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.

Date of Patent:
Apr. 16, 2013

Filed:

May. 16, 2007
Applicants:

Tadashi Shimizu, Kanagawa, JP;

Tetsuya Kimura, Kanagawa, JP;

Kensuke Ito, Kanagawa, JP;

Inventors:

Tadashi Shimizu, Kanagawa, JP;

Tetsuya Kimura, Kanagawa, JP;

Kensuke Ito, Kanagawa, JP;

Assignee:
Attorney:
Primary Examiner:
Int. Cl.
CPC ...
G06K 9/00 (2006.01); G06K 9/20 (2006.01); B44F 1/12 (2006.01); D21F 9/00 (2006.01);
U.S. Cl.
CPC ...
Abstract

The present invention provides a surface-reading apparatus that includes a subject-flexing mechanism and a surface-reading component. The subject-flexing mechanism causes a subject to flex in one of a convex form and a concave form. The surface-reading component reads a characteristic of a surface condition of the subject that has been flexed by the subject-flexing mechanism. The surface-reading component can includes an optical reading component that optically reads the characteristic of the surface condition of the subject. The optical reading component may be a reflected light-reading component that reads the characteristic of the surface condition of the subject with reflected light or may be a transmitted light-reading component that reads the characteristic of the surface condition of the subject with transmitted light.


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