Patents by Inventor Naohiro Kamijo

Naohiro Kamijo 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: 8559005
    Abstract: A spectral characteristic measuring device includes an illuminating unit that illuminates a medium; a light dividing unit that divides reflection light from the medium into reflection light beams; a first imaging unit that includes first lenses and second lenses arranged alternately in a staggered pattern and focuses the respective reflection light beams; a diffraction unit that includes a first diffraction region and a second diffraction region and diffracts the focused reflection light beams to form diffraction images; and a light receiving unit that includes plural pixels for receiving the diffraction images. The reflection light beams focused by the first lenses enter the first diffraction region to form first diffraction images, the reflection light beams focused by the second lenses enter the second diffraction region to form second diffraction images, and the first and second diffraction images are arranged alternately on the light receiving unit in a pixel arrangement direction.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 9, 2013
    Date of Patent: October 15, 2013
    Assignee: Ricoh Company, Ltd.
    Inventors: Kohei Shimbo, Naohiro Kamijo, Manabu Seo, Yoichi Kubota
  • Publication number: 20130235376
    Abstract: A spectrometer includes a light source to project a light beam to a target object, an optical element including a plurality of apertures through which the light beam reflected by the target object transmits, a diffraction element to form diffracted images from a plurality of light beams having transmitted through the optical element, and a light receiving element to receive the diffracted images formed by the diffraction element and including an optical shield to block a diffracted image other than a certain-order diffracted image.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 5, 2013
    Publication date: September 12, 2013
    Applicant: Ricoh Company, Ltd.
    Inventors: Naohiro KAMIJO, Kohei SHIMBO, Yoichi KUBOTA, Manabu SEO
  • Publication number: 20130235249
    Abstract: A spectrometer includes a light source to project a light beam to a target object, a spectral element to disperse the light beam reflected by the target object and including a diffraction element to diffract the light beam, and a light receiving element to receive, at pixels, light beams with different spectral characteristics from each other dispersed by the spectral element, wherein the diffraction element and the light receiving element are integrally formed.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 7, 2013
    Publication date: September 12, 2013
    Applicant: Ricoh Company, Ltd.
    Inventors: Kohei SHIMBO, Naohiro KAMIJO, Yoichi KUBOTA, Manabu SEO
  • Patent number: 8497988
    Abstract: A spectral distribution measuring device includes an illumination unit configured to illuminate white light to a surface of an object being measured; a slit array having a plurality of slits formed in alignment at equal intervals; a linear image sensor including a light receiving face having a plurality of rectangular pixels adjacently arranged in alignment and a plurality of spectral light-irradiated areas divided in each predetermined number of neighboring pixels; a plurality of areas being measured which is set on the surface of the object being measured, and reflects the light irradiated by the illumination unit to the plurality of slits; and a diffraction unit configured to diffract and disperse reflection light which is reflected from the areas being measured and has passed through each slit, the diffraction unit being disposed such that a direction where a diffraction image expands is inclined at an angle to a direction where the light receiving face expands.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 10, 2010
    Date of Patent: July 30, 2013
    Assignee: Ricoh Company, Ltd.
    Inventors: Kohei Shimbo, Manabu Seo, Naohiro Kamijo
  • Publication number: 20130182251
    Abstract: A spectral characteristic measuring device includes an illuminating unit that illuminates a medium; a light dividing unit that divides reflection light from the medium into reflection light beams; a first imaging unit that includes first lenses and second lenses arranged alternately in a staggered pattern and focuses the respective reflection light beams; a diffraction unit that includes a first diffraction region and a second diffraction region and diffracts the focused reflection light beams to form diffraction images; and a light receiving unit that includes plural pixels for receiving the diffraction images. The reflection light beams focused by the first lenses enter the first diffraction region to form first diffraction images, the reflection light beams focused by the second lenses enter the second diffraction region to form second diffraction images, and the first and second diffraction images are arranged alternately on the light receiving unit in a pixel arrangement direction.
