Abstract: A one-time-use camera provided with an opaque cover part comprising a door portion and a remaining portion, a line of weakness between the door portion and the remaining portion that allows the door portion to be pivoted along the line of weakness to open the door portion, and a pair of lead-in slots between the door portion and the remaining portion each having an open lead-in end and an opposite end that is closed at the line of weakness to facilitate pivoting the door portion to be opened, is characterized in that the slots are partially filled between their open and closed ends with opaque tear substances that are thin enough to be readily ripped, from the open ends of the slots to the closed ends of the slots, when the door portion is pivoted along the line of weakness to be opened.

Abstract: A compact camera including a housing, a manually depressible shutter release button, and a movable flash supported for movement between a folded position against the housing and covering the shutter release button and an unfolded position extending from the housing and not covering the shutter release button, is characterized in that the movable flash has a built-in actuator for the shutter release button which covers the shutter release button when the movable flash is in its folded position, but can be manually depressed sufficiently to similarly depress the shutter release button.

Abstract: A method for correcting a color video signal for white balance comprising the steps of:providing a digital color image signal having a sequence of monocolor pixels, wherein each of the pixels represents one color of first, second, and third different colors, which are repeated in a preset pattern;coarse white balance processing each monocolor pixel for a coarse white balance;spatial processing the sequence of monocolor pixels to produce a sequence of tricolor pixels, wherein each of the tricolor pixels represents the first, second, and third different colors; andcolor correction and fine white balance processing each of the tricolor pixels by means of a matrix multiplier for color correction and fine white balance.

Abstract: A device for controlling a stepper motor that drives a plurality of shutter blades. The movement and position of the movement of the rotor of the stepper motor is monitored to determine when the next step of the stepper motor should be stepped so that the rotation of the rotor will be known to cause the shutter blades to form the correct aperture size. The device may also be used to drive an automatic focusing mechanism and/or zoom.

Abstract: A camera comprising a chamber for receiving a film cartridge, a door supported for closing movement to cover the chamber and for opening movement to uncover the chamber, and an extracting mechanism connected with the door for pulling the film cartridge at least part way out of the chamber when the door is opened, is characterized in that the extracting mechanism includes an engaging member adapted to engage a protruding spool end of the film cartridge, to permit the engaging member to tilt the film cartridge out of the chamber when the door is opened. Preferably, the engaging member has a partially enclosed catch-space configured to receive the protruding spool end of the film cartridge in order to engage the protruding spool end.

Abstract: A method and apparatus for removing skivings generated by slicing a moving web comprises a slitter knife for cutting the web and an edge vacuum machine comprising at least two vacuum heads which engulf but do not touch the moving web. Skivings from the edges of the web are vacuumed away so that they do not contaminate the web during later treatment.

Abstract: A silver halide photographic element comprising a silver halide emulsion which is greater than 50 mole % silver chloride, said emulsion being in reactive association with a dithiolone 1-oxide compound represented by the following formula: ##STR1## wherein b is C(O), C(S), C(Se), CH.sub.2 or (CH.sub.2).sub.2, and R.sup.1 and R.sup.2 are independently H, or aliphatic, aromatic or heterocyclic groups, alkoxy groups, hydroxy groups, halogen atoms, aryloxy groups, alkylthio groups, arylthio groups, acyl groups, sulfonyl groups, acyloxy groups, carboxyl groups, cyano groups, sulfo groups, or amino groups, or R.sup.1 and R.sup.2 together represent the atoms necessary to form a five or six-membered ring or a multiple ring system; and a sulfinate compound.

Abstract: A color negative photographic element is disclosed that a pair of fast green and red recording layer units coated to receive exposing radiation prior to at least one pair of slow green and red recording layer units. The green recording layer units together contain at least 1.0 g/m.sup.2 of silver with at least 60 percent of the silver in the green recording layer units being in a location other than the fast green recording layer unit, and the red recording layer units together contain at least 1.8 g/m.sup.2 of silver with at least 70 percent of the silver in the red recording layer units being in a location other than the fast red recording layer unit. When development times are reduced to 2 minutes or less during processing increased red speed, reduced granularity of the green record, and increased sharpness of the red record are observed.

Abstract: An electronic imaging system useful for compositing images includes an electronic camera for capturing multiple images, including a first image of a subject plus background and a second image of the background only. The first and second images are subtracted to generate a difference image, and the difference image is processed to generate a mask image. The mask image is then applied to the first image to select an area in which the subject is located, whereby the selected subject area is used in the compositing of a new image.

Abstract: A portable, high quality color printer for use with portable computers or in an office environment. The system uses a concurrent drop selection and drop separation drop on demand printing mechanism. The printer interprets information supplied by an external computer in the form of one or more page description languages (PDLs) to create a continuous tone page image. This image is converted to a bi-level image by digital halftoning, and stored in a bi-level page memory. The contents of the page memory can then be printed using the printing head. For use with notebook computers, a page width print head is used for fast, silent, low power operation and minimum size. The page width print head requires an entire page bitmap to be provided synchronously and at high speed. This is achieved by pre-calculating the bit-map on the notebook computer, and sending the data to the printer via a high data rate interface such as PC Cards.

