shiho

Koki Yaegashi

Tohru Tatsuno

A system comprises: an obtaining unit that obtains predetermined information relating to amount of printing materials for a tank attached to a printing apparatus; and a determining unit that determines an interchangeable tank to be provided from a plurality of types of interchangeable tanks based on the predetermined information, wherein the plurality of types of interchangeable tanks include a first tank and a second tank, the first tank contains printing materials of at least two colors, with a ratio of amounts of the printing materials of the at least two colors being a first constituent ratio, and the second tank contains printing materials of at least the same two colors as those in the first tank, with a ratio of amounts of the printing materials of at least the two colors being a second constituent ratio different from the first constituent ratio.

System, control method therefor, printing apparatus, and control method therefor

An ink tank includes a light-emitting portion and a light-guiding portion for guiding light emitted from the light-emitting portion, wherein the light-guiding portion includes an output portion configured to output the guided light to project individual information about the ink tank and a display portion formed on a side surface different from the output portion and configured to display information about a status of the ink tank by outputting the guided light.

Ink tank

A motor-driving circuit drives a plurality of motors of different types. The motor-driving circuit includes a plurality of H-bridge circuits for outputting driving signals to the motors, a controller for controlling the plurality of H-bridge circuits, a setting section for setting up the controller, and terminals for inputting setting data.

Motor-driving circuit and recording apparatus including the same

When it is detected that a USB cable has been connected, a status of a function is discriminated. If there is no problem even if a USB enumeration is started, a USB signal is pulled up and the enumeration is started. If it is determined that trouble occurs as a function when the enumeration is started, the pull-up of the USB signal is extended and, after the trouble is solved, the USB signal is pulled up and the enumeration is started.

Printer, information processing apparatus, and control method of interface

A clock supply from a clock controller to portions other than a host interface controller is stopped while periodically monitoring a data receiving state from a host. While executing a predetermined maintenance process, a power supplying mode is shifted to a low-power-consumption mode each time before it is shifted to the low-power-consumption mode.

Power control for a printing unit with a maintenance function

A multiplier calculates a product S'(x)=S(x).multidot..lambda.(x) mod X.sup.d-1 of a syndrome polynomial S(x) generated by a syndrome generator and an erasure position polynomial .lambda.(x) generated by an erasure position polynomial generator, modulo X.sup.d-1. A constant multiplier sequentially multiplies coefficients of the polynomial S'(x) and the erasure position polynomial .lambda.(x) with a power of a primitive root .alpha. of a code. The power exponents in this multiplication are determined in units of coefficients. Every time this multiplication is executed, an adder sequentially adds predetermined combinations of products. A plurality of arithmetic and logic operations according to the numbers of correctable erasures and errors are sequentially executed using the sums. A divisor and dividend are selected in accordance with the number of erasures included in the code on the basis of the plurality of arithmetic and logic operation results. A division is executed using the selected divisor and dividend. A value at a position, discriminated to be an error position, of the code is corrected based on the division result, thus performing error correction including erasure correction with a simple circuit arrangement.

Error correction method including erasure correction, and apparatus

In reproduction of information, a decoding program is reproduced from an information recording medium on which information is enciphered and recorded, and an encryption key and the decoding program, which are used to decode the information, are recorded as well. At least one of the encryption key and the decoding program is erased in accordance with an instruction from the decoding program. It is confirmed whether at least one of the encryption key and the decoding program has been erased. Activation of the decoding program is terminated when it is confirmed that at least one of the encryption key and the decoding program has been erased.

Information reproducing method and apparatus having protect function and

According to the present invention, in a drive interface provided between a drive device for writing information in a recording medium or reading information from a recording medium and a controller device for controlling the drive device, there are provided a data signal line for transmitting data signals between the controller device and the drive device and mode signal lines for transmitting mode signals for identifying the kinds of data to be transmitted by the data signal line, and the kinds of data to be transmitted are identified by decoding the mode signals. Write operation and read operation of the drive device are also controlled by the mode signals.

Drive interface for performing write/read of information

Respective processes of decoding in error correction are subjected to parallel processing using a plurality of processing elements (PEs) each having the same configuration. At any given time, when processing of one process has been terminated, processing proceeds to a PE having the highest priority among PEs waiting for processing. The PE which has received data recognizes and executes the next process for that data.

Error correction system including a plurality of processor elements

An information processing method for scanning, by an erasing device, a recording medium on which information is recorded in a predetermined area and erasing the recorded information is disclosed. The erasing device is driven for a period, including the period during which the erasing device is on the area, and longer than the period. The specification also discloses an information processing apparatus including a recording/erasing device for applying a light beam to an optical recording medium and selectively effecting recording and erasing of information, a scanning device for scanning the light beam relative to the recording medium, and a control arrangement for controlling the application time of the light beam so that during erasing, the light beam is applied to an area larger than the area of the recording medium in which information is recorded.

Information processing method and apparatus therefor in which an erasing

An optical information recording/reproducing apparatus for stably recording, reproducing, or erasing the information by a laser beam with respect to different kinds of optical disks is represented. This apparatus includes a processor to record, reproduce, or erase the information for an optical disk, a disk sort detector to detect the sort of optical disk, and a controller to control the processing parameters of the processor in response to an output signal from the disk sort detector. The disk sort detector reads the disk sort identifying information preliminarily recorded on the optical disk by the processor to detect the sort of disk. Or, this detector irradiates light onto labels having different reflection factors or transmission factors preliminarily provided on the optical disks by the processor and detects the reflected light amounts or transmitted light amounts from the labels, thereby detecting the sort of disk. The optical disks include disks of the type only for use of reproduction, the rerecordable type, and the writable type.

Optical information recording/reproduction apparatus including means for

Method and apparatus for recording information on an opto-magnetic recording medium by applying an A.C. magnetic field of a constant frequency to the opto-magnetic recording medium as a recording bias magnetic field and scanning the medium by a light beam modulated with a recording signal in synchronism with the A.C. magnetic field to record the information.

Method and apparatus for recording information on an opto-magnetic

A relay recording area is used in an information recording and reproducing apparatus for storing recording information or recorded information if a defective track or sector is found in a recording medium during data recording or reproduction. An information recording apparatus includes: an information recording medium divided into a plurality of recording areas; a record unit for recording information on the recording medium; a memory for storing information to be recorded on a first recording area of the recording medium when the information cannot be recorded on the first recording area; and a controller for controlling the record unit to record the information stored in the memory on a second recording area different from the first recording area.

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Tokyo, Japan

Takayuki Aizawa