Patents Assigned to Sharp
  • Publication number: 20080259399
    Abstract: A print control apparatus in which a plurality of print apparatuses having a hold print function are caused to hold print data, and the print data of other print apparatuses other than a print apparatus print-instructed by a user is deleted, is provided. A print server is connected to the plurality of printers having a hold print function through a network. The print server includes a print data transmission portion that transmits print data received from a PC to printers to cause the printers to hold the print data, and a print data deletion instruction portion that, when a print notification of the print data is received from any one of the plurality of the printers, instructs other printers other than the printer to delete the print data.
    Type: Application
    Filed: April 17, 2008
    Publication date: October 23, 2008
    Applicant: Sharp Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventor: Masahiro Wada
  • Publication number: 20080258897
    Abstract: An automotive display device, which allows the user to easily recognize the sameness of an information image even if the shape of the image is changed, is realized. An automotive display device (1) includes a display section (13) for displaying a vehicle information image including information regarding a vehicle. The vehicle information image is a 3-D image. The automotive display device (1) further includes an image processing section (113) for generating a vehicle information image seen from a fixed viewpoint, an image display processing section (114) for displaying the vehicle information image on the display section (13), and an ETC information detection section (21) that detects a driving condition of the vehicle. The image processing section (113) rotates the vehicle information image around a predetermined axis and for a predetermined angle, in accordance with ETC information obtained by the ETC information detecting section (21).
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 6, 2005
    Publication date: October 23, 2008
    Applicant: SHARP KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventors: Megumi Itoh, Toshiya Takahashi, Shinichirou Ota, Aki Miake, Takeshi Yamamoto, Masayuki Kikuchi
  • Publication number: 20080260392
    Abstract: An illuminator including an optical transmission mechanism includes a transmission-side electric circuit for forming electric signals modulated in response to information, a light source for emitting intensity-modulated light in response to the electric modulated signals, optical wavelength conversion means including fluorescent material for converting part of the intensity-modulated light into illumination light, photoelectric conversion means for receiving another part of the modulated light and converting this part into reproduced electric modulated signals and a receiving-side electric circuit for reproducing the information from the reproduced electric modulated signals.
    Type: Application
    Filed: May 9, 2008
    Publication date: October 23, 2008
    Applicant: SHARP KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventors: Tatsuya MORIOKA, Mototaka TANEYA
  • Publication number: 20080260423
    Abstract: An intermediate transfer unit mounting and dismounting mechanism for an image forming apparatus including a transfer belt unit that is provided as a separate structure from the apparatus body and can be mounted to and dismounted from the apparatus body, includes: a coupling/decoupling manipulator disposed at the coupling portion between the intermediate transfer unit and the apparatus body for coupling/decoupling. The coupling/decoupling manipulator includes a threaded portion to fasten the intermediate transfer unit and the apparatus body and a drive gear for transferring driving force for conveying the intermediate transfer belt. While the threaded portion is rotated to release the fastening between the transfer belt unit and the housing, the transfer belt is conveyed by the drive gear that rotates in linkage with the rotation of the threaded portion.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 20, 2008
    Publication date: October 23, 2008
    Applicant: SHARP KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventor: Susumu Murakami
  • Publication number: 20080263071
    Abstract: A method for driverless imaging of documents may include a direct imaging application on a client sending an imaging request message to another device, which may be a direct imaging server or a target imaging device. In response to receiving the imaging request message, the device may create an imaging job skeleton that includes contents of a complete imaging job other than document data. The device may send a despooling request to the direct imaging application. The despooling request may indicate where the document data corresponding to the imaging job should be despooled. In response to receiving the despooling request, the direct imaging application may despool the document data in accordance with the despooling request.
    Type: Application
    Filed: April 19, 2007
    Publication date: October 23, 2008
    Applicant: Sharp Laboratories of America, Inc.
    Inventors: Andrew Rodney Ferlitsch, Ronnie Neil Patton
  • Publication number: 20080260062
    Abstract: A method and system optimizes the transmission of a downlink reference signal (DLRS) in a wireless communication system that uses orthogonal division multiple access (OFDMA) for the downlink. Each Node-B (base station) is capable of transmitting the DLRS reference symbols in different subframes of the OFDM radio frame and changing both the number and location of the subframes in response to changing network conditions. The network conditions include the number of terminals being served by the Node-B and multiple access interference (MAI) from adjacent Node-Bs.
    Type: Application
    Filed: April 17, 2007
    Publication date: October 23, 2008
    Applicant: SHARP LABORATORIES OF AMERICA, INC.