Abstract: A shutter intended for use with a light-sensitive material. The shutter includes a light-blocking disk having a light-passing portion through which light can pass to reach a light-sensitive material. The disk is rotated to locate its light-passing portion in line with the light-sensitive material to allow light passing through the light-passing portion to advance towards the light-sensitive material. The shutter also includes a capping element which is moved between a light-blocking position and a non-light-blocking position relative to the light-sensitive material and the light-passing portion of the disk. A single sensor is used to detect a predetermined rotational position of the disk and in response thereto the capping element is moved from one of its light-blocking and non-light-blocking positions to the other.

Abstract: The present invention is a silver halide photographic element which includes a support, at least one light sensitive silver halide emulsion layer; and at least one light-insensitive protective layer. The light insenstive protective layer includes a hydrophilic binder, a colloidal silver particle and an ultraviolet ray absorbing polymer particle having a mean size of greater than 0.01 .mu.m. The ultraviolet ray absorbing polymer particle contains an ultraviolet ray absorber and a polymer derived from monomer A and less than 10 weight percent of monomer B, wherein monomer A represents ethylenically unsaturated monomers which form substantially water insoluble homopolymers, and monomer B represents ethylenically unsaturated monomers capable of forming water soluble homopolymers.

Abstract: A real image viewfinder includes an objective lens, a variator, an image reflecting optic unit, and an eyepiece lens that define a first optical path in which a first real image plane is located between the objective lens and the eyepiece lens, and can be viewed through the eyepiece lens. The reflecting optic unit is movable to compensate for variations in the position of the first real image focal plane such that the real image focal plane moves simultaneously with movement of the reflecting optic unit and also is adapted to define a second optical path through the viewfinder such that a second real image plane is located at the focal plane of the eyepiece lens, where an information display can be located.

Abstract: A DRDW differential phase tracking method including the steps of writing marks to a groove on an optical storage media utilizing a write beam; reading the trailing edge of each mark which is in the process of formation by the same write beam; detecting the diagonal signal components from a quadrature photodetector positioned in the path of the write beam reflected from the optical storage media; and forming a tracking error signal either as a function of the difference between the two diagonal signals out of the quadrant detector or as a function of the differential phase between the two diagonal signals out of the quadrant detector.

Abstract: A non-impact printer apparatus and method employs a printhead including a plurality of recording elements and drivers for driving respective recording elements in response to data relative to respective corrected exposure times for recording respective pixels. A first data storage device stores data relative to associating sets of respective recording elements with respective bins. The first data storage device is responsive to first input signals identifying respective recording elements and outputs second signals relative to respective bin assignment numbers for the respective recording elements. A second data storage device is responsive to the second signals for outputting data relative to corrected exposure times for recording respective pixels by respective recording elements. The bin assignment determination for recording elements are established by propagating exposure error calculated from an adjacent respective recording element.

Abstract: A method for constructing a transform for a predetermined display or printer, such printer being adapted to form a black and white or color print, on a particular medium, the input to the transform being a digital image file produced by a particular image capture device including providing an input characteristic curve which is a function of the output color code values from the image capture device and relative log exposure of the scene; providing an aim curve which is a function of the visual density of the display or colored print and the image capture relative log exposure wherein the mid region of the aim curve has a range of contrasts between 1.00 and 1.30 to a relative log exposure of 0.6 above scene white and a mid-scale contrast of between 1.0 and 1.7 at a relative log exposure of 1.

Abstract: Imaging elements, such as photographic, electrostatographic and thermal imaging elements, comprised of a support, an image-forming layer and an electrically-conductive layer consisting essentially of electrically-conductive fine particles, such as antimony-doped tin oxide particles and, as a binder, water-insoluble polymer particles. The use of water-insoluble polymer particles of an appropriate shear modulus as a binder in the electrically-conductive layer provides a layer with a high degree of conductivity at low concentrations of electrically-conductive fine particles.

Abstract: Apparatus, and an accompanying method, for use in, e.g., a neural network-based optical character recognition (OCR) system (5) for accurately classifying each individual character extracted from a string of characters, and specifically for generating a highly reliable confidence measure that would be used in deciding whether to accept or reject each classified character. Specifically, a confidence measure, associated with each output of, e.g., a neural classifier (165), is generated through use of all the neural activation output values. Each individual neural activation output provides information for a corresponding atomic hypothesis of an evidence function. This hypothesis is that a pattern belongs to a particular class. Each neural output is transformed (1650) through a pre-defined monotonic function into a degree of support in its associated evidence function.

Abstract: A display for presenting selected images to a viewer including a substrate; a photosensitive layer provided over the substrate which is adapted to be exposed and developed to provide viewable and conductive images; and a light modulating layer formed over the photosensitive layer and effective in two conditions, in a first condition to prevent the viewing of the viewable and conductive images and in a second condition to permit viewing of the viewable and conductive images. The display includes an electrical conductive structure connected to the viewable and conductive images for applying a field to selected ones of such viewable and conductive images to cause the light modulating layer overlying the selected ones of the viewable and conductive images to change from the first condition to the second condition so as to present such viewable and conductive images for viewing to the viewer.

Abstract: A method is provided for increasing the release temperature from the fuser in copying and printing processes comprising the steps of forming a toner layer on a receiver with an imagewise overlay toner on top and fixing the layers of toner by contact with a fuser.