    Type: Application
    Filed: January 9, 2013
    Publication date: July 18, 2013
    Inventors: Kohei Shimbo, Naohiro Kamijo, Manabu Seo, Yoichi Kubota
  • Publication number: 20130182256
    Abstract: A spectral characteristic obtaining apparatus includes a detection unit detecting light quantities in plural wavelength bands from a measurement target, a storage unit storing pre-obtained spectral characteristics of the measurement target, a calculation unit calculating a primary transformation matrix from the light quantities and the pre-obtained spectral characteristics of at least one reference sample and a secondary transformation matrix from one of the pre-obtained spectral characteristics corresponding to a primary wavelength band and another one of the pre-obtained spectral characteristics corresponding to a secondary wavelength band, an estimation unit estimating the spectral characteristics of the measurement target by performing a primary estimation on the light quantities in the plural wavelength bands by using the primary transformation matrix, performing a secondary estimation on a result of the primary estimation by using the secondary transformation matrix, and compositing a result of the seco
    Type: Application
    Filed: January 15, 2013
    Publication date: July 18, 2013
    Applicant: RICOH COMPANY, LTD.
    Inventors: Yoichi KUBOTA, Naohiro Kamijo, Kohei Shimbo, Manabu Seo, Naoko Shigemori
  • Patent number: 8472019
    Abstract: A spectroscopic characteristics acquisition unit includes a light emitting unit to illuminate a measurement target; a lens array including lenses to receive reflected light reflected from the measurement target; a light blocking member having a pinhole array including openings; a focusing unit to focus light coming from the pinhole array; a diffraction unit to diffract the light to different directions depending on wavelength of light received by the focusing unit; and a light receiving unit to receive the reflected light diffracted by the diffraction unit. The light receiving unit includes a spectroscopic sensor array having spectroscopy sensors including pixels. Each of the lenses constituting the lens array corresponds to one of the openings of the pinhole array. The numerical aperture NA of the lens in the arrangement direction in the lens array satisfies the formula NA>sin(?max) with respect to the maximum angle of view ?max of the focusing unit.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 1, 2011
    Date of Patent: June 25, 2013
    Assignee: Ricoh Company, Ltd.
    Inventors: Manabu Seo, Naohiro Kamijo, Kohei Shimbo, Yoichi Kubota
  • Publication number: 20130063723
    Abstract: A spectral characteristic acquiring apparatus is provided which includes: an area dividing part; a spectrum separating part; a light receiving part; and a calculating part, wherein the calculating part includes a transformation matrix storing part that stores a transformation matrix used for calculating the spectral characteristic corresponding to electrical signals of a first diffraction pattern group including two or more adjacent diffraction patterns, and a spectral characteristic calculating part that calculates, based on the electrical signals of the first diffraction pattern group and the corresponding transformation matrix, the spectral characteristic at the locations of the image carrying medium corresponding to the apertures of the first diffraction pattern group.
    Type: Application
    Filed: July 27, 2012
    Publication date: March 14, 2013
    Applicant: RICOH COMPANY, LTD.
    Inventors: Kohei SHIMBO, Naohiro KAMIJO, Yoichi KUBOTA, Manabu SEO
  • Patent number: 8363217
    Abstract: A spectrometric measurement apparatus includes a light radiation unit for radiating light onto a medium; a hole array including openings arranged one-dimensionally for transmitting diffusion light from the medium; an imaging optical system configured to focus an image from the hole array; a diffraction element configured to diffract the light for focusing the image; and a light receiving unit including pixels arranged one-dimensionally configured to receive the light that has been dispersed by the diffraction element and spectrometric sensors each corresponding to a predetermined number of the pixels. The light transmitted through each of the openings of the hole array is dispersed by the diffraction element, and then the light enters the pixels so that spectral properties of the diffusion light are acquired. The structure of the diffraction element includes variations that are formed in accordance with the height of the image that is focused by the imaging optical system.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 8, 2010
    Date of Patent: January 29, 2013
    Assignee: Ricoh Company, Ltd.