    Inventor: Kimihiko Imamura
  • Publication number: 20080258892
    Abstract: A display section displays a speedometer having a substantially circular shape on an outer circumference of which a speed scale is provided. Then, that point on the outer circumference of the speedometer which indicates a speed at a moment is calculated. Further a speed that is attained at a given time period (e.g. 0.5 second) after the moment if the speed is increased at an acceleration at the moment is calculated. An arc-shaped pointer is displayed, the arc-shaped pointer passing (i) the calculated point of the speed scale, (ii) a middle point between the calculated point of the speed scale and a center of the speedometer, and (iii) the center of the speedometer. With this arrangement, a display device displaying the speedometer allows a driver to easily recognize the speed and an amount of a change therein (i.e. acceleration).
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 2, 2005
    Publication date: October 23, 2008
    Applicant: SHARP KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventors: Megumi Itoh, Toshiya Takahashi, Shinichirou Ota, Aki Miake, Takeshi Yamamoto, Keiichiro Sato
  • Patent number: 7440501
    Abstract: Adjacent blocks are identified in an image. Coding parameters for the adjacent blocks are identified. Deblock filtering between the identified adjacent blocks is skipped if the coding parameters for the identified adjacent blocks are similar and not skipped if the coding parameters for the identified adjacent blocks are substantially different.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 13, 2005
    Date of Patent: October 21, 2008
    Assignee: Sharp Laboratories of America, Inc.
    Inventors: Shijun Sun, Shawmin Lei
  • Patent number: 7440635
    Abstract: A method to remove ringing artifacts from locations near dominant edges of an image reconstructed after compression. The image is decomposed into blocks small enough so that each would contain only one significant edge. A significant edge is tested as to whether it is a dominant edge of the image. If there is no dominant edge, the block is not processed. In the remaining blocks, the exact pixels that include the dominant edges are output without filtering. The direction of the dominant edges is inferred, and then the remaining pixels are filtered with a directional de-ringing filter. The de-ringing filter has a main direction that is perpendicular with the direction of the edge, and thus also with an inherent direction of the ringing artifacts.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 27, 2004
    Date of Patent: October 21, 2008
    Assignee: Sharp Laboratories of America, Inc.
    Inventors: Yap-Peng Tan, Wenjun Zeng, Shawmin Lei
  • Patent number: 7441276
    Abstract: In an insertion operation for combined use of contents in a content editing device such as a portable phone, if content without being combined is authorized content, all restriction conditions that have been added to content to be inserted and existing content are initially extracted. The restriction condition refers to information restricting combination with other content or information restricting combination with specific content. The content editing device investigates whether or not the restriction condition described above is satisfied with respect to all contents, and allows insertion of the content in the existing content only when the restriction condition is satisfied.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 28, 2003
    Date of Patent: October 21, 2008
    Assignee: Sharp Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Hirotaka Ueda, Kentaro Sakakura, Soichi Nitta
  • Patent number: 7439554
    Abstract: A semiconductor device comprises a photoelectric conversion portion formed on a semiconductor substrate, a first transparent film provided on the photoelectric conversion portion, and an interlayer lens provided on the first transparent film at a position corresponding to the photoelectric conversion portion, in which the interlayer lens has a higher refractive index than the first transparent film, and at least one of upper and lower surfaces of a second transparent film formed with a thin film multilayer structure of two or more types of compounds is formed to have a protruded shape.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 6, 2004
    Date of Patent: October 21, 2008
    Assignee: Sharp Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Junichi Nakai, Tetsuro Aoki
  • Patent number: 7440633
    Abstract: A system for image enhancement and, more particularly, a system for enhancing the quality of a quantized image.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 19, 2003
    Date of Patent: October 21, 2008
    Assignee: Sharp Laboratories of America, Inc.
    Inventor: Scott J. Daly
  • Patent number: 7439635
    Abstract: Regarding output suppression control of a plurality of dispersed power sources linked to a high-voltage-to-low-voltage transformer of a commercial power system, the partiality of the output suppression of a plurality of dispersed power sources is eliminated and, cost increase of the dispersed power sources is prevented. If a voltage at a power receiving point of a dispersed power source 1a exceeds the upper limit of a proper value, then a power conditioner 4 suppresses an output to a power receiving point to store a surplus power into a storage battery 8 and transmit an output suppression start signal to a management unit 9. The management unit 9 transmits an output suppression command signal to the other dispersed power sources 1b through 1e of which the voltage at the power receiving point is not exceeding the upper limit of the proper value to make the other dispersed power sources 1b through 1e to suppress their outputs and store surplus power into storage batteries 8.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 11, 2007
    Date of Patent: October 21, 2008
    Assignee: Sharp Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Hirofumi Nakata, Mitsuo Okamoto
  • Patent number: 7440611
    Abstract: A method for characterizing an image where a number of test areas of predefined shape and size are located on the image. The color or the texture of the image over each of the test areas is quantified. The image can be characterized by statistical descriptions of the frequency distribution of color or texture of the test areas.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 12, 2005
    Date of Patent: October 21, 2008
    Assignee: Sharp Laboratories of America, Inc.
    Inventors: Richard Qian, Peter J. L. Van Beek
  • Patent number: 7440057
    Abstract: A display device includes: a display medium layer; and a first electrode and a second electrode, which face each other with the display medium layer interposed between them. The first electrode includes: a first conductive layer; and a first polymer film, which covers the first conductive layer and which makes contact with the display medium layer. The second electrode includes: a second conductive layer; and a second polymer film, which covers the second conductive layer and which makes contact with the display medium layer. At least a portion of the first conductive layer has a different work function from the second conductive layer. The number of benzene rings included in each of the first and second polymer films is 0.4 or less for a molecular weight of 100.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 16, 2005
    Date of Patent: October 21, 2008
    Assignee: Sharp Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Makoto Kanbe, Kazuhiko Tsuda, Sayuri Fujiwara
  • Patent number: 7438759
    Abstract: An ambient environment nanowire sensor and corresponding fabrication method have been provided. The method includes: forming a substrate such as Silicon (Si) or glass; growing nanowires; depositing an insulator layer overlying the nanowires; etching to expose tips of the nanowires; forming a patterned metal electrode, with edges, overlying the tips of the nanowires; and, etching to expose the nanowires underlying the electrode edges. The nanowires can be a material such as IrO2, TiO2, InO, ZnO, SnO2, Sb2O3, or In2O3, to mane just a few examples. The insulator layer can be a spin-on glass (SOG) or low-k dielectric. In one aspect, the resultant structure includes exposed nanowires grown from the doped substrate regions and an insulator core with embedded nanowires. In a different aspect, the method forms a growth promotion layer overlying the substrate. The resultant structure includes exposed nanowires grown from the selectively formed growth promotion layer.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 1, 2005
    Date of Patent: October 21, 2008
    Assignee: Sharp Laboratories of America, Inc.
    Inventors: Fengyan Zhang, Robert A. Barrowcliff, Jong-Jan Lee, Sheng Teng Hsu
  • Patent number: 7439187
    Abstract: A method of fabricating a grayscale reticule includes preparing a quartz substrate; depositing a layer of silicon-rich oxide on the quartz substrate; depositing a layer of silicon nitride as an oxidation barrier layer on the silicon-rich oxide layer; depositing and patterning a layer of photoresist; etching the silicon nitride layer with a pattern for the silicon nitride layer; removing the photoresist; cleaning the quartz substrate and the remaining layers; oxidizing the quartz substrate and the layers thereon, thereby converting the silicon-rich oxide layer to a transparent silicon dioxide layer; removing the remaining silicon nitride layer; forming the quartz substrate and the silicon dioxide thereon into a reticule; and using the reticule to pattern a microlens array.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 27, 2006
    Date of Patent: October 21, 2008
    Assignee: Sharp Laboratories of America
    Inventors: Yoshi Ono, Bruce D. Ulrich, Pooran Chandra Joshi
  • Patent number: 7439489
    Abstract: In the photoelectric encoder of the invention, as a light passing zone PZ of a movable object 21 travels by one pitch P, an output signal OUT2 of a second logical operation unit 26b comes to be delayed in phase by 45° with respect to an output signal OUT1 of a first logical operation unit 26a. Therefore, an output having a resolution two times higher than that of the movable object having a phase difference of 90° can be obtained, where the width of each of light receiving elements 22a-22d is (¼)P. Accordingly, the width of each of the light receiving elements can be made two times larger, compared with the case where the width of each of the light receiving elements is (?)P as in conventional optical encoders. Thus, the output strength of the detection signal can be increased, so that the S/N ratio can be improved.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 29, 2007
    Date of Patent: October 21, 2008
    Assignee: Sharp Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Masato Sasaki, Norikazu Okada
  • Patent number: 7439551
    Abstract: The nitride-based compound semiconductor light emitting device includes a first ohmic electrode, a bonding metal layer, a second ohmic electrode, a nitride-based compound semiconductor layer, and a transparent electrode stacked in this order on a support substrate, and further includes an ohmic electrode formed on a back side of the support substrate.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 8, 2005
    Date of Patent: October 21, 2008
    Assignee: Sharp Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventor: Toshio Hata
  • Patent number: 7440717
    Abstract: In the developing apparatus including a developing bath and a toner transport pipe for supplying toner to the developing bath, a toner supply portion opening/closing mechanism is provided, that includes a shutter member for opening and closing a toner supply port of the toner transport pipe that is contained in a base portion of the toner transport pipe, a shaft for moving the shutter member back and forth in a longitudinal direction of the developing bath, a second spring member provided such that the shaft is inserted therein, a first spring member for supporting the shaft detachably to the shutter member through its extension and contraction, and a lever member for extending and contracting the first spring member through its releasing and closing.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 12, 2006
    Date of Patent: October 21, 2008
    Assignee: Sharp Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Hiroshi Kubota, Yasuyuki Ishiguro, Jun Yamaguchi, Hiroshi Kawahito, Yusuke Yoshimoto