Patents by Inventor Bunji Ishimoto

Bunji Ishimoto 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: 7992992
    Abstract: A transport amount correcting method, including; (A) storing in a memory, in regard to a medium of a predetermined size, correction values associated with relative positions of the medium and a head; and (B) when carrying out recording on the medium of the predetermined size, transporting the medium while correcting a target transport amount using a correction value associated with a relative position of the medium and the head, and when carrying out recording on a medium larger than the predetermined size, transporting the medium while correcting the target transport amount by using a portion of the correction values a plurality of times, the portion of the correction values being a portion of the correction values among the correction values used when the medium of the predetermined size is being transported by both an upstream side roller and a downstream side roller.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 21, 2007
    Date of Patent: August 9, 2011
    Assignee: Seiko Epson Corporation
    Inventors: Tatsuya Nakano, Masahiko Yoshida, Bunji Ishimoto, Toru Miyamoto, Hirokazu Nunokawa, Yoichi Kakehashi
  • Publication number: 20110175958
    Abstract: A fluid ejecting apparatus includes a head that is provided with a first-nozzle-row and a second-nozzle-row, a platen that is provided with a plurality of convex-portions, and a control unit repeats an operation of ejecting fluid from the nozzles moving in two directions of a forward-path and a backward-path. The control unit adjusts the ejecting time such that, at the medium of the convex-portions, an amount-of-deviation in the movement-direction of the dots formed on the forward-path and the backward-path by the first-nozzle-row is less than an amount-of-deviation of the dots formed on the forward-path and backward-path by the second-nozzle-row. In the ejection operation, and such that the position in the movement-direction of the dots formed by the second-nozzle-row is a position opposite to the side on which the head moves in the movement-direction with respect to the position in the movement-direction of the dots formed by the first-nozzle-row.
    Type: Application
    Filed: January 19, 2011
    Publication date: July 21, 2011
    Applicant: SEIKO EPSON CORPORATION
    Inventors: Akito Sato, Tomohiro Yuda, Takahide Miyashita, Naoki Sudo, Mai Kubota, Bunji Ishimoto
  • Publication number: 20110141173
    Abstract: An apparatus includes: a first nozzles for ejecting a first fluid are lined up in a predetermined direction; a second nozzles for ejecting a second fluid are lined up in the predetermined direction; and a control unit performs an ejecting operation of ejecting fluid from the nozzles, wherein the control unit forms an image on a medium in one of a first mode of forming a main image with the first fluid and a second mode of forming the main image and a background image with the second fluid to be overlapped, forms the main image using a certain nozzle group in the first nozzles when the main image is formed in the first mode, and forms the main image using the same nozzle group as the certain nozzle group when the main image is formed in the second mode.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 13, 2010
    Publication date: June 16, 2011
    Applicant: SEIKO EPSON CORPORATION
    Inventors: Hidenori Usuda, Yoshihiko Matsuzawa, Yuji Hatanaka, Bunji Ishimoto, Tsuyoshi Sano, Mitsuaki Yoshizawa
  • Patent number: 7957035
    Abstract: A transport amount correcting method, including: (A) storing in a memory, in regard to a medium of a predetermined size, correction values associated with relative positions of the medium and a head; and (B) when carrying out recording on the medium of the predetermined size, transporting the medium while correcting a target transport amount using a correction value associated with a relative position of the medium and the head, and when carrying out recording on a medium smaller than the predetermined size, transporting the medium while correcting the target transport amount by not using a portion of the correction values, the portion of the correction values being a portion of the correction values among the correction values used when the medium of the predetermined size is being transported by both an upstream side roller and a downstream side roller.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 24, 2007
    Date of Patent: June 7, 2011
    Assignee: Seiko Epson Corporation
    Inventors: Tatsuya Nakano, Masahiko Yoshida, Bunji Ishimoto, Toru Miyamoto, Hirokazu Nunokawa, Yoichi Kakehashi
  • Patent number: 7954923