    Inventors: Manabu Seo, Naohiro Kamijo, Kohei Shimbo
  • Publication number: 20110317149
    Abstract: Spectral characteristics of an object is estimated using an extended sensor response, which includes a product of at least two light intensity signals whose wavelength ranges are partially overlapped with each other.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 21, 2011
    Publication date: December 29, 2011
    Inventors: Kohei Shimbo, Naohiro Kamijo, Manabu Seo, Yoichi Kubota
  • Publication number: 20110299104
    Abstract: A spectral characteristic obtaining apparatus including a light irradiation unit configured to emit light onto a reading object; a spectroscopic unit configured to separate at least a part of diffused reflected light from the light emitted onto the reading object by the light irradiation unit into a spectrum; and a light receiving unit configured to receive the diffused reflected light separated into the spectrum by the spectroscopic unit and to obtain a spectral characteristic. In at least one example embodiment, the light receiving unit is configured to be a spectroscopic sensor array including plural spectroscopic sensors arranged in a direction, and the spectroscopic sensors include a predetermined number of pixels arranged in the direction to receive lights with different spectral characteristics from each other.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 24, 2010
    Publication date: December 8, 2011
    Applicant: Ricoh Company Ltd.
    Inventors: Manabu Seo, Naohiro Kamijo, Kohei Shimbo
  • Publication number: 20110222056
    Abstract: A spectroscopic characteristics acquisition unit includes a light emitting unit to illuminate a measurement target; a lens array including lenses to receive reflected light reflected from the measurement target; a light blocking member having a pinhole array including openings; a focusing unit to focus light coming from the pinhole array; a diffraction unit to diffract the light to different directions depending on wavelength of light received by the focusing unit; and a light receiving unit to receive the reflected light diffracted by the diffraction unit. The light receiving unit includes a spectroscopic sensor array having spectroscopy sensors including pixels. Each of the lenses constituting the lens array corresponds to one of the openings of the pinhole array. The numerical aperture NA of the lens in the arrangement direction in the lens array satisfies the formula NA>sin(?max) with respect to the maximum angle of view ?max of the focusing unit.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 1, 2011
    Publication date: September 15, 2011
    Inventors: Manabu Seo, Naohiro Kamijo, Kohei Shimbo, Yoichi Kubota
  • Publication number: 20110106472
    Abstract: A spectrometric measurement apparatus includes a light radiation unit for radiating light onto a medium; a hole array including openings arranged one-dimensionally for transmitting diffusion light from the medium; an imaging optical system configured to focus an image from the hole array; a diffraction element configured to diffract the light for focusing the image; and a light receiving unit including pixels arranged one-dimensionally configured to receive the light that has been dispersed by the diffraction element and spectrometric sensors each corresponding to a predetermined number of the pixels. The light transmitted through each of the openings of the hole array is dispersed by the diffraction element, and then the light enters the pixels so that spectral properties of the diffusion light are acquired. The structure of the diffraction element includes variations that are formed in accordance with the height of the image that is focused by the imaging optical system.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 8, 2010
    Publication date: May 5, 2011
    Inventors: Manabu Seo, Naohiro Kamijo, Kohei Shimbo
  • Publication number: 20110063615
    Abstract: A spectral distribution measuring device includes an illumination unit configured to illuminate white light to a surface of an object being measured; a slit array having a plurality of slits formed in alignment at equal intervals; a linear image sensor including a light receiving face having a plurality of rectangular pixels adjacently arranged in alignment and a plurality of spectral light-irradiated areas divided in each predetermined number of neighboring pixels; a plurality of areas being measured which is set on the surface of the object being measured, and reflects the light irradiated by the illumination unit to the plurality of slits; and a diffraