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:
May. 14, 2002
Filed:
Sep. 06, 2000
Sadao Maeyama, Chiba, JP;
Minoru Yamazaki, Kanagawa, JP;
Sony Corporation, Tokyo, JP;
Abstract
The present invention overcomes disadvantages including the occurrence of uneven printing, the need to provide a large-sized power supply, high cost and the deterioration of energy conversion efficiency resulting from the application of high current to the common resistance of a line head in a thermal printer for printing an image by the line head. Specifically, a gradation generating means ( ) for generating gradation data; a selection means ( ) for alternatively selecting each image data the number of which corresponds to the number of head elements of a head, and data of value 0 for the respective image data, and for switching selection as to which data is to be selected, the image data or the data of value 0, every time a value of the gradation data changes; and a comparison means ( ) for feeding signals each indicating a comparison result of comparing the data selected by the selection means ( ) with the gradation data, are provided at a line head controller ( ) of a thermal printer.