    Abstract: A liquid ejecting apparatus includes: a printing head that ejects liquid to form dots on a recording medium; a head driving section that performs a main scanning for the printing head; a transporting section that performs a sub-scanning for the recording medium; an image forming section that forms an image, a first dot formation area and a second dot formation area; an overlap control section that performs overlap control for intermittently forming dots on the first and second dot formation areas so as to make the second dot formation area overlap with the first dot formation area and fill spaces between the dots intermittently formed on the first dot formation area; and a cancellation section that cancel the overlap control when a blank area exists in an image and a nozzle forming at least one of the first dot formation area and the second dot formation area.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 30, 2009
    Date of Patent: June 7, 2011
    Assignee: Seiko Epson Corporation
    Inventors: Akito Sato, Bunji Ishimoto, Tomohiro Yuda, Takeshi Tanoue, Naoki Sudo
  • Patent number: 7931347
    Abstract: The invention is a transport method that transports a medium by causing a transport roller to rotate based on a corrected target transport amount, after correcting the target transport amount that is targeted based on a correction value and includes: printing a first pattern on a medium, printing a second pattern after the medium has been transported by causing the transport roller to rotate by a rotation amount of less than one rotation from a rotation position of the transport roller at a time of printing the first pattern, printing a third pattern after the medium has been transported by causing the transport roller to rotate by a rotation amount of one rotation from a rotation position of the transport roller at a time of printing the first pattern, printing a fourth pattern after the medium has been transported by causing the transport roller to rotate by a rotation amount of one rotation from a rotation position of the transport roller at a time of printing the second pattern, calculating a first correc
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 30, 2010
    Date of Patent: April 26, 2011
    Assignee: Seiko Epson Corporation
    Inventors: Masahiko Yoshida, Tatsuya Nakano, Hirokazu Nunokawa, Bunji Ishimoto, Toru Miyamoto, Yoichi Kakehashi
  • Publication number: 20110085000
    Abstract: There is provided a technique for suppressing the image quality of a printed image. A printing apparatus including: a first nozzle row in which nozzles ejecting dye ink of a certain color are arranged in a predetermined direction; a second nozzle row in which nozzles ejecting pigment ink of the certain color are arranged in the predetermined direction.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 5, 2010
    Publication date: April 14, 2011
    Applicant: SEIKO EPSON CORPORATION
    Inventors: Naoki Sudo, Mai Kubota, Akito Sato, Tomohiro Yuda, Takahide Miyashita, Bunji Ishimoto
  • Publication number: 20110063347
    Abstract: A printing apparatus including: first nozzles which discharge a dye ink; second nozzles which discharge a pigment ink of the same color as the dye ink; and a controller which controls the discharge of the inks from the first nozzles and the second nozzles, wherein the controller executes a first discharging operation for discharging the dye ink from the first nozzles and then discharging the pigment ink from the second nozzles at predetermined positions on a medium and executes a second discharging operation for discharging the pigment ink from the second nozzles and then discharging the dye ink from the first nozzles at positions different from the predetermined positions on the medium, and wherein a ratio of the dye ink to the pigment ink in the amount of ink discharged in the second discharging operation per unit area is less than that in the first discharging operation per unit area.
    Type: Application
    Filed: July 12, 2010
    Publication date: March 17, 2011
    Applicant: SEIKO EPSON CORPORATION
    Inventors: Mai Kubota, Tomohiro Yuda, Takahide Miyashita, Naoki Sudo, Akito Sato, Bunji Ishimoto
  • Publication number: 20110057972
    Abstract: A printing apparatus including a first nozzle that ejects dye ink; a second nozzle that ejects pigment ink of a color that is the same as the dye ink; and a controller that controls ejection of ink from the first nozzle and the second nozzle. The controller performs a first ejection operation, in which the pigment ink is ejected from the second nozzle after the dye ink is ejected from the first nozzle, for a predetermined position on a medium and performs a second ejection operation, in which the dye ink is ejected from the first nozzle after the pigment ink is ejected from the second nozzle, for a second position on the medium. An amount of the pigment ink per unit area that is ejected in the second ejection operation is made smaller than an amount of the pigment ink per the unit area in the first ejection operation.
