Patents by Inventor Kenji Kawamoto

Kenji Kawamoto has filed for patents to protect the following inventions. This listing includes patent applications that are pending as well as patents that have already been granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).

  • Patent number: 11979042
    Abstract: A charging and discharging control device includes one or more processors configured to determine, in response to a stop of alternate-current power supply, whether a voltage value of a storage battery, being capable of supplying power to a direct-current load, is a first threshold or less; determine, in response to a restart of the alternate-current power supply, whether a difference in voltage value between the storage battery and direct-current power output from a rectifier is a second threshold or less; disconnect between the storage battery, and the rectifier and the direct-current load when determining the voltage value of the storage battery as being the first threshold or less, and reconnect from the rectifier to the storage battery when determining the difference in voltage value between the storage battery and the direct-current power is the second threshold or less.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 15, 2018
    Date of Patent: May 7, 2024
    Assignees: Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba, Toshiba Energy Systems & Solutions Corporation
    Inventors: Shinya Kawamoto, Kenji Mitsumoto
  • Publication number: 20240104150
    Abstract: Systems and methods for presenting an interface for additional content suggestion can include obtaining data descriptive of the displayed content and determining additional content associated with the displayed content. An interface can then be provided that displays data associated with the displayed content and the additional content. The interface can include a first viewing window for displaying a portion of the displayed content and a second viewing window for displaying a snippet associated with the additional content.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 15, 2022
    Publication date: March 28, 2024
    Inventors: Srikanth Jalasutram, Jia Sin Lua, Damon Chizuru Kawamoto, Jeffrey Allen Shaffer, Jacob Francis Contreras, Maurice Kenji Clarke, Ryan Michael Henbest, Chengcheng Wang
  • Publication number: 20230167312
    Abstract: An object is to provide a photocurable inkjet printing ink composition offering curability and adhesion on printing targets including sheets whose printing face is constituted by paper, polyester, polyvinyl chloride, ethylene-vinyl acetate-based copolymer, or other vinyl-based polymers, etc., and additionally having storage stability. The cured coating film has low odor, low tackiness, abrasion resistance, high water resistance, high ethanol resistance, stretchability, and excellent bending resistance. Means for solving the problem includes providing a photocurable inkjet printing ink composition containing vinyl methyl oxazolidinone by 5 to 50% by mass relative to the entire ink composition, a monofunctional photopolymerizable monomer having a glass-transition temperature of 10° C. or less by 10 to 50% by mass relative to the entire ink composition, a colorant, and a photopolymerization initiator.
    Type: Application
    Filed: February 18, 2021
    Publication date: June 1, 2023
    Inventors: Okinori NAKASHIMA, Koki OGASAHARA, Kenji KAWAMOTO
  • Patent number: 11358404
    Abstract: A printer includes a head having nozzles, a carriage with the head mounted thereon, a carriage motor to move the carriage along a scanning direction, an encoder including a scale having reference marks formed thereon along a particular direction, and a sensor to detect the reference marks while moving relative to the scale along with movement of the carriage along the scanning direction, and a controller configured to perform liquid discharging to control the head to discharge liquid from the nozzles toward a recording medium while performing feedback control of the carriage motor based on velocity information such that the carriage moves at a target velocity along the scanning direction, the velocity information representing a carriage velocity based on detection results of the sensor, and interrupt the liquid discharging when the carriage velocity exceeds an overshoot threshold higher than the target velocity during the liquid discharging.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 30, 2019
    Date of Patent: June 14, 2022
    Assignee: Brother Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Tsuyoshi Kuwayama, Satoru Arakane, Kenji Kawamoto, Shoji Sato, Shoko Ota
  • Patent number: 10953661
    Abstract: When a correction request is received, a printing correction pattern is printed. Thereafter, a screen prompting to scan the printed correction pattern is displayed. When the scan notification screen is displayed, if the scanning request is received, an image is scanned. Next, the driving information is corrected based on a scanned image. When a particular standby condition is satisfied without the scanning request being received, a process of setting non-completion information is performed. When a particular standby release condition is satisfied without the scanning request is received, a screen corresponding to the satisfied standby release condition is displayed at a particular timing. When the correction request is input when a screen different from the scan notification screen is displayed, information regarding necessity determination of the pattern printing process is received.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 6, 2019
