Patents by Inventor Akinori Yamaguchi

Akinori Yamaguchi has filed for patents to protect the following inventions. This listing includes patent applications that are pending as well as patents that have already been granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).

  • Patent number: 8681390
    Abstract: In an optical scanner, when an emission control unit varies a period at which image data is output from an output buffer of the emission control unit in order to correct a sub scan magnification of a LED array and a vacant region of an input buffer of the emission control unit ceases to exist, a buffer control unit temporarily stores the image data in a vacant region of a memory of an image correcting unit, and transfers the image data temporarily stored in the memory to the input buffer when the vacant region is generated in the input buffer.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 2, 2012
    Date of Patent: March 25, 2014
    Assignee: Ricoh Company, Ltd.
    Inventors: Motoyoshi Takahashi, Masayuki Hayashi, Hiroaki Ikeda, Kunihiro Komai, Yoshinori Shirasaki, Fuminori Tsuchiya, Akinori Yamaguchi, Tatsuya Miyadera
  • Publication number: 20140078521
    Abstract: An image forming apparatus comprising: a resolution conversion unit configured to convert the resolution of a pixel provided by input image data; a gradation conversion unit configured to perform matrix conversion onto the pixel; and a writing unit configured to perform a write operation, wherein, in the normal mode, the gradation conversion unit performs matrix conversion onto the pixel with reference to the gradation conversion table for the normal mode, and the writing unit performs the write operation of the pixel in a normal order that is the order image data being input into the image forming apparatus, and in the reverse mode, the gradation conversion unit performs matrix conversion onto the pixel with reference to the gradation conversion table for the reverse mode, and the writing unit performs the write operation of the pixel in a reverse order opposite to the normal order.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 11, 2013
    Publication date: March 20, 2014
    Inventors: Masayuki HAYASHI, Yoshinori Shirasaki, Tatsuya Miyadera, Motohiro Kawanabe, Hiroaki Ikeda, Akinori Yamaguchi, Tomohiro Ohshima
  • Patent number: 8665299
    Abstract: An exposure control apparatus includes: a plurality of line memories; a processing unit that processes image data by successively recording the image data to the plurality of line memories, and successively reading the image data from the plurality of line memories; and an exposing unit that performs, with an exposure cycle, an exposure process according to the processed image data, and that forms a latent image based on the image data onto an image carrier, wherein the image data is transferred with a cycle which is N times as high as the exposure cycle (N is a natural number), and the processing unit reads the image data N times with the exposure cycle.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 14, 2012
    Date of Patent: March 4, 2014
    Assignee: Ricoh Company, Limited
    Inventors: Tatsuya Miyadera, Yoshinori Shirasaki, Motoyoshi Takahashi, Masayuki Hayashi, Kunihiro Komai, Fuminori Tsuchiya, Akinori Yamaguchi, Hiroaki Ikeda
  • Patent number: 8659630
    Abstract: An embodiment of the image processing apparatus for controlling the lighting of a line head that is driven with binary data and performs exposure with subline lighting to thereby form images, includes: a subline generating unit that generates a plurality of sublines from a same image data; an inclination correcting unit that exposes the generated sublines so as to generate correction image data used to correct an inclination of an exposure position; a gradation control unit that controls the lighting of sublines based on the correction image data generated by the inclination correcting unit to express gradation; and a light intensity correction unit that corrects and controls the light intensity based on the correction image data generated by the inclination correcting unit, wherein an output of the gradation control unit and an output of the light intensity correction unit are input into the line head in parallel.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 12, 2011
    Date of Patent: February 25, 2014
    Assignee: Ricoh Company, Limited
    Inventors: Kunihiro Komai, Izumi Kinoshita, Tatsuya Miyadera, Yoshinori Shirasaki, Takuhei Yokoyama, Takeshi Shikama, Akinori Yamaguchi
  • Publication number: 20140049591
    Abstract: An optical writing device forming an electrical latent image on a photoreceptor includes an optical writing unit configured to apply light to the photoreceptor, a power supply unit configured to supply power to the optical writing unit, a power supply status detector configured to detect a power supply status of the power supplied from the power supply unit to the optical writing unit, and output power supply information or power cutoff information, a power cutoff information retaining unit configured to retain the power cutoff information when the power cutoff information is output from the power supply status detector, and a power sensor configured to sense a power supply status of the power supplied by the power supply unit based on the power cutoff information retained by the power cutoff information retaining unit.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 6, 2013
    Publication date: February 20, 2014
    Applicant: Ricoh Company, Ltd.