    Type: Application
    Filed: July 12, 2010
    Publication date: March 10, 2011
    Applicant: SEIKO EPSON CORPORATION
    Inventors: Mai Kubota, Bunji Ishimoto, Akito Sato, Tomohiro Yuda, Naoki Sudo, Takahide Miyashita
  • Publication number: 20110043560
    Abstract: A fluid ejecting apparatus includes: a first nozzle line that includes a plurality of first nozzles that are aligned in a predetermined direction, first fluid being ejected from the first nozzles; a second nozzle line that includes a plurality of second nozzles that are aligned in the predetermined direction, second fluid being ejected from the second nozzles; a movement mechanism that moves the first nozzle line and the second nozzle line relative to a target medium in a movement direction, the movement direction being orthogonal to the predetermined direction; a transportation mechanism that transports the target medium relative to the first nozzle line and the second nozzle line in the predetermined direction; a controlling section that performs control for repeating image formation operation and transportation operation, the image formation operation being operation for ejecting the first fluid from the first nozzles and ejecting the second fluid from the second nozzles while moving the first nozzle line
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 4, 2010
    Publication date: February 24, 2011
    Applicant: Seiko Epson Corporation
    Inventors: Takeshi Tanoue, Bunji Ishimoto
  • Publication number: 20110037800
    Abstract: A fluid ejecting apparatus includes a first nozzle array in which nozzles that eject a first fluid are arrayed in a predetermined direction; a second nozzle array arranged beside the first nozzle array in a moving direction orthogonal to the predetermined direction and in which nozzles that eject a second fluid are arrayed in the predetermined direction; and a control section that repeatedly performs operation for ejecting the fluids from the nozzles while relatively moving the first nozzle array, the second nozzle array, and a medium in the moving direction and operation for relatively shifting a relative position between the first nozzle array, the second nozzle array, and the medium towards one side in the predetermined direction. When performing normal image forming operation, the control section relatively shifts the relative position between the first nozzle array, the second nozzle array, and the medium towards the one side in the predetermined direction by a predetermined transporting distance.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 11, 2010
    Publication date: February 17, 2011
    Applicant: SEIKO EPSON CORPORATION
    Inventors: Takeshi Tanoue, Bunji Ishimoto
  • Publication number: 20110027490
    Abstract: A fluid ejecting apparatus includes: (1) a first nozzle row in which first nozzles that eject first fluid are arranged in a row in a given direction; (2) a second nozzle row in which second nozzles that eject second fluid are arranged in a row in the given direction; (3) a movement mechanism which moves the first nozzle row and the second nozzle row with respect to a medium in a moving direction intersecting the given direction; (4) a transport mechanism which transports the medium with respect to the first nozzle row and the second nozzle row in the given direction; and (5) a control section which repeats an image formation operation for ejecting fluid from the first nozzles and the second nozzles while moving the first nozzle row and the second nozzle row in the moving direction by the movement mechanism and a transport operation for transporting the medium with respect to the first nozzle row and the second nozzle row in the given direction by the transport mechanism, wherein in a case where after the form
    Type: Application
    Filed: July 9, 2010
    Publication date: February 3, 2011
    Applicant: SEIKO EPSON CORPORATION
    Inventors: Bunji Ishimoto, Yumiko Takeda
  • Publication number: 20110025744
    Abstract: A liquid ejecting apparatus includes: a first nozzle row in which first nozzles ejecting a first liquid are arranged in a predetermined direction; a second nozzle row in which second nozzles ejecting a second liquid are arranged in the predetermined direction; a movement mechanism moving the first and second nozzle rows in a movement direction intersecting the predetermined direction relative to a medium; a transport mechanism transporting the medium in the predetermined direction relative to the first and second nozzle rows; and a control unit repeating an image forming operation of ejecting the liquids from the first and second nozzles while moving the first and second nozzle rows in the movement direction by the movement mechanism and a transport operation of transporting the medium in the predetermined direction relative to the first and second nozzle rows by the transport mechanism.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 14, 2010
    Publication date: February 3, 2011
    Applicant: SEIKO EPSON CORPORATION
    Inventors: Bunji Ishimoto, Yumiko Takeda
  • Publication number: 20110025737
    Abstract: A fluid ejecting apparatus includes first and second rows of nozzles for ejecting first and second fluids respectively, a mechanism that transports the medium in the row direction, a mechanism that moves the nozzle rows in a direction intersecting the direction of the rows, and a controller that repeats an image formation operation while the medium is transported and the rows of nozzles moved. After forming a first image using the first row of nozzles, a second image is formed on the first image using the second row of nozzles in another image formation operation. For normal image formation, the second nozzles are set further downstream in the nozzle row direction than the first nozzles, and for image formation on a lower end portion of the medium, the second nozzles are set further upstream in the nozzle row direction than they are during normal image formation.
