Patents by Inventor Kenji Ogasawara

Kenji Ogasawara 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: 8139445
    Abstract: A stepping motor control circuit includes a rotation detecting means which detects an induced signal generated by rotation of a rotor of a stepping motor, and detects a rotation state of the stepping motor according to whether the induced signal exceeds a predetermined reference threshold voltage in a predetermined detection section, and a control means which controls driving of the stepping motor by using any one of a plurality of main driving pulses having energies different from each other or a correction driving pulse with energy higher than energy of each main driving pulse according to a detection result of the rotation detecting means. The detection section is divided into a first section immediately after driving by the main driving pulse, a second section after the first section and a third section after the second section.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 16, 2010
    Date of Patent: March 20, 2012
    Assignee: Seiko Instruments Inc.
    Inventors: Keishi Honmura, Saburo Manaka, Kosuke Yamamoto, Akira Takakura, Kenji Ogasawara, Kazumi Sakumoto, Kazuo Kato, Takanori Hasegawa
  • Publication number: 20120057438
    Abstract: A power consumption control device includes a power consumption control unit that receives the output potential of a photovoltaic cell generating an electromotive force, receives the output potential of a secondary battery charged by the electromotive force of the photovoltaic cell, causes a timepiece device to transition to a power saving state where a clock operation of measuring time is stopped when the output potential difference of the secondary battery is not greater than a predetermined threshold value, and the secondary battery is in a non-charging state indicating a state where the output potential difference of the photovoltaic cell is not greater than the output potential difference of the secondary battery.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 31, 2011
    Publication date: March 8, 2012
    Inventors: Hiroshi Shimizu, Kazumi Sakumoto, Kenji Ogasawara, Kosuke Yamamoto, Keishi Honmura, Saburo Manaka, Akira Takakura
  • Publication number: 20120057436
    Abstract: An electronic device includes a primary power supply portion generating power by converting a first energy into electric energy as a second energy; a secondary power supply portion storing the electric energy obtained by the power generation; a charge detection portion detecting a state where the secondary power supply portion is not charged with the electric energy; a clocking portion clocking time and stopping display of clocked time when an operation input is detected; and a low power consumption state control portion which measures a time of a state where the operation input is detected and the charging is not performed, and stops the operation of the clocking portion when the measured time exceeds a preset time.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 31, 2011
    Publication date: March 8, 2012
    Inventors: Kazumi Sakumoto, Keishi Honmura, Saburo Manaka, Kosuke Yamamoto, Kenji Ogasawara, Hiroshi Shimizu
  • Publication number: 20120057439
    Abstract: Provided is a photovoltaic panel in which a plurality of photovoltaic cells is electrically connected in series, and in which at least one of the photovoltaic cells is set as a non-use cell which is not electrically connected to the other photovoltaic cells and not used.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 31, 2011
    Publication date: March 8, 2012
    Inventors: Hiroshi Shimizu, Akira Takakura, Kazumi Sakumoto, Kenji Ogasawara, Keishi Honmura, Saburo Manaka, Kosuke Yamamoto
  • Publication number: 20120056480
    Abstract: There are provided an operation input unit that pulls down or pulls up a signal input from an operating unit, a control unit that executes a predetermined operation according to the signal input through the operation input unit, and a power control unit that controls the control unit so as not to execute the predetermined operation and also controls the input unit so as not to pull down or pull up the signal according to a state of supplied electric power.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 31, 2011
    Publication date: March 8, 2012
    Inventors: Kazumi Sakumoto, Kazuo Kato, Hiroshi Shimizu, Saburo Manaka, Keishi Honmura, Kosuke Yamamoto, Kenji Ogasawara
  • Publication number: 20120057435
    Abstract: The invention is intended to allow a motor to be driven normally even when an output voltage of a primary power source unit varies. A motor drive control unit configured to attenuate a charge of a secondary cell by an electromotive force of a solar cell to a level lower than the charge at that moment before driving the motor, and then intensify the charge of a level higher than the charge at that moment after having driven the motor is provided.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 31, 2011
    Publication date: March 8, 2012
    Inventors: Keishi Honmura, Takanori Hasegawa, Akira Takakura, Kenji Ogasawara, Kazumi Sakumoto, Hiroshi Shimizu, Saburo Manaka, Kosuke Yamamoto
  • Publication number: 20120044787
