Patents Examined by Ted Barnes
  • Patent number: 9544455
    Abstract: An image forming apparatus includes an image forming unit configured to form an image on a sheet, a housing configured to accommodate therein the image forming unit, a reading device, which is provided above the housing, and which is configured to read a content on the sheet, a protruding part, which protrudes from a side surface of the housing, and which is positioned within an outer edge of the reading device projected on a virtual horizontal plane when the protruding part is projected on the virtual horizontal plane, and a wireless board for a wireless communication, at least a part of the wireless board being arranged within the protruding part.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 23, 2014
    Date of Patent: January 10, 2017
    Assignee: Brother Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventor: Junki Ueyama
  • Patent number: 9542134
    Abstract: A terminal device may send a registration request to a print intermediation server. The registration request may cause the print intermediation server to register virtual printer related information. The terminal device may receive authentication information from the print intermediation server. The terminal device may send image data related information to the print intermediation server. The image data related information may be related to target image data representing a target image of a print target. The image data related information may be associated with the virtual printer related information and the authentication information in the print intermediation server. The terminal device may send the authentication information to an actual printer. The authentication information may be used by the actual printer to obtain target print data. The target print data may be data which is created from the target image data by the print intermediation server.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 27, 2014
    Date of Patent: January 10, 2017
    Assignee: Brother Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Fumio Okumura, Naoto Shiraga, Takeshi Miyake, Takanobu Suzuki
  • Patent number: 9526313
    Abstract: A drawing apparatus includes a drawing head, a movement mechanism, and a control unit. The drawing head holds at least one modification member having a first tip at its one end and operates in such a way as to allow the first tip of the modification member to touch ink which is undried or uncured and applied to a drawing target. The movement mechanism moves the drawing head. The control unit controls the drawing head and the movement mechanism. The control unit controls a modification operation in which the movement mechanism moves the modification member through the drawing head while the first tip is touching the ink on the drawing target so that a part of a pattern formed with the ink on the drawing target is modified.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 10, 2014
    Date of Patent: December 27, 2016
    Assignee: CASIO COMPUTER CO., LTD.
    Inventor: Kenichiro Asako
  • Patent number: 9510658
    Abstract: A nail printing apparatus is provided with a controlling unit for acquiring an end position on a tip side of a nail of a finger based on image data of an image of the finger, wherein the finger includes the nail having a nail tip portion and a nail back portion whose color is darker than a color of the nail tip portion. The controlling unit acquires luminance difference values which are difference in two of luminance values adjacent to each other in the image data, acquires a reference position where the luminance difference values represent a extreme value corresponding to a difference value between color of the nail tip portion and the nail back portion, and acquires the end position of the nail based on a position where the luminance difference values represent extreme value on the tip side from the reference position.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 21, 2015
    Date of Patent: December 6, 2016
    Assignee: CASIO COMPUTER CO., LTD.
    Inventor: Tomoyuki Nagao
  • Patent number: 9516287
    Abstract: The present invention is concerning an imaging device comprising: a photoelectric conversion unit that generates imaging signals corresponding to imaging light received from an imaging object; a summation unit that performs summation of the imaging signals generated by the photoelectric conversion unit; a summation controller that controls the summation unit such that the summation unit performs, per line, an operation of summation of imaging signals acquired from the photoelectric conversion unit during the time period of one line for the number of plural times in periods that are twice as much as that of the spatial frequency of the imaging object or more; and a signal generator that generates and outputs an imaging signal of each line from plural sum outputs generated per line.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 12, 2014
    Date of Patent: December 6, 2016
    Assignee: RICOH COMPANY, LTD.
    Inventor: Kohei Marumoto
  • Patent number: 9509874
    Abstract: An image forming apparatus includes an image forming unit configured to form an image on a sheet, a housing configured to accommodate therein the image forming unit, a reading device, which is provided above the housing, and which is configured to read a content on the sheet, a protruding part, which protrudes from a side surface of the housing, and which is positioned within an outer edge of the reading device projected on a virtual horizontal plane when the protruding part is projected on the virtual horizontal plane, and a wireless board for a wireless communication, at least a part of the wireless board being arranged within the protruding part.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 23, 2014
    Date of Patent: November 29, 2016
    Assignee: Brother Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventor: Junki Ueyama
  • Patent number: 9507546
    Abstract: A method for producing packages of printed materials arranged in order based on multiple original digital documents. A user interface is provided to allow the user to specify the order of the original documents to be printed. A print server generates multiple sub-jobs which contain linking information that links them to each other in the specified order to form a job set. The job set can be submitted to a printer in one submission. A printer executes the linked sub-jobs sequentially based on the linking information contained in the sub-jobs to produce the multiple printed documents in the specified order.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 26, 2015
    Date of Patent: November 29, 2016
    Assignee: KONICA MINOLTA LABORATORY U.S.A., INC.