    Date of Patent: March 23, 2021
    Assignee: Brother Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Satoru Arakane, Yuka Hattori, Kenji Kawamoto, Tony Lee
  • Patent number: 10773515
    Abstract: An image recording apparatus includes a carriage which reciprocatingly moves in a scanning direction, a head mounted on the carriage to jet liquid, a speed sensor which acquires speed data related to speed of the carriage, and a controller configured to: record an image by executing a recording pass in which the liquid is jetted from the head toward a recording medium while moving the carriage once toward one side in the scanning direction; determine whether the speed indicated by the speed data is lower than a threshold value during the recording pass; and based on determination that the speed indicated by the speed data is lower than the threshold value at a first point of time in the recording pass, determine whether to suspend or continue the recording pass by referring to the speed data acquired after a predetermined time since the first point of time.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 27, 2019
    Date of Patent: September 15, 2020
    Assignee: Brother Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Satoru Arakane, Kenji Kawamoto, Tsuyoshi Ito
  • Patent number: 10730286
    Abstract: There is provided an image recording apparatus including a carriage, a head, a velocity sensor, and a controller. The controller obtains velocity data of the carriage from the velocity sensor, determines a threshold value based on the velocity data, records an image on a recording medium, and suspends a recording pass when the controller has determined that a velocity indicated by the velocity data is lower than a velocity corresponding to the threshold value. The controller can execute a first recording mode and a second recording mode in which the velocity of the carriage is faster than that of the first recording mode. The velocity data for the first recording mode is obtained in a warm-up time after a recording command is received until recording of the image is started. The velocity data for the second recording mode is obtained in other time other than the warm-up time.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 18, 2019
    Date of Patent: August 4, 2020
    Assignee: Brother Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Satoru Arakane, Kenji Kawamoto, Tsuyoshi Ito
  • Patent number: 10637998
    Abstract: In an image processing apparatus, when a correction request is received, a correction image including a correction pattern and identification information is printed on a printing medium. Thereafter, when a scanning request is received, the image is scanned and identification information is obtained. When the identification information corresponds to one stored in the storage, the driving information is corrected based on the scanned image. When a particular standby condition is satisfied, an information setting process is performed to set non-completion information, while, when a particular standby release condition is satisfied, the controller displays a screen corresponding to the satisfied standby release condition instead of the scan notification screen at a particular timing after the standby release condition is satisfied.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 6, 2019
    Date of Patent: April 28, 2020
    Assignee: Brother Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Satoru Arakane, Yuka Hattori, Kenji Kawamoto, Tony Lee
  • Publication number: 20200070552
    Abstract: A printer includes a head having nozzles, a carriage with the head mounted thereon, a carriage motor to move the carriage along a scanning direction, an encoder including a scale having reference marks formed thereon along a particular direction, and a sensor to detect the reference marks while moving relative to the scale along with movement of the carriage along the scanning direction, and a controller configured to perform liquid discharging to control the head to discharge liquid from the nozzles toward a recording medium while performing feedback control of the carriage motor based on velocity information such that the carriage moves at a target velocity along the scanning direction, the velocity information representing a carriage velocity based on detection results of the sensor, and interrupt the liquid discharging when the carriage velocity exceeds an overshoot threshold higher than the target velocity during the liquid discharging.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 30, 2019
    Publication date: March 5, 2020
    Inventors: Tsuyoshi Kuwayama, Satoru Arakane, Kenji Kawamoto, Shoji Sato, Shoko Ota
  • Publication number: 20200047513
    Abstract: When a correction request is received, a printing correction pattern is printed. Thereafter, a screen prompting to scan the printed correction pattern is displayed. When the scan notification screen is displayed, if the scanning request is received, an image is scanned. Next, the driving information is corrected based on a scanned image. When a particular standby condition is satisfied without the scanning request being received, a process of setting non-completion information is performed. When a particular standby release condition is satisfied without the scanning request is received, a screen corresponding to the satisfied standby release condition is displayed at a particular timing. When the correction request is input when a screen different from the scan notification screen is displayed, information regarding necessity determination of the pattern printing process is received.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 6, 2019
    Publication date: February 13, 2020
    Applicant: Brother Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Satoru ARAKANE, Yuka HATTORI, Kenji KAWAMOTO, Tony LEE
  • Publication number: 20200053228
    Abstract: In an image processing apparatus, when a correction request is received, a correction image including a correction pattern and identification information is printed on a printing medium. Thereafter, when a scanning request is received, the image is scanned and identification information is obtained. When the identification information corresponds to one stored in the storage, the driving information is corrected based on the scanned image. When a particular standby condition is satisfied, an information setting process is performed to set non-completion information, while, when a particular standby release condition is satisfied, the controller displays a screen corresponding to the satisfied standby release condition instead of the scan notification screen at a particular timing after the standby release condition is satisfied.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 6, 2019
    Publication date: February 13, 2020
    Applicant: Brother Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Satoru Arakane, Yuka Hattori, Kenji Kawamoto, Tony Lee
  • Publication number: 20200001598
    Abstract: An image recording apparatus includes a carriage which reciprocatingly moves in a scanning direction, a head mounted on the carriage to jet liquid, a speed sensor which acquires speed data related to speed of the carriage, and a controller configured to: record an image by executing a recording pass in which the liquid is jetted from the head toward an recording medium while moving the carriage once toward one side in the scanning direction; determine whether the speed indicated by the speed data is lower than a threshold value during the recording pass; and based on determination that the speed indicated by the speed data is lower than the threshold value at a first point of time in the recording pass, determine whether to suspend or continue the recording pass by referring to the speed data acquired after a predetermined time since the first point of time.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 27, 2019
    Publication date: January 2, 2020
    Inventors: Satoru Arakane, Kenji Kawamoto, Tsuyoshi Ito
  • Publication number: 20200001600
    Abstract: There is provided an image recording apparatus including a carriage, a head, a velocity sensor, and a controller. The controller obtains velocity data of the carriage from the velocity sensor, determines a threshold value based on the velocity data, records an image on a recording medium, and suspends a recording pass when the controller has determined that a velocity indicated by the velocity data is lower than a velocity corresponding to the threshold value. The controller can execute a first recording mode and a second recording mode in which the velocity of the carriage is faster than that of the first recording mode. The velocity data for the first recording mode is obtained in a warm-up time after a recording command is received until recording of the image is started. The velocity data for the second recording mode is obtained in other time other than the warm-up time.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 18, 2019
    Publication date: January 2, 2020
    Inventors: Satoru ARAKANE, Kenji KAWAMOTO, Tsuyoshi ITO
  • Patent number: 10427437
    Abstract: There is provided an ink-jet printer which includes a head, a carriage, an encoder having a scale and a sensor, a memory, and a controller. The controller executes judging whether or not a recording medium is positioned at an area that can face the carriage, and detecting an abnormal position, and printing an image on a recording medium, and comparing a velocity parameter value acquired and a first threshold value, when the carriage is at a position other than the abnormal position, and comparing the velocity parameter value acquired and a second threshold value corresponding to a velocity slower than the first threshold value, when the carriage is at the abnormal position.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 20, 2018
    Date of Patent: October 1, 2019
    Assignee: BROTHER KOGYO KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventors: Satoru Arakane, Kenji Kawamoto
  • Patent number: 10350886
    Abstract: An ink-jet recording apparatus includes: a recording head including first and second nozzles and first and second driving elements corresponding to the first and second nozzles respectively; a controller; and a head driving circuit connected to the controller by first and second signal lines and a third signal line for transmitting a clock signal, the head driving circuit connected electrically to the first and second driving elements. Each of the first and second driving elements is driven to jet an ink droplet from one of the first and second nozzles corresponding thereto when driving voltage is applied from the head driving circuit. The controller executes relative movement processing for the recording head and a sheet in parallel with recording processing in which pattern signals of the driving voltage are outputted serially to the first signal line and a jetting instruction signal is outputted serially to the second signal line.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 31, 2017
    Date of Patent: July 16, 2019
    Assignee: BROTHER KOGYO KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventors: Shoji Sato, Keisuke Yamamoto, Kenji Kawamoto, Satoru Arakane
  • Patent number: 10300709
    Abstract: A liquid discharging device including a liquid discharging head with nozzles, a carriage, and a controller is provided. When a position of the end of a sheet is on an inner side of an outmost contact part among a plurality of contact parts along a scanning direction, the controller determines discharging timings to discharge liquid from the nozzles based on first gap information, which is related to a gap between the sheet and the liquid discharging surface and is stored in a gap information storage. When the position of the end of the sheet is on the inner side of the outmost contact part, the controller determines the discharging timings based on the first gap information stored in the gap information storage and on second gap information generated in a gap information generating process.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 23, 2017
    Date of Patent: May 28, 2019
    Assignee: Brother Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Satoru Arakane, Kenji Kawamoto, Tsuyoshi Kuwayama
  • Patent number: 10086608
    Abstract: An ink-jet recording apparatus includes: a conveyor conveying a sheet; a recording head including first nozzles, second nozzles, first driving elements corresponding to the first nozzles respectively, and second driving elements corresponding to the second nozzles respectively; a controller; and a head driving circuit connected to the controller by first and second signal lines and a third signal line through which a clock signal is transmitted, and connected electrically to the first driving elements and the second driving elements. Each of the first and second driving elements is driven to jet an ink droplet from one of the first and second nozzles when driving voltage is applied from the head driving circuit. The controller repeatedly executes conveyance processing for conveying the sheet with the conveyor and recording processing in which pattern signals indicating patterns of the driving voltage are outputted serially and a jetting instruction signal is outputted serially.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 7, 2017
    Date of Patent: October 2, 2018
    Assignee: Brother Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Shoji Sato, Keisuke Yamamoto, Kenji Kawamoto, Satoru Arakane
  • Publication number: 20180272769
    Abstract: There is provided an ink-jet printer which includes a head, a carriage, an encoder having a scale and a sensor, a memory, and a controller. The controller executes judging whether or not a recording medium is positioned at an area that can face the carriage, and detecting an abnormal position, and printing an image on a recording medium, and comparing a velocity parameter value acquired and a first threshold value, when the carriage is at a position other than the abnormal position, and comparing the velocity parameter value acquired and a second threshold value corresponding to a velocity slower than the first threshold value, when the carriage is at the abnormal position.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 20, 2018
    Publication date: September 27, 2018
    Inventors: Satoru ARAKANE, Kenji KAWAMOTO
  • Patent number: 9956772
    Abstract: A printing apparatus, including a conveyor, a liquid ejection head with nozzles, a carriage, a carriage movement mechanism, and a controller, is provided. The controller executes a printing operation including a parameter determining process and an ejection timing determining process. In the parameter determining process, a value to a correction parameter is determined. In the ejection timing determining process, ejection timing to eject liquid through the nozzles is determined based on the value to the correction parameter. In the ejection timing determining process, the controller determines the ejection timing by shifting the ejection timing to be at least one of later and earlier than a reference timing for a time length corresponding to the value to the correction parameter. In the parameter determining process, the controller provides a different value to the correction parameter for the scan-printing action in the second unit-printing process depending on the nozzle shift amount.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 28, 2017
    Date of Patent: May 1, 2018
    Assignee: Brother Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Satoru Arakane, Kenji Kawamoto
  • Publication number: 20180093492
    Abstract: A liquid discharging device including a liquid discharging head with nozzles, a carriage, and a controller is provided. When a position of the end of a sheet is on an inner side of an outmost contact part among a plurality of contact parts along a scanning direction, the controller determines discharging timings to discharge liquid from the nozzles based on first gap information, which is related to a gap between the sheet and the liquid discharging surface and is stored in a gap information storage. When the position of the end of the sheet is on the inner side of the outmost contact part, the controller determines the discharging timings based on the first gap information stored in the gap information storage and on second gap information generated in a gap information generating process.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 23, 2017
    Publication date: April 5, 2018
    Inventors: Satoru ARAKANE, Kenji KAWAMOTO, Tsuyoshi KUWAYAMA