Abstract: A toner composition includes toner particles of at least a resin, a wax, and a colorant, and external additives applied on an exterior surface of the toner particles, including silica, titania, and spacer particles.

Abstract: The invention provides a toner for developing electrostatic latent images containing at least a binder resin, a colorant, a releasing agent, and a graft polymer that has been made by graft polymerization of a resin matrix and a macromonomer including at least one group selected from the group consisting of a hydroxyl group, a hydroxyalkyl group, and a pyrolidonyl group, and a production method thereof. The invention further provides an electrostatic latent image developer using the toner, an image forming method using the toner, and an image forming apparatus.

Abstract: A method utilizes a computer-based system, for processing data gathered from diverse sources and diverse formats by establishing an object. The method determines the format of a data source; determines a communication protocol to retrieve data from the data source; uses the object, using the determined format and communication protocol, to retrieve data from the data source, the object acquiring information and transforming the information into a consistent format; receives input from a user; instantiates, in accordance with the input from the user, the object; and conveys data generated by the object to the user. The data generated by the object may be displayed, reproduced, or manipulated on a user readable medium. Moreover, the data generated by the object may be displayable in a spreadsheet format. The method generates a wrapper function to invoke the object, the wrapper function including parameters that, when entered by a user, invoke the action of the component or object.

Abstract: A method of producing a particle-dispersed liquid, using a channel of micro width having a core flow channel, includes: sending the particle-dispersed liquid containing larger particles to an inner portion of the core flow channel; separating and removing the larger particles from the particle-dispersed liquid; and sending the removed larger particles to an outermost part of the core flow channel. An outer diameter of the core flow channel is 50 to 5,000 ?m.

Abstract: An image processing system in which an image reading apparatus and an image formation apparatus are connected to each other through a communication interface, in which the image reading apparatus includes: a reading section that reads an original and generates image data, a memory that stores the image data, and a mount-processing permission section that, when the image reading apparatus is connected to the image formation apparatus through the communication interface, permits the image formation apparatus to carry out a mount-processing of the memory; the image formation apparatus includes: a mount-processing section that, when the image formation apparatus is connected to the image reading apparatus through the communication interface and permitted to carry out the mount-processing of the memory, carries out the mount-processing of the memory; and the image formation apparatus stores image data received from another communication interface into the memory for which the mount-processing has been carried out.

Abstract: Programming of the input and output paper handling setup of a high speed reprographic system can adversely affect the throughput of the system. A method or system includes a control system that examines the proposed setup and then determine if any of these options results in a loss of throughput. If such losses are detected and exceed a predetermined threshold, the operator of the device will be informed and given the opportunity to change the setup to reduce the throughput loss.

Abstract: A control system and method of predicting how a machine will respond to occasional or periodic service, and adjusting the machine accordingly to account for the change in machine behavior due to the service, mitigates transients in machine performance. A prediction of the service effect is fed forward to the existing control system just prior to the occurrence of service in order to compensate for the service effect. This prediction is continually updated and refined using subsequent measurements of the effect of service on machine performance. More specifically, a controller monitors the process output variables indicative of the machine performance and adjusts machine inputs to achieve a desired level of machine performance. The controller monitors the process output variables indicative of the machine performance prior to, during, and immediately after the service and adjusts the machine inputs to compensate for the transients.

Abstract: A pattern recognition method and apparatus decrease the amount of computation for pattern recognition and adapts flexibly to an increase and a change in learning samples. Learning is made beforehand on base vectors in a subspace of each category and a kernel function. Pattern data to be recognized is input, and projection of an input pattern to a nonlinear subspace of each category is decided. Based on the decided projection, a Euclidean distance or an evaluation value related to each category is calculated from the property of the kernel function, and is compared with a threshold value. If a category for which the evaluation value is below the threshold value exists, a category for which the evaluation value is the smallest is output as a recognition result. If there is no category for which the evaluation value is below the threshold value, a teaching signal is input for additional learning.

Abstract: A toner including particles of a resin, an optional colorant, and a crystalline wax, where the crystalline wax is selected from aliphatic polar amide functionalized waxes, carboxylic acid-terminated polyethylene waxes, aliphatic waxes consisting of esters of hydroxylated unsaturated fatty acids, high acid waxes, and mixtures thereof, is prepared by an emulsion aggregation process.

Abstract: A rotating cleaning brush positioned to clean toner and debris from the back of an imaging belt. Additionally, a plurality of cleaning brushes assembled to clean the back of the imaging belt wherein charging a first and a second brush to approximately equal potential but opposite polarity provides superior discharge of static and other electrical charges from the back of the imaging belt.