    Inventors: Sivaraman Rajalingam, Danny Naoshi Kumamoto, Hidetaka Yoshida, Rakesh Pandit
  • Patent number: 9507554
    Abstract: A display/input device has an input portion, a display panel, a storage portion, and a control portion. The storage portion stores current value data containing current setting values, default value data, and saved setting data containing setting values changed, on registration, from default values. The control portion extracts, out of the saved setting data, setting values that have not been changed, on registration, from the default values and that differ from current default values, and writes, out of the values, on registration, of the extracted values and the current default values, values selected by a user to the current value data.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 8, 2015
    Date of Patent: November 29, 2016
    Assignee: KYOCERA Document Solutions Inc.
    Inventor: Chigusa Mochizuki
  • Patent number: 9491329
    Abstract: An image forming apparatus includes an image forming unit for forming an image on a recording medium, a fixing unit for fixing the image on the recording medium, a storage unit configured to store image data representing the image, a first generation unit for generating a first position information which represents a position of a target pixel in a first direction which corresponds to a conveyance direction of the recording medium. The apparatus further includes a second generation unit for generating a second position information which represents a position of the target pixel in a second direction which is perpendicular to the first direction; a setting unit for setting, based on magnification changing information in the first direction which corresponds to a conveyance direction of the recording medium, a division condition for dividing the image data representing the image into two or more areas in the first direction.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 31, 2015
    Date of Patent: November 8, 2016
    Assignee: CANON KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventor: Yuzuru Yano
  • Patent number: 9486050
    Abstract: A drawing apparatus comprises a controlling unit which adjusts a size of a design image formed by a image data, the image data includes position information of a key point which is predetermined set, without changing an aspect ratio of the design image and the relative position of the key point, generates an adjusted design image, and fits the adjusted design image to a drawing region of a nail; and a drawing unit for drawing the adjusted design image on the drawing region. The controlling unit sets an adjustment point in the drawing region at the same relative positions in the longitudinal and lateral directions as the key point set on the design image, and, in the fitting, sets the adjusted design image to the drawing region at a position which the key point of the adjusted design image meets the adjustment point.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 26, 2015
    Date of Patent: November 8, 2016
    Assignee: CASIO COMPUTER CO., LTD.
    Inventor: Shuichi Yamasaki
  • Patent number: 9482791
    Abstract: An optical product that includes a transparent lens sheet, which has a first side with a plurality of side-by-side sets of linearly arranged lenses. Each of the sets of lenses is at a slant angle in the range of 10 to 46 degrees from a vertical or a horizontal axis of the lens sheet. The product includes an image layer that includes pixels from a number of digital images. The pixels are arranged in a pattern of pixel locations providing non-orthogonal interlacing of the digital images relative to each of the sets of the linearly arranged lenses. The pattern of pixel locations aligns a number of the pixels from each of the digital images to be parallel to a line extending through a center of the linearly arranged lenses in each set. Each of the linearly arranged lenses may have a round base, a hexagonal base, or a square base.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 27, 2015
    Date of Patent: November 1, 2016
    Assignee: LUMENCO, LLC
    Inventors: Mark A. Raymond, Hector Andres Porras Soto
  • Patent number: 9462869
    Abstract: A drawing apparatus to perform drawing on a drawing target surface which is a surface of a fingernail or toenail having a curved shape includes a drawing tool holder which holds a drawing tool in such a way that the drawing tool is movable toward and away from the drawing target surface; and a drawing tool pressing mechanism which presses the drawing tool with a pressing force toward the drawing target surface when the drawing tool performs drawing. The drawing tool pressing mechanism changes the pressing force in accordance with a change in height of a position to be touched by the drawing tool on the drawing target surface according to the curved shape due to a change in position where the drawing tool touches the drawing target surface, to reduce a change in pressure on the drawing target surface from the drawing tool.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 22, 2015
    Date of Patent: October 11, 2016
    Assignee: CASIO COMPUTER CO., LTD
    Inventor: Hiroyasu Bitoh
  • Patent number: 9467588
    Abstract: A server is provided that includes a connection establishing unit configured to establish a connection with an intended image processing device, an information acquiring unit configured to acquire user information for identifying a user who requests to establish the connection with the intended image processing device, a storage unit configured to store the user information acquired by the information acquiring unit, in association with the intended image processing device, and a changing unit configured to change a setting for each image processing device belonging to a group that includes image processing devices stored in the storage unit in association with user information identical to the acquired user information.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 27, 2012
    Date of Patent: October 11, 2016
    Assignee: BROTHER KOGYO KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventor: Naoki Hashimoto
  • Patent number: 9465564