    Inventors: Yoshinori SHIRASAKI, Tatsuya MIYADERA, Masayuki HAYASHI, Motohiro KAWANABE, Hiroaki IKEDA, Tomohiro OHSHIMA, Akinori YAMAGUCHI
  • Publication number: 20140002564
    Abstract: An optical writing control device includes: a light emission control unit which controls light emission of multiple light sources for respective different colors and exposes multiple image carriers; and a correction amount calculating unit which calculates a correction amount for each of the different colors on the basis of a difference between a central value of a distribution range of positional deviation amounts in a sub-scanning direction for the respective different colors and the positional deviation amount for a corresponding color. The light emission control unit delays light emitting timing of a light source, which is to be delayed, by delaying reading timing of pixel information stored in a storage medium, and delays timing at which the pixel information about colors other than a color, light emitting timing of a light source for which is to be advanced, starts to be obtained from an image forming apparatus main body.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 17, 2013
    Publication date: January 2, 2014
    Inventors: Tatsuya MIYADERA, Motohiro Kawanabe, Masayuki Hayashi, Yoshinori Shirasaki, Hiroaki Ikeda, Akinori Yamaguchi, Tomohiro Ohshima
  • Publication number: 20130343775
    Abstract: An image forming apparatus comprises: an image forming unit configured to form an image quality adjustment pattern image on an image carrier to be driven at a predetermined speed; a detector configured to detect the image quality adjustment pattern image; an image quality adjustment controller configured to control image quality adjustment processing in accordance with a detection result by the detector; a speed change unit configured to change an image formation speed indicating a speed at which an image is formed, and an interval change unit configured to change an interval at which the detector acquires a detection result in accordance with a change amount between the image formation speed before changed by the speed change unit and the image formation speed after changed.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 14, 2013
    Publication date: December 26, 2013
    Inventors: Akinori YAMAGUCHI, Hiroaki IKEDA, Tomohiro OHSHIMA, Masayuki HAYASHI, Tatsuya MIYADERA, Motohiro KAWANABE, Yoshinori SHIRASAKI
  • Patent number: 8547409
    Abstract: A light emission control device images an electrostatic latent image on a photosensitive element by a plurality of light emitting elements corresponding to a line in a second direction perpendicular to a first direction which is a rotational direction the photosensitive element. The light emission control device includes: a detecting unit that detects a rotational position of the photosensitive element, in the first direction, corresponding to a line in the second direction; an acquiring unit that acquires a distance between the light emitting elements and the rotational position of the photosensitive element in the first direction detected by the detecting unit; and a control unit that controls light emission by the light emitting elements according to the distance acquired by the acquiring unit and corrects a fluctuation in a density of a visible image converted from the electrostatic latent image.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 30, 2011
    Date of Patent: October 1, 2013
    Assignee: Ricoh Company, Limited
    Inventors: Takuhei Yokoyama, Izumi Kinoshita, Kunihiro Komai, Tatsuya Miyadera, Yoshinori Shirasaki, Takeshi Shikama, Akinori Yamaguchi
  • Publication number: 20130242318
    Abstract: In the invention, an inclination amount of sensors is reflected in positional deviation correction patterns, and for correcting formation positions of images of various colors, the positional deviation correction patterns are formed on a conveying belt. The positional deviation correction patterns are detected by the sensors. A control unit calculates positional deviation correction amounts based on detection results of the positional deviation correction patterns. Based on the calculated positional deviation correction amounts, the control unit performs calculation for correcting the positional deviation correction patterns, and cancels the inclination amount reflected in the calculation results to obtain final positional deviation correction amounts. Skew correction is performed based on the final positional deviation correction amounts, and thus, the positional deviations are corrected.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 1, 2013
    Publication date: September 19, 2013
    Inventors: Akinori YAMAGUCHI, Masayuki HAYASHI, Hiroaki IKEDA, Kunihiro KOMAI, Tatsuya MIYADERA, Takeshi SHIKAMA, Takuhei YOKOYAMA, Yoshinori SHIRASAKI, Motohiro KAWANABE
  • Publication number: 20130207339
    Abstract: According to an embodiment, provided is an image forming device that includes: an image forming unit forming an image in a predetermined cycle in a direction orthogonal to a conveying direction of a printing medium; a velocity acquisition unit acquiring a conveying velocity of the printing medium at a position where the image is formed by the image forming unit; and a correcting unit correcting the cycle on which the image forming unit forms the image in accordance with the conveying velocity acquired by the velocity acquisition unit.