    Type: Application
    Filed: July 9, 2010
    Publication date: February 3, 2011
    Applicant: SEIKO EPSON CORPORATION
    Inventors: Bunji Ishimoto, Yumiko Takeda
  • Patent number: 7862140
    Abstract: A method including performing correction of an ink ejection amount for a certain area based on a correction value for a first type row region, and performing correction of an ink ejection amount for another area. The certain area includes a plurality of the first type row regions adjacent to each other in a transport direction. The other area is located on the upstream side in the transport direction from the certain area, and includes a plurality of second type row regions and a plurality of the first type row regions in the transport direction. The second type row region is a region in which a dot row is formed in the movement direction by performing the movement-and-ejection operation another predetermined number of times that is more than the predetermined number of times. A ratio of the second type row regions increases as the distance from the certain area increases.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 23, 2007
    Date of Patent: January 4, 2011
    Assignee: Seiko Epson Corporation
    Inventors: Masahiko Yoshida, Bunji Ishimoto, Toru Miyamoto, Tatsuya Nakano, Hirokazu Nunokawa, Yoichi Kakehashi
  • Patent number: 7864984
    Abstract: A line position calculating method is a method for calculating a position, in a second direction, of a line along a first direction in an image, based on image data of the image constituted by a plurality of pixels arranged in a matrix form in the first direction and in the second direction, the method obtains pixel data of each of a plurality of pixels arranged in the first direction, calculates an extent of unevenness of each tone value indicating the pixel data of each of the plurality of pixels arranged in the first direction, sets a threshold value according to the extent of unevenness, sets a range based on the threshold value, detects a defective pixel in which the tone value indicating the pixel data is out of the range, calculates a representative value indicating a tone value of a pixel row, based on the pixel data of the pixels other than the defective pixel of the plurality of pixels constituting the pixel row, and calculates a position, in the second direction, of the line, based on the represent
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 16, 2007
    Date of Patent: January 4, 2011
    Assignee: Seiko Epson Corporation
    Inventors: Toru Miyamoto, Tatsuya Nakano, Masahiko Yoshida, Bunji Ishimoto, Hirokazu Nunokawa, Yoichi Kakehashi
  • Patent number: 7850275
    Abstract: A printing method includes performing correction of an ink ejection amount for a certain area based on a correction value for a first type row region, and performing correction of an ink ejection amount for another area based on another correction value. The certain area includes a plurality of the first type row regions adjacent to each other in a transport direction of a medium. The other area is located on the downstream side in the transport direction from the certain area, and includes a plurality of second type row regions and a plurality of the first type row regions in the transport direction. The other correction value is obtained by increasing a degree of the correction based on the correction value for the first type row region as a distance from the certain area decreases.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 24, 2007
    Date of Patent: December 14, 2010
    Assignee: Seiko Epson Corporation
    Inventors: Masahiko Yoshida, Tatsuya Nakano, Bunji Ishimoto, Toru Miyamoto, Hirokazu Nunokawa, Yoichi Kakehashi
  • Patent number: 7832826
    Abstract: A printing method includes by printing a first area in a test pattern using a first print mode, determining a first correction value corresponding to the first print mode for each of the row regions, based on a density measurement value for each of row regions in the first area, by printing a second area in the test pattern using a second print mode for a plurality of cycles of periods that is determined by a combination of the row region and the nozzle, determining a second correction value corresponding to the second print mode for each of the row regions, based on a density measurement value for each of the row regions in the second area, and in a coexistent segment in which certain row regions and other row regions are mixed, correcting an ink ejection amount in each of the row regions using a combined correction value that is obtained as a composition of the first correction value and the second correction value.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 29, 2007
    Date of Patent: November 16, 2010
    Assignee: Seiko Epson Corporation
    Inventors: Masahiko Yoshida, Tatsuya Nakano, Bunji Ishimoto, Hirokazu Nunokawa, Toru Miyamoto, Yoichi Kakehashi
  • Publication number: 20100265293
    Abstract: The invention is a transport method that transports a medium by causing a transport roller to rotate based on a corrected target transport amount, after correcting the target transport amount that is targeted based on a correction value and includes: printing a first pattern on a medium, printing a second pattern after the medium has been transported by causing the transport roller to rotate by a rotation amount of less than one rotation from a rotation position of the transport roller at a time of printing the first pattern, printing a third pattern after the medium has been transported by causing the transport roller to rotate by a rotation amount of one rotation from a rotation position of the transport roller at a time of printing the first pattern, printing a fourth pattern after the medium has been transported by causing the transport roller to rotate by a rotation amount of one rotation from a rotation position of the transport roller at a time of printing the second pattern, calculating a first correc
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 30, 2010
    Publication date: October 21, 2010
    Applicant: Seiko Epson Corporation
    Inventors: Masahiko YOSHIDA, Tatsuya Nakano, Hirokazu Nunokawa, Bunji Ishimoto, Toru Miyamoto, Yoichi Kakehashi
  • Publication number: 20100220140
    Abstract: A recording apparatus of this invention includes a head; a transport mechanism that transports a medium in a transport direction with respect to the head, according to a target transport amount to be targeted; a memory that stores a plurality of correction values associated with a relative position of the head and the medium; and a controller that controls the transport mechanism based on the target transport amount that has been corrected, after correcting the target transport amount based on correction values, which are in number according to a size of the target transport amount, and which include the correction value according to the relative position when transporting by the target transport amount.
    Type: Application
    Filed: May 14, 2010
    Publication date: September 2, 2010
    Applicant: Seiko Epson Corporation
    Inventors: Masahiko YOSHIDA, Tatsuya Nakano, Hirokazu Nunokawa, Bunji Ishimoto, Toru Miyamoto, Yoichi Kakehashi