    Abstract: A printing control apparatus includes: an intermediate data generating unit that generates a piece of intermediate data; a judgment unit that, using attribute information, judges whether a piece of object data is a bitmap image; a first color/monochrome judgment unit that makes a color/monochrome judgment using the attribute information; and a second color/monochrome judgment unit that further makes the color/monochrome judgment for each individual pixel when the piece of object data is a bitmap image and is judged to be in color by the first color/monochrome judgment unit.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 12, 2014
    Date of Patent: October 11, 2016
    Assignee: RISO KAGAKU CORPORATION
    Inventors: Kahiro Matsudaira, Masaki Ozawa
  • Patent number: 9467579
    Abstract: The present invention is a window picture system that includes a retractable window shade pulled down from a top portion of a window, one or more images that include a selected one of one or more pictures, one or more photographs and one or more drawings, a window frame with a bottom and a window sill with a top surfacing. The system also includes a three dimensional projector that displays a selected one of the one or more images and one or more slide shows onto the window, an image change button disposed on the top surfacing of the window sill, a camera SD card inserted into the three dimension projector, a battery and a scanner utilized to scan the selected one of the one or more images and one or more slide shows.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 27, 2012
    Date of Patent: October 11, 2016
    Inventors: Janis Dugan, Robert Dugan
  • Patent number: 9451127
    Abstract: An image processing apparatus includes an area extracting unit, a specific halftone dot area detecting unit, and an encoding unit. The area extracting unit extracts a halftone dot area from an image. The specific halftone dot area detecting unit detects a specific halftone dot area, the specific halftone dot area being the extracted halftone dot area that includes a character and of which a variation range in a distribution of luminance and hue is less than a predetermined range. The encoding unit encodes the specific halftone dot area in an encoding manner different from an encoding manner for the halftone dot area other than the specific halftone dot area, the encoding manner for the specific halftone dot area providing higher image quality after encoding than image quality provided by the encoding manner for the halftone dot area other than the specific halftone dot area.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 20, 2015
    Date of Patent: September 20, 2016
    Inventors: Hiroyuki Harada, Sota Nanbu
  • Patent number: 9442682
    Abstract: An image processing apparatus accepts a request from a computer over a network, processes an image processing job in response to the request, generates identification information corresponding to the image processing job, transmits to the computer a response on which the identification is set, and controls the image processing job when the receiving unit has accepted a second request on which the identification information is set.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 27, 2014
    Date of Patent: September 13, 2016
    Assignee: CANON KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventor: Takashi Osuki
  • Patent number: 9423988
    Abstract: A print control apparatus connectable to an image forming apparatus, an image forming apparatus, a print control method, an image forming method, and a non-transitory computer-readable medium are provided. The print control apparatus includes a manipulation inputter configured to receive a command to print a document, a controller configured to calculate a toner amount for each of a plurality of print saving modes applicable to the document, and determine a print saving mode to be applied to the document based on the calculated toner amount, a printer driver configured to generate print data on the document according to the determined print saving mode, and a communication interface configured to transmit the generated print data to the image forming apparatus.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 13, 2015
    Date of Patent: August 23, 2016
    Assignee: SAMSUNG ELECTRONICS CO., LTD.
    Inventors: Min-ki Cho, Jung-ho Bang, Kyeong-man Kim
  • Patent number: 9418323
    Abstract: A method is provided for combining two source images in a relief image. Structural elements are applied that allow a first image to be observed in a first viewing direction and a second image in a second viewing direction. The method reduces a ghosting effect by a) printing a test relief image wherein the two source images comprise patches with a number of basic colors having a predefined amount of colorant; b) measuring for each patch an observed color in each of the viewing directions; c) scaling the source images such that an image element matches a size of a structural element in the relief image; d) selecting a structural element from the test relief image, wherefore the color differences between the image elements of the scaled source images and the patch color becomes minimal, and e) composing a relief image from the selected structural elements.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 30, 2015
    Date of Patent: August 16, 2016
    Assignee: OCE-TECHNOLOGIES B.V.
    Inventors: Teun R. Baar, Marjan Shahpaski, Maria V. Ortiz Segovia
  • Patent number: 9411544
    Abstract: There is provided a printing apparatus for conveying a print medium and performing printing on the conveyed print medium, the printing apparatus including a print data acquisition unit configured to acquire print data in which digital watermark information is added to image data, the digital watermark information being used to identify a position of an image of the image data on a print medium, a printing unit configured to print an image on a print medium based on the print data, a conveyance information acquisition unit configured to acquire information relating to conveyance of a print medium, based on information on the position of the image that is obtained by detection of digital watermark information in an image read by a reading unit, and a print control unit configured to control printing by the printing unit, based on the acquired information relating to conveyance.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 23, 2015
    Date of Patent: August 9, 2016
    Assignee: CANON KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventors: Nobutaka Miyake, Shinjiro Hori, Hiromitsu Akiba, Junichi Nakagawa