    Type: Application
    Filed: February 7, 2013
    Publication date: August 15, 2013
    Inventors: Takuhei YOKOYAMA, Yoshinori SHIRASAKI, Tatsuya MIYADERA, Masayuki HAYASHI, Kunihiro KOMAI, Motohiro KAWANABE, Hiroaki IKEDA, Takeshi SHIKAMA, Akinori YAMAGUCHI
  • Patent number: 8482588
    Abstract: An optical writing device that forms an electrostatic latent image on a photoreceptor. The device includes a pixel-information acquiring unit, a line-pixel-information storage unit that stores the acquired pixel information corresponding to a plurality of lines for each main scanning line, a light source device that exposes the photoreceptor with a period corresponding to an N-fold sub-scanning direction resolution of the pixel information, a positional-shift-information storage unit that stores a positional shift information, a sub-line counting unit that counts a sub-line period, a reading-line selecting unit that performs N times of selection that determines which main scanning line is selected as the line from which the pixel information is read out, on the basis of a calculated value from the counted value of the sub-line period and the positional shift information, and a pixel-information reading unit.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 12, 2011
    Date of Patent: July 9, 2013
    Assignee: Ricoh Company, Limited
    Inventors: Tatsuya Miyadera, Kunihiro Komai, Izumi Kinoshita, Yoshinori Shirasaki, Takeshi Shikama, Takuhei Yokoyama, Akinori Yamaguchi
  • Publication number: 20130084109
    Abstract: An image forming apparatus can transfer a plurality of color component images onto a surface of a recording medium to form an image on the recording medium. The image forming apparatus includes a pattern generation part to generate information about an alignment pattern to be used for a calibration of an image forming, a plurality of stations each including a photosensitive drum to form an alignment pattern corresponding to each of a plurality of color components onto a carry belt or the recording medium, and a read part to detect a plurality of alignment patterns formed by the plurality of stations.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 3, 2012
    Publication date: April 4, 2013
    Inventors: Takeshi SHIKAMA, Masayuki HAYASHI, Kunihiro KOMAI, Tatsuya MIYADERA, Motohiro KAWANABE, Yoshinori SHIRASAKI, Hiroaki IKEDA, Akinori YAMAGUCHI, Takuhei YOKOYAMA
  • Patent number: 8411124
    Abstract: A pixel information acquiring unit acquires multilevel pixel information in which one pixel is expressed in multilevel scales. A line pixel information storing unit stores the multilevel pixel information for each main scanning line. A light emission control unit optically exposes a photosensitive element by controlling a binary light source on the basis of the multilevel pixel information. The photosensitive element is exposed to the binary light source with a period corresponding to N-fold in a sub scanning direction resolution of the multilevel pixel information, wherein N is a positive integer, so that the N times exposures corresponds to an exposure for one pixel in an original resolution. The switch on/off statuses of the binary light source are controlled in the N times exposures for each pixel, on the basis of lighting rate information for converting the multilevel scales into a lighting rate in the N times exposures.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 2, 2011
    Date of Patent: April 2, 2013
    Assignee: Ricoh Company, Limited
    Inventors: Izumi Kinoshita, Kunihiro Komai, Tatsuya Miyadera, Yoshinori Shirasaki, Takuhei Yokoyama, Takeshi Shikama, Akinori Yamaguchi
  • Publication number: 20130071130
    Abstract: A toner consumption calculator includes a plurality of line memories; a recorder that sequentially records image data including a plurality of pixels into the line memories; a skew correction unit that performs skew correction on the image data by sequentially reading the image data from the line memories while controlling read timing; and a counter that sequentially reads the image data from the line memories and counts toner consumption of a target pixel on the basis of light amounts of surrounding pixels of the target pixel.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 11, 2012
    Publication date: March 21, 2013
    Inventors: Masayuki HAYASHI, Yoshinori Shirasaki, Kunihiro Komai, Hiroaki Ikeda, Motoyoshi Takahashi, Fuminori Tsuchiya, Akinori Yamaguchi, Tatsuya Miyadera, Motohiro Kawanabe, Yasuo Yamaguchi
  • Publication number: 20130070040
    Abstract: An exposure control apparatus includes: a plurality of line memories; a processing unit that processes image data by successively recording the image data to the plurality of line memories, and successively reading the image data from the plurality of line memories; and an exposing unit that performs, with an exposure cycle, an exposure process according to the processed image data, and that forms a latent image based on the image data onto an image carrier, wherein the image data is transferred with a cycle which is N times as high as the exposure cycle (N is a natural number), and the processing unit reads the image data N times with the exposure cycle.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 14, 2012
    Publication date: March 21, 2013
    Inventors: Tatsuya Miyadera, Yoshinori Shirasaki, Motoyoshi Takahashi, Masayuki Hayashi, Kunihiro Komai, Fuminori Tsuchiya, Akinori Yamaguchi, Hiroaki Ikeda
  • Publication number: 20130063536
    Abstract: A light source control apparatus which controls, based on image data input, light emission of a light source which forms an electrostatic latent image on an image bearing body in an electrophotographic image forming apparatus is disclosed, including a pattern generating unit which generates an internal pattern for position aligning and concentration correcting according to the image data; and a mirroring processing unit which performs a process of mirroring the image data and the internal pattern at a later stage of the pattern generating unit.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 24, 2012
    Publication date: March 14, 2013
    Inventors: Kunihiro KOMAI, Masayuki Hayashi, Hiroaki Ikeda, Takeshi Shikama, Akinori Yamaguchi, Tatsuya Miyadera, Motohiro Kawanabe, Yoshinori Shirasaki, Takuhei Yokoyama
  • Publication number: 20130044176
    Abstract: An optical writing device forms an electrostatic latent image and includes a pixel-information acquiring unit that acquires pixel information and stores the acquired pixel information in a storage medium with respect to each main scanning line; a tilt correcting unit that generates a tilt correction signal specifying a main scanning line from which the pixel information to be input to a light source is read out from the storage medium in order to correct a tilt of the electrostatic latent image; a position correcting unit that generates a position correction signal specifying a timing to input the pixel information to the light source in order to correct a position of the electrostatic latent image; and a pixel-information-input control unit that controls input of the pixel information from the storage medium to the light source in response to the tilt correction signal and the position correction signal.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 13, 2012
    Publication date: February 21, 2013
    Inventors: Yoshinori Shirasaki, Masayuki Hayashi, Yasuo Yamaguchi, Kunihiro Komai, Tatsuya Miyadera, Motohiro Kawanabe, Hiroaki Ikeda, Akinori Yamaguchi, Fuminori Tsuchiya, Motoyoshi Takahashi
  • Publication number: 20120287479
    Abstract: In an optical scanner, when an emission control unit varies a period at which image data is output from an output buffer of the emission control unit in order to correct a sub scan magnification of a LED array and a vacant region of an input buffer of the emission control unit ceases to exist, a buffer control unit temporarily stores the image data in a vacant region of a memory of an image correcting unit, and transfers the image data temporarily stored in the memory to the input buffer when the vacant region is generated in the input buffer.
    Type: Application
    Filed: May 2, 2012
    Publication date: November 15, 2012
    Applicant: RICOH COMPANY, LTD.
    Inventors: Motoyoshi TAKAHASHI, Masayuki HAYASHI, Hiroaki IKEDA, Kunihiro KOMAI, Yoshinori SHIRASAKI, Fuminori TSUCHIYA, Akinori YAMAGUCHI, Tatsuya MIYADERA
  • Publication number: 20120154827
    Abstract: A line-head control device that controls a line head includes: a calculation unit that divides image data into a plurality of areas in sub-scanning direction and calculates a printing percentage for each of the areas; an allocation unit that allocates a total correction amount, for correcting magnification of the image data in the sub-scanning direction, to the areas according to the printing percentage for each of the areas calculated by the calculation unit; and a control unit that changes an emission period of the light emitted from the line head so as to satisfy a partial correction amount that is an allocation of the total correction amount to each of the areas, exposes the image carrier to the light emitted from the line head with the changed light emission period, thereby causing a latent image to be formed on the image carrier based on the image data.
    Type: Application
    Filed: November 21, 2011
    Publication date: June 21, 2012
    Inventors: Yoshinori SHIRASAKI, Izumi KINOSHITA, Kunihiro KOMAI, Tatsuya MIYADERA, Takeshi SHIKAMA, Takuhei YOKOYAMA, Akinori YAMAGUCHI
  • Publication number: 20120147114
    Abstract: A light emission control device images an electrostatic latent image on a photosensitive element by a plurality of light emitting elements corresponding to a line in a second direction perpendicular to a first direction which is a rotational direction the photosensitive element. The light emission control device includes: a detecting unit that detects a rotational position of the photosensitive element, in the first direction, corresponding to a line in the second direction; an acquiring unit that acquires a distance between the light emitting elements and the rotational position of the photosensitive element in the first direction detected by the detecting unit; and a control unit that controls light emission by the light emitting elements according to the distance acquired by the acquiring unit and corrects a fluctuation in a density of a visible image converted from the electrostatic latent image.
    Type: Application
    Filed: November 30, 2011
    Publication date: June 14, 2012
    Inventors: Takuhei YOKOYAMA, Izumi Kinoshita, Kunihiro Komai, Tatsuya Miyadera, Yoshinori Shirasaki, Takeshi Shikama, Akinori Yamaguchi