Patents Represented by Law Firm Robin, Blecker, Daley & Driscoll
  • Patent number: 5690294
    Abstract: A recording and/or reproducing apparatus having a rotary drum, comprises a first chassis on which the rotary drum is provided, a second chassis which is supported for sliding movement on the first chassis within a predetermined stroke, a reel mount provided on the second chassis, a brake member provided on the second chassis and capable of engaging with the reel mount, a projecting portion of the brake member projecting toward the first chassis through the second chassis, a driving member for moving the brake member by coming into abutment with the projecting portion of the brake member, and a lever turnably provided on the first chassis and having a pin at its one end, the pin being engaged with a slot, which is provided in the second chassis, so that the lever slides the second chassis, the lever being operated to overlap the projecting portion of the brake member when the second chassis projects from the first chassis.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 19, 1996
    Date of Patent: November 25, 1997
    Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventor: Junji Kobayashi
  • Patent number: 5691765
    Abstract: A video surveillance system has a camera equipped with a fisheye lens having a substantially hemispheric field of view. The system implements operations equivalent to the panning, tilting and zooming of a conventional camera without the use of moving parts. The lens is mounted vertically above a plane under surveillance. The camera produces a fisheye image made up of a plurality of pixels. The fisheye image is distorted due to the properties of the fisheye lens. The system corrects the distortion by mapping the pixels of the fisheye image to coordinates produced by selecting a particular part of the fisheye image to be viewed. This allows an operator to select parts of the field of view of the fisheye lens and view them as if they had been produced by a camera having a conventional lens being panned tilted or zoomed. The fisheye image formed by the camera is split into four separate image components carried by four bundles of optical fibers.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 27, 1995
    Date of Patent: November 25, 1997
    Assignee: Sensormatic Electronics Corporation
    Inventors: Steve W. Schieltz, Terry Laurence Glatt, Carl Kupersmit
  • Patent number: 5689790
    Abstract: The present invention provides an image forming apparatus comprising an image bearing member, and a recording material bearing member for bearing a recording material to convey the recording material to a transfer station where an image is transferred from the image bearing member onto the recording material borne on the recording material bearing member. The recording material bearing member is capable of bearing a plurality of recording materials simultaneously at different positions thereon. The images can be successively transferred onto first and second surfaces of each recording material, and, when images are formed on the second surfaces of the plurality of recording materials, during a time period in which an area of the recording material bearing member with which the first surface of the recording material was previously contacted is passing through at least the transfer position without bearing the recording material, a spacer particle layer is formed between the image bearing member and the area.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 15, 1996
    Date of Patent: November 18, 1997
    Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Takahiro Kubo, Yoshihiro Murasawa, Takashi Hasegawa, Satoshi Tamura
  • Patent number: 5689746
    Abstract: To reduce the size of an optical apparatus having an amount-of-light adjusting device, there is provided an arrangement which comprises a light-blocking member arranged to move to vary a light-blocking area and a drive part for driving the light block member. The drive part includes a stator formed by a first stator piece having a first stator pole and a second stator piece having a second stator pole and a rotor made eccentric with respect to a central position of the first stator piece and the second stator piece. The drive part is disposed rearward of the light-blocking member in the direction of the optical axis.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 9, 1994
    Date of Patent: November 18, 1997
    Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Hiroshi Akada, Tatsuo Chigira, Hironori Takano, Masahiko Tsuzuki
  • Patent number: 5689375
    Abstract: An optical apparatus includes a lens movably supported, a driving part arranged to rotate for causing the lens to move, a moving mechanism arranged to cause the lens to move by the rotation of the driving part, and an adjusting mechanism arranged to cause the moving mechanism to move the lens for fine adjustment by applying rotational driving to the moving mechanism without recourse to the driving part.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 17, 1996
    Date of Patent: November 18, 1997
    Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Tatsuya Satoh, Masaharu Eguchi
  • Patent number: 5689744
    Abstract: In a camera having a motor disposed within a spool which is a part of a film winding mechanism, an internal toothed portion of a planetary gear transmission mechanism for transmitting the power of the motor in a reduced state is formed at a base plate which has a spool support part arranged to support the spool.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 31, 1997
