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. 04, 2001
Filed:
Jan. 08, 1998
Pascal Coudray, La Chapelle des Fougeretz, FR;
Marie-Hélène Froger, Chateaugiron, FR;
Canon Kabushiki Kaisha, Tokyo, JP;
Abstract
A device and a method for determining the quantity of product present in a reservoir, and more particularly determining with precision when there is a predetermined quantity of product in the reservoir. The invention applies to an ink reservoir in an image formation device, such as a printer. According to the invention, the product is connected to a predetermined potential and an electrical field is established through the product present in the reservoir. The electrical field passing through the product is measured in order to produce an electrical signal representing the electrical field, and the resulting electrical signal is processed in order to produce a signal representing the quantity of product present in the reservoir and to detect the interruption of the connection of the product to the predetermined potential, where the interruption corresponds t the predetermined quantity of product in the reservoir.