    Abstract: The invention is intended to achieve detection of a source voltage without providing a voltage detection circuit and allow a drive stop while holding correct drive pulse information when the source voltage is lowered to a predetermined level or below. A detection segment for detecting the state of rotation of a stepping motor is divided into a plurality of segments and, when a pattern of an induced signal detected in the respective segments is a pattern which indicates that the voltage of a secondary battery is lowered to the predetermined voltage or below, the control circuit memorizes a polarity of the drive pulse used in the last driving in a polarity memory and stops the driving of the stepping motor. When the voltage of the secondary battery is restored to the predetermined voltage or higher, the driving is restarted by a main drive pulse having a polarity opposite from the polarity memorized in the polarity memory.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 16, 2011
    Publication date: February 23, 2012
    Inventors: Saburo Manaka, Akira Takakura, Keishi Honmura, Kosuke Yamamoto, Kazumi Sakumoto, Kenji Ogasawara, Hiroshi Shimizu
  • Patent number: 8111033
    Abstract: The present invention aims to prevent a nonrotation state from being brought about even when a drive allowance is changed by variations in a stepping motor or the like. A pulse down counter circuit outputs pulse down control signal for subjecting main drive pulse to control pulse down when time is counted for a predetermined time period. When a detecting signal exceeding a reference threshold voltage detected by a rotation detecting circuit is detected at a first detection section at start of a rotation detecting time period, a control circuit resets the pulse down counter circuit. Thereby, a main drive pulse generating circuit is not subjected to control pulse down by the pulse down counter circuit, and therefore, it is prevented that the main drive pulse is subjected to pulse down unnecessarily.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 15, 2009
    Date of Patent: February 7, 2012
    Assignee: Seiko Instruments Inc.
    Inventors: Kenji Ogasawara, Hiroyuki Masaki, Akira Takakura, Saburo Manaka, Keishi Honmura, Kazumi Sakumoto, Kazuo Kato, Takanori Hasegawa, Kosuke Yamamoto
  • Publication number: 20120014227
    Abstract: A detection interval in which the rotation status of a stepping motor is divided into a first interval immediately after driving executed by a main driving pulse, a second interval later than the first interval, and a third interval later than the second interval. The driving is executed by a correction driving pulse and the main driving pulse is increased, when a control circuit drives the stepping motor in a driving way different from a driving way at the time of exceeding a predetermined voltage in a case where the voltage of a secondary battery is lowered to be equal to or less than the predetermined voltage and when a rotation detection circuit and a detection time comparison determination circuit detect an induced signal exceeding a first reference threshold voltage in the first interval and the second interval and do not detect the induced signal exceeding a second reference threshold voltage lower than the first reference threshold voltage in the third interval.
    Type: Application
    Filed: July 14, 2011
    Publication date: January 19, 2012
    Inventors: Keishi Honmura, Saburo Manaka, Kenji Ogasawara, Kazumi Sakumoto, Hiroshi Shimizu, Kosuke Yamamoto, Shotaro Kamiyama
  • Patent number: 8094327
    Abstract: An image processing device manages data for each object transmitted for each image forming device with respect to a plurality of image forming devices, which are transmission destinations of data for each object, and controls transmission of data for each object which has not been transmitted to each image forming device based on the management contents.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 27, 2005
    Date of Patent: January 10, 2012
    Assignee: Konica Minolta Business Technologies, Inc.
    Inventor: Kenji Ogasawara
  • Patent number: 8064294
    Abstract: The present invention can rotationally drive a motor with main drive pulses corresponding to loads with the simple constitution without using a counter circuit. A control circuit, in driving a motor with a second main drive pulse, when a rotation detection signal which is indicative of the rotation of the motor is detected by a rotation detection circuit after a predetermined reference time elapses, continues rotational driving of the motor with the second main drive pulse, when the rotation detection signal is detected before the predetermined reference time elapses, changes the rotational driving of the motor with a first main drive pulse having a shorter pulse width than the second main drive pulse, and when the rotation detection signal is not detected, forcibly rotationally drives the motor with a correction drive pulse having a largest pulse width and, thereafter, rotationally drives the motor with the first main drive pulse.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 21, 2009
    Date of Patent: November 22, 2011
    Assignee: Seiko Instruments Inc.
    Inventors: Saburo Manaka, Kenji Ogasawara
  • Publication number: 20110249536
    Abstract: For a chronograph timepiece that chronograph hands are mechanically reset to zero and electrically driven, the chronograph hands are prevented from being electrically driven while being mechanically locked. A chronograph timepiece that is mechanically reset to zero includes a chronograph motor for driving a chronograph hand, a drive unit configured to drive the chronograph motor according a time measurement operation in response to a starting operation by an operating section, and a control unit configured to control the drive unit. The control unit has a rotation detecting circuit for detecting a rotation status of the chronograph motor. When the rotation detecting circuit detects that the chronograph motor is not rotated after the chronograph motor has been rotated a predetermined time period, driving the chronograph motor by the drive unit is stopped for resetting the time measurement operation.
    Type: Application
    Filed: January 5, 2011
    Publication date: October 13, 2011
    Inventors: Kenji Ogasawara, Akira Takakura, Saburo Manaka, Keishi Honmura, Takanori Hasegawa, Kosuke Yamamoto, Kazumi Sakumoto, Hiroshi Shimizu, Kazuo Kato, Eriko Noguchi, Tomohiro Ihashi
  • Publication number: 20110242946
    Abstract: It is configured to include: a secondary battery as a power supply that supplies power at least to a stepping motor; a rotation detection portion that detects a rotation state of the stepping motor; a control portion that drives the stepping motor by selecting a drive pulse having energy corresponding to the rotation state of the stepping motor from a plurality of drive pulses; and a solar battery that charges the secondary battery. Upon determination that it is possible to rotate the stepping motor by an overcharge indicating drive pulse having predetermined energy, the control portion drives the stepping motor by changing a current drive pulse to an overconsuming drive pulse having larger energy than the overcharge indicating drive pulse. It thus becomes possible to suppress deterioration of a secondary battery caused by overcharge without having to provide a dedicated voltage detection circuit, such as a comparator circuit.
    Type: Application
    Filed: April 5, 2011
    Publication date: October 6, 2011
    Inventors: Kenji Ogasawara, Akira Takakura, Saburo Manaka, Kazumi Sakumoto, Keishi Honmura, Hiroshi Shimizu, Kosuke Yamamoto, Shotaro Kamiyama
  • Publication number: 20110216630
    Abstract: An electronic timepiece can reduce a burden imposed on a user who performs a manipulation for correcting the positional displacement of a pointer when a position of the pointer is displaced due to the demonstration of the pointer movement. The electronic timepiece includes: a pointer which is rotated in a first direction based on a manipulation signal corresponding to a manipulation from the outside; and a control part which performs the demonstration of the pointer movement in which the pointer is rotated in a second direction opposite to the first direction and the first direction, wherein the pointer is positioned at a position where a rotational angle in the first direction from a preset reference position is smaller than a rotational angle in a second direction from the reference position.
    Type: Application
    Filed: February 17, 2011
    Publication date: September 8, 2011
    Inventors: Hiroshi Shimizu, Tomohiro Ihashi, Kenji Ogasawara, Kazuo Kato, Kazumi Sakumoto, Akira Takakura, Eriko Noguchi, Takanori Hasegawa, Keishi Honmura, Saburo Manaka, Kosuke Yamamoto
  • Publication number: 20110199865
    Abstract: The invention is aimed to be capable of detecting lowering of a power source without providing a circuit specific for voltage detection such as a comparator circuit. A stepping motor control circuit includes a battery configured to supply an electric power at least to a stepping motor, a rotation detection circuit configured to detect the state of rotation of the stepping motor, and a control unit configured to select an upgraded main drive pulse from a plurality of the main drive pulses having energy ranks different from each other and drive the stepping motor with the selected main drive pulse. The control unit is configured to determine that the voltage of the battery lowered to a level equal to or lower than the predetermined value when the main drive pulse reaches a maximum main drive pulse in a predetermined rank by upgrading it a number of times smaller than the predetermined number of times within a predetermined time.
    Type: Application
    Filed: February 15, 2011
    Publication date: August 18, 2011
    Inventor: Kenji Ogasawara
  • Patent number: 7990565
    Abstract: A recording system is equipped with a pre-processing device which serves as an image recording unit for recording an image on sound paper based on image data, and a post-processing device which serves as a sound data recording unit for recording sound data related to the image data on the sound paper.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 8, 2005
    Date of Patent: August 2, 2011
    Assignee: Konica Minolta Business Technologies, Inc.
    Inventors: Keiji Nakatani, Kenji Ogasawara
  • Publication number: 20110158053
    Abstract: Provided is a chronograph timepiece to perform a system reset by an easy-to-understand operation for users, including a crown, an operating unit that at least starts and resets a time period measurement, a time hand drive unit that keeps time of day based on a clock signal for electrically driving a time hand so as to indicate the timed time of day, a chronograph hand drive unit that measures a time period based on a chronograph signal in response to the start for electrically driving a chronograph hand so as to indicate a measured time period and to reset the time period measurement in response to the reset directed by the operating unit, and a control unit that resets the time hand drive unit in response to a reset directed by the crown and resets the chronograph hand drive unit in response to the reset directed by the operating unit.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 14, 2010
    Publication date: June 30, 2011
    Inventors: Kenji Ogasawara, Akira Takakura, Saburo Manaka, Keishi Honmura, Takanori Hasegawa, Kosuke Yamamoto, Kazumi Sakumoto, Hiroshi Shimizu, Kazuo Kato, Erico Noguchi, Tomohiro Ihashi
  • Publication number: 20110141857
    Abstract: A stepping motor control circuit includes a rotation detection circuit that detects an induced signal and detects whether or not the induced signal exceeds a predetermined reference threshold voltage in a detection segment having a plurality of detection areas, and a control unit that determines the state of rotation of a stepping motor on the basis of a pattern indicating whether or not the induced signals exceed the reference threshold voltage and, on the basis of the result of detection, controls the driving of the stepping motor with anyone of a plurality of main drive pulses different from each other in energy or a correction drive pulse having larger energy than the main drive pulse. An ineffective area is provided between at least the two detection areas, and the control unit determines the state of rotation of the stepping motor without considering the induced signal.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 7, 2010
    Publication date: June 16, 2011
    Inventors: Saburo Manaka, Akira Takakura, Kenji Ogasawara, Kazumi Sakumoto, Shotaro Kamiyama, Keishi Honmura, Kosuke Yamamoto, Hiroshi Shimizu
  • Publication number: 20110122734
    Abstract: Disclosed is a chronograph timepiece whose chronograph hands are electrically drive-controlled and mechanically zero-restoring-controlled, wherein it possible to perform a normal operation at the time of start operation and reset operation. After a mechanical control unit releases the setting of chronograph hands in response to the start operation of a start/stop button, a contact portion is placed in a start state, and an electrical control unit starts a time measurement operation to electrically hand-movement-drive the chronograph hands, and, after a contact portion is placed in a reset state in response to a reset operation of a reset button and the electrical control unit electrically resets the time measurement operation, the mechanical control unit mechanically zero-restores and sets the chronograph hands.
    Type: Application
    Filed: November 10, 2010
    Publication date: May 26, 2011
    Inventors: Kazuo Kato, Akira Takakura, Kenji Ogasawara, Saburo Manaka, Kazumi Sakumoto, Hiroshi Shimizu, Tomohiro Ihashi, Keishi Honmura, Takanori Hasegawa, Kosuke Yamamoto, Eriko Noguchi
  • Publication number: 20110122733
    Abstract: A stepping motor control circuit includes a rotation detection portion that detects a rotation condition of a stepping motor, and a control portion that drives and controls the stepping motor by a correction drive pulse P2 having larger drive energy than one of any one of a plurality of main drive pulses P1 each having different drive energy and the respective main drive pulses P1 depending on a detection result of the rotation detection portion. The control portion drives the stepping motor by switching to a fixed drive pulse having drive energy not smaller than drive energy of a main drive pulse P1nmax having maximum drive energy in a case where there is no drive allowance when the stepping motor is driven by the main drive pulse P1nmax having the maximum drive energy. The stepping motor is thus rotary driven normally even in a DC magnetic field.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 29, 2010
    Publication date: May 26, 2011
    Inventors: Keishi Honmura, Akira Takakura, Saburo Manaka, Kazumi Sakumoto, Kosuke Yamamoto, Takanori Hasegawa, Kenji Ogasawara, Hiroshi Shimizu, Tomohiro Ihashi, Kazuo Kato, Erico Noguchi