    Date of Patent: November 18, 1997
    Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventor: Shoji Kaihara
  • Patent number: 5687414
    Abstract: A camera adapted to use an image recording medium cartridge in which an image recording medium is contained or an apparatus adapted for this kind of camera includes a determination portion for determining whether the image recording medium contained in the image recording medium cartridge is already developed.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 18, 1995
    Date of Patent: November 11, 1997
    Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Shosuke Haraguchi, Masakazu Taku
  • Patent number: 5687143
    Abstract: A reproducing apparatus for reproducing an information signal from a recording medium in which a recording medium has a modulated information signal recorded thereon by one of different recording systems, includes an optical head for irradiating the recording medium with a light beam, a photoelectric detecting portion for receiving a light beam reflexed from the recording medium and for generating an electric signal as the modulated information signal in response to the received light beam, and a convertor for converting the information signal from the electric signal. The photoelectric detecting portion is arranged to generate the electric signal by different processes in the case where the modulated information signal is recorded on the recording medium by a first system and in the case where the modulated information signal is recorded on the recording medium by a second system different from the first system.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 15, 1995
    Date of Patent: November 11, 1997
    Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Koji Takahashi, Yoshitake Nagashima, Yuji Imamura
  • Patent number: 5684459
    Abstract: A longitudinal curvature in an amorphous metal alloy ribbon is reduced by heat-treatment. While the heat-treatment occurs, the alloy ribbon is bent "backwards" against the longitudinal curvature, to reduce the amount of heat-treatment required. The process is carried out continuously by transporting the alloy ribbon from reel to reel, while wrapping the ribbon around a heated roller. Using a discrete strip cut from the alloy ribbon subjected to the curvature-reducing process, a magnetomechanical EAS marker is constructed that has a relatively low profile, while retaining desired magnetic properties.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 2, 1995
    Date of Patent: November 4, 1997
    Assignee: Sensormatic Electronics Corporation
    Inventors: Nen-chin Liu, Larry Speciale
  • Patent number: 5684919
    Abstract: An apparatus for recording a video signal while forming a multiplicity of recording tracks in parallel on a tape-shaped recording medium, wherein camera information representing the operating state of a camera when shooting each picture is recorded in a position corresponding to the recorded track of that picture so that the operating state of the camera at the time of taking the video signal which has already been recorded can reappear. Therefore, in a case where a video signal is recorded in continuity with this recorded portion, the camera operating state is controlled in a joint portion of these to improve the continuity in this joint portion.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 17, 1993
    Date of Patent: November 4, 1997
    Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Masahiko Kikuzawa, Hidetoshi Wada, Hisataka Hirose, Hideo Kawahara
  • Patent number: 5684532
    Abstract: A video camera is operated to obtain a very rapid change in magnification. A target degree of magnification is achieved by rapid change in an electronic zoom factor provided by an image signal processing circuit. Either before or after the change in electronic zoom factor, simultaneous off-setting changes are carried out in the electronic zoom factor and in a mechanical zoom factor provided by the camera's optical system. The simultaneous off-setting changes in the two zoom factors occur at a rate consistent with practical operation of the mechanical drive components for the camera's optical system.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 6, 1995
    Date of Patent: November 4, 1997
    Assignee: Sensormatic Electronics Corporation
    Inventor: Reuel Andrew Ely
  • Patent number: 5684659
    Abstract: A magnetic head includes a first core having magnetic materials joined together through a magnetic gap, a second core having a magnetic material, and a coil formed with a thin film around a magnetic joining part between the first core and the second core.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 1, 1995
    Date of Patent: November 4, 1997
    Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Masahiro Kawase, Makoto Kameyama, Takahiro Nakagawa
  • Patent number: 5682425
    Abstract: The information signal transmission system of the present invention is so designed as to convert the analog information signal into digital information data and to transmit these digital data after enciphering a part of the digital data. It can therefore maintain the secrecy of the transmitted information signal and can employ a low-speed enciphering process, thereby reducing the magnitude of hardware and reducing its cost.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 6, 1995
    Date of Patent: October 28, 1997
    Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventor: Masahiko Enari
  • Patent number: 5680500
    Abstract: A sheet-shaped record bearing medium having a first recording area for recording a fixed amount of information and a second recording area for recording a variable amount of information, a still video signal being recorded in the first recording area and a time-serial signal being recorded in the second recording area.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 18, 1992
    Date of Patent: October 21, 1997
    Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Koji Takahashi, Yoshitake Nagashima, Yuji Imamura
  • Patent number: 5677733
    Abstract: An exposure control device having a light measuring area setting circuit which sets a light measuring area on an image sensing plane, a discriminating circuit which discriminates from each other varied states of the image sensing plane through video signal parts corresponding to the inside and the outside of the light measuring area and an exposure compensating circuit which compensates the state of exposure to light is arranged to shift the set position of the light measuring area to trace an object's image at least when the exposure compensating circuit is in operation.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 1, 1994
    Date of Patent: October 14, 1997
    Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Katsuji Yoshimura, Kitahiro Kaneda, Hideo Homma, Kunihiko Yamada, Hirofumi Suda, Akihiro Fujiwara
  • Patent number: 5676767
    Abstract: A magnetostrictive element for use in a magnetomechanical electronic article surveillance marker is formed by annealing a continuous ribbon of an amorphous metal alloy. The alloy ribbon is transported from reel to reel through an oven in which a transverse saturating magnetic field is applied to the ribbon. The annealed ribbon is cut into discrete strips which are suitable for use as magnetostrictive elements.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 12, 1995
    Date of Patent: October 14, 1997
    Assignee: Sensormatic Electronics Corporation
    Inventors: Nen-Chin Liu, Larry Speciale
  • Patent number: 5675655
    Abstract: A sound input apparatus according to the present invention subtracts, from the output signal from a first microphone, the output signal of a second microphone which is arranged in a manner different from that of the first microphone to output the subtracted signal and controls the level of the signal of the second microphone in response to the level of the subtracted signal. The sound input apparatus simply constructed in this way achieves a narrowed sound directivity when picking up sound and presents high-quality audio signal while keeping the influence of ambient noise to a minimum.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 10, 1995
    Date of Patent: October 7, 1997
    Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventor: Shinichi Hatae
  • Patent number: 5673024
    Abstract: A signal received in an electronic article surveillance system is subjected to a nonlinear comb filtering function to remove interference. The nonlinear comb filtering is provided by performing a polyphase decomposition of an input digital signal, nonlinear filtering of the resulting subsequences, and then synthesizing the nonlinear-filtered subsequences. A median filter may be used as the subsequence filtering function. A linear comb filtering function may be provided downstream from the nonlinear comb filter to provide additional attenuation of interference.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 22, 1996
    Date of Patent: September 30, 1997
    Assignee: Sensormatic Electronics Corporation
    Inventors: Thomas J. Frederick, Dale R. Bettine
  • Patent number: 5672862
    Abstract: An optical apparatus or a control device to be used for a light flux deflecting apparatus is arranged to include at least two light flux deflecting portions and a control portion which control the driving actions of the at least two light flux deflecting portions in such a manner that, with the light flux deflecting portions applied as image shake preventing mechanisms to an optical apparatus using a plurality of light fluxes, such as a binocular, the arrangement effectively prevents such inconveniences as the necessity of using a plurality of control portions in controlling each of the light flux deflecting portions and giving a disagreeable feeling to the user due to a discrepancy arising in the amount of deflection between two light fluxes.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 26, 1994
    Date of Patent: September 30, 1997
    Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Toru Ohara, Akihiro Fujiwara, Hidefumi Notagashira, Toshimi Iizuka, Yasuhiro Tamekuni, Yoshiki Kino, Tsuyoshi Morofuji, Katsumi Azusawa, Hidekage Sato
  • Patent number: 5668626
    Abstract: A distance measuring apparatus includes: a light projecting unit including a light source and a light projecting lens; a distance measuring first photosensor unit disposed at a predetermined baseline length from the light projecting unit and including a first photosensor and a first light receiving lens; and a second photosensor unit disposed in the vicinity of the light projecting unit in a direction perpendicular to the baseline and including a second photosensor and a second light receiving lens. An output of the second photosensor unit is used for correcting an output of the first photosensor unit.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 15, 1995
    Date of Patent: September 16, 1997
    Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Ryutaro Shin, Ryoichi Suzuki