Abstract: A polymeric optical waveguide module has: a light-emitting element; a polymeric optical waveguide film having a lower clad, a core, an upper clad, an optical path changing mirror surface provided at one end of the polymeric optical waveguide film and a guided light leakage portion on at least one of a lower surface of the core and an upper surface of the lower clad; and a monitoring light-receiving element that monitors light emitted from the light-emitting element. The light-emitting element, the polymeric optical waveguide film and the monitoring light-receiving element are aligned with each other so that the light emitted from the light-emitting element is reflected by the optical path changing mirror surface to be guided through the core and part of the light emitted from the light-emitting element is received by the monitoring light-receiving element via the guided light leakage portion.

Abstract: Demographic information of an Internet user is predicted based on an analysis of accessed web pages. Web pages accessed by the Internet user are detected and mapped to a user path vector which is converted to a normalized weighted user path vector. A centroid vector identifies web page access patterns of users with a shared user profile attribute. The user profile attribute is assigned to the Internet user based on a comparison of the vectors. Bias values are also assigned to a set of web pages and a user profile attribute can be predicted for an Internet user based on the bias values of web pages accessed by the user. User attributes can also be predicted based on the results of an expectation maximization process. Demographic information can be predicted based on the combined results of a vector comparison, bias determination, or expectation maximization process.

Abstract: A printing system comprised of a printer, a plurality of processing nodes, each processing node being disposed for processing a portion of a print job into a printer dependent format, and a processing manager for spooling the print job into selectively sized chunks and assigning the chunks to selected ones of the nodes for parallel processing of the chunks by the processing nodes into the printer dependent format. The chunks are selectively sized from at least one page to an entire size of the print job in accordance with predetermined splitting factors for enhancing printer printing efficiency.

Abstract: A method for forming a gap (16) of a width (d) which meets selected tolerance limits includes forming sidewalls (80, 82) in a microstructure, the sidewalls defining a gap (16) therebetween. The gap has a width defined between the sidewalls. The width of the gap between the sidewalls is determined. Where the determined width of the gap is below the selected tolerance limits for the width of the gap, the sidewalls are consumed to form a gap which meets the selected tolerance limits. The gap may be incorporated in a waveguide device (10) of a microswitch (100) and selectively connect input and output waveguides (130, 132).

Abstract: The polarization instability inherent in laterally-oxidized VCSELs may be mitigated by employing an appropriately-shaped device aperture, a misoriented substrate, one or more cavities or employing the shaped device aperture together with a misoriented substrate and/or cavities. The laterally-oxidized VCSELs are able to operate in a single polarization mode throughout the entire light output power versus intensity curve. Combining the use of misoriented substrates with a device design that has an asymmetric aperture that reinforces the polarization mode favored by the substrate further improves polarization selectivity. Other device designs, however, can also be combined with substrate misorientation to strengthen polarization selectivity.

Abstract: The present invention relates to an image forming method including: a charging step; an electrostatic latent image forming step; a developing step; a transfer step; a fixing step; and a cleaning step, wherein an electrostatic latent image developing agent comprises a toner and a carrier, wherein particles which have a volume resistivity of at least 1×1014 ?cm and an average primary particle diameter of 50 nm or less has a higher covering ratio than other particles on the toner particle surfaces, a shape factor SF1 of the toner is in the range of from 100 to 140, the carrier is a resin coated carrier, and at least a coating resin layer comprises a positively charging resin and a quaternary ammonium salt compound.

Abstract: Using a document scanner or other image input device of an image or document processing system to periodically scan or image printed test images from a plurality of marking engines replaces internal sensors as a feedback means in image quality control. For example, image lightness (L*) is controlled by periodically printing mid-tone test patches, scanning the printed test patches with a main job document scanner and analyzing the scanned image to determine updated marking engine actuator set points. For instance, ROS exposure and/or scorotron grid voltages are adjusted to maintain image lightness consistency between marking engines.

Abstract: An electronic status notification message for an output job request, which identifies a document for processing at an output device, is received from a submitter. A copy of the document is received, and the output job request is forwarded to the output device. Selected document services are applied to the copy of the document to define an archive of the document. The archive of the document is stored on a document repository. Similarity data is produced by evaluating the archive of the document with other documents in the document repository. Job status information is received concerning the output job request forwarded to the output device. The electronic status notification message is prepared using static and dynamic data concerning the job status information of the output job request and the similarity data of the document archived in the document repository. The electronic status notification message is transmitted to the submitter.