The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Dec. 07, 1999
Filed:
Jul. 21, 1998
Hiroshi Nomura, Tokyo, JP;
Yasushi Tabata, Tokyo, JP;
Norio Numako, Tokyo, JP;
Yoshinari Tanimura, Tokyo, JP;
Takuma Sato, Tokyo, JP;
Masaaki Kishimoto, Tokyo, JP;
Asahi Kogaku Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha, Tokyo, JP;
Abstract
A zoom camera includes a lens that is movable from a housed position to an arbitrary position in a photographing enabling range. A lens driver drives the lens, a lens barrier moves between opened and closed positions, and lens barrier closing mechanism moves the lens barrier between an opened position and the closed position. A detector detects that the lens has moved from a position within the photography enabling range to the housed position and controller prevents the lens barrier closing mechanism from moving the lens barrier to the closed position unless the lens is at the housed position.