Abstract: An image forming apparatus includes: a main body; a sheet transporting unit provided to a side portion of the main body; and a noise source provided inside of the main body with a rotation portion, wherein the sheet transporting unit includes a plate having a plurality of holes, and an opposing member having a surface opposing the plate, and wherein the noise source, the plate, and the opposing member are disposed in the stated order from inside of the main body to outside of the main body.

Abstract: Methods and systems receive an instruction to print an accumulation e-mail message through a graphic user interface of a computerized device. The accumulation e-mail comprises an original e-mail message and one or more reply e-mail messages made to the original e-mail message. The methods and systems automatically identify boundaries between the e-mail messages within the accumulation e-mail using the computerized device; automatically truncate the original e-mail message and one or more of the reply e-mail messages from the accumulation e-mail message to create a modified accumulation e-mail message using the computerized device; and automatically print the modified accumulation e-mail message using a printing device.

Abstract: According to aspects described herein, there is disclosed an apparatus for de-skewing substrate media in a printing system. The apparatus includes at least one sensor for measuring skew of the substrate media being transferred relative to a process direction. The apparatus also includes a nip assembly for moving the substrate media in the process direction. The nip assembly includes a drive roller and an idler roller for engaging the substrate media. The drive roller is rotatably supported on a shaft axis, with the shaft axis being pivotally supported substantially at one end thereof for aligning the shaft axis with the measured substrate media skew. The shaft axis pivots about a pivot axis perpendicular to the shaft axis.

Abstract: A system and method for controlling the cross-process position of ink print heads including identifying a first roll error frequency related to a circumference of a first roll, identifying a first roll error phase with respect to a reference location along a process path, identifying a first roll error amplitude of cross-process motion, identifying a second roll error frequency related to a circumference of a second roll, identifying a second roll error phase with respect to the reference location, identifying a second roll error amplitude of cross-process motion, and controlling the cross-process position of a first and second print head based upon the identified first roll error frequency, first roll error phase, first roll error amplitude, second roll error frequency, second roll error phase, and second roll error amplitude, wherein the first print head is axially spaced apart from the second print head along the process direction.

Abstract: A fixing device having at least a cylindrical base material, an elastic layer disposed on the base material, and a surface layer disposed on the elastic layer is provided. The cylindrical base material has a variation in thickness within about ±10% when the cylindrical base material is in an endless belt shape having flexibility, or within a variation in outer diameter within about ±0.5% when the cylindrical base material is in a circular cylinder tube shape having rigidity. The elastic layer has a variation in thickness within about ±5%. The surface layer has a variation, along the circumferential direction of the base material, in thickness of the surface within about ±5% and with a surface elongation percentage which increases from a center portion toward both end portions in the widthwise direction of the base material. A fixing apparatus and an image forming apparatus having the fixing device are also provided.

Abstract: A screen device of the present invention has a light collecting element array including a plurality of light collecting elements that collect incident light from a projector and a back surface sheet. The back surface sheet includes a first electrode plate, a second electrode plate, a photoconductive layer disposed between the first electrode plate and the second electrode plate, and an image recording layer disposed between the first electrode plate and the photoconductive layer. At the back surface sheet, a light reflecting portion is formed at a light collecting region to which the light collected by the light collecting elements is irradiated, and a light absorbing portion is formed at a non-light collecting region to which the light collected by the light collecting elements is not irradiated.

Abstract: A surface emitting semiconductor laser includes: a substrate; a first semiconductor multilayer reflection mirror of a first conduction type; an active region; a second semiconductor multilayer reflection mirror of a second conduction type; a first selectively oxidized layer that is formed in one of the first and second semiconductor multilayer reflection mirrors and includes a first oxidized region selectively oxidized, and a first conductive region surrounded by the first oxidized region; and a second selectively oxidized layer that is formed in one of the first and second semiconductor multilayer reflection mirrors and includes a second oxidized region selectively oxidized, and a second conductive region surrounded by the second oxidized region.

Abstract: The invention provides a transparent toner for electrostatic latent image development, containing a polyester resin and a release agent, the difference between an endothermic peak Tm of the release agent in a temperature increasing process and an exothermic peak Tc of the release agent in a temperature decreasing process when measured by an ASTM method with a differential scanning calorimeter (DSC) is from about 40° C. to about 50° C., and the degree of exposure of the release agent at the surface of the toner as determined quantitatively by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) is about 10% or less.

Abstract: An exposure device includes a reference current generating unit generating a reference current for each image of respective colors, a photoelectric current generating unit generating a photoelectric current in response to a light amount of the light emitting element, a driving unit driving the light emitting element, a first controller, a drive voltage holding unit holding a drive voltage given to the driving unit, a second controller controlling the driving unit based on the drive voltage held, a comparison current generating unit generates a comparison current, a difference current generating unit generating a difference current, of each color, corresponding to a difference between the reference current of each color and the comparison current. The first controller compares a value obtained by adding the difference current of each color to the photoelectric current with the comparison current to control the driving unit so that the photoelectric current becomes the reference current.

Abstract: A surface emitting semiconductor laser includes: a semiconductor substrate; a lower reflector that is formed on the semiconductor substrate and includes a semiconductor multilayer of a first conduction type; an upper reflector that is formed above the semiconductor substrate and includes a semiconductor multilayer of a second conduction type; an active region interposed between the lower reflector and the upper reflector; a current confining layer that is interposed between the lower reflector and the upper reflector and has a conductive region having an anisotropic shape in a plane perpendicular to an optical axis; and an electrode that is formed on the upper reflector and has an opening via which a laser beam is emitted, the opening having different edge shapes in directions of the anisotropic shape.

Abstract: A toner for developing an electrostatic charge image, includes: a binder resin formed by reacting a polymerizable aromatic monomer having an ethylenically unsaturated double bond conjugated to an aromatic ring thereof, a nitrogen-containing polymerizable aliphatic monomer having an ethylenically unsaturated double bond and a sulfur-containing aliphatic compound to each other; and a colorant, wherein a ratio (MN/MS) of an amount of nitrogen (MN) to an amount of sulfur (MS) is in a range of from 1.0 to 15.

Abstract: An operation of an authentication apparatus is as follows: Moving image data including a plurality of pieces of still image frame data is accepted, and the move locus of at least one person image is detected based on the moving image data. Individual determination processing of adopting at least one piece of the still image frame data as attention frame data and determining the individual corresponding to the detected move locus of the person image in the attention frame data is executed. The result of the individual determination processing is provided for predetermined authentication processing.

Abstract: Systems and methods are described that facilitate reducing temperature droop during an initial portion of a print job by reducing fuser speed to increase fuser-to-paper interaction while fuser heat is absorbed by the paper during a temperature transient. For instance, during a first N pages of a print job, where N is an integer, the paper acts as a heat sink and exerts a thermal load on the fuser roll. To compensate, fuser speed is reduced initially to ensure that a given amount of heat is applied to toner on the pages. Fuser speed is increased until fuser temperature reaches steady state. Acceleration of the fuser is also adjustable.

Abstract: A photoconductor comprising a supporting substrate, a photogenerating layer, and at least one charge transport layer comprised of at least one charge transport component, and in contact with the charge transport layer an overcoat layer comprised of a fluorinated poly(oxetane) polymer.

Abstract: Passive wands, tracked by one or more cameras, are used as user interface devices. The wands are inexpensive, and are a natural way for users to interact with devices such as large displays. Each wand may be used to specify a full 6 degrees of freedom, which can be helpful for manipulation of 3D applications. The wands may also be used to identify 3D world points, which is useful for multi-camera calibration, and for building 3D models of physical spaces. The described methods provide a more precise estimation of wand pose, and can be implemented with a single camera. Also described is a method for estimation wand pose using information available along a one dimensional ‘line scan’ within the image, which simplifies processing.

Abstract: A sealing heater for heat sealing a film onto a multi-compartment container comprises a heating block having a contact surface. The contact surface includes an outer sealing portion and an intermediate sealing portion. The outer sealing seals a film to a perimeter surface of a multi-compartment tray and the intermediate sealing portion seals a film to substantially all of an intermediate surface between the compartments of the multi-compartment tray. The outer sealing portion and the intermediate sealing portion defining recess perimeters in the contact surface that are positioned to correspond substantially to the compartment perimeters in the multi-compartment tray. A heating element is disposed within the heating block for generating heat at the contact surface of the heating block sufficient to heat seal the sealing film to the perimeter surface and the intermediate surface between the compartments of the multi-compartment tray.

Abstract: The present invention provides an ink comprising at least a pigment, water, a water-soluble organic solvent, a lithium ion and one or more of cation other than the lithium ion, which can be applied particularly favorably for an inkjet method; an ink set at least comprises the ink and/or a processing solution containing at least an aggregating agent; a recording method and a recording device using the ink set in which the ink and the processing solution are applied so as to contact with each other to form an image onto a recording medium.

Abstract: A system and method for determining a quantitative measure of search efficiency of related Web pages. An information goal is specified. A target Web page is identified within a plurality of Web pages. The information goal is searched via a search function in the Web pages to identify potential Web pages that include at least one hyperlink referencing and proximal cues relating to distal content included in another potential Web page. An activation network is formed. A directed graph is built, including nodes corresponding to the potential Web pages and arcs corresponding to the hyperlinks. A weight is assigned to each arc to represent a probability of traversal of the corresponding hyperlink based on a relatedness of keywords in the information goal to the proximal cues. A traversal through the activation network to the node corresponding to the target Web page is evaluated as a quantitative measure of search efficiency.

Abstract: An image processing apparatus for converting inputted image data to image data in accordance with characteristics of an image forming unit, including: a first gradation correction unit which performs a gradation correction processing of the inputted image data in accordance with the characteristics of the image forming unit; a total toner amount control unit which performs a total toner amount control processing of the image data which has undergone at least the gradation correction processing executed by the first gradation correction unit; and a second gradation correction unit which performs a gradation correction processing in accordance with the characteristics of the image forming unit with respect to the image data which has undergone at least the total toner amount control processing executed by the total toner amount control unit.

Abstract: A phase change ink composition includes an ink vehicle and at least one pigment, wherein the ink composition is substantially solid at room temperature and includes at least one dispersant for the at least pigment and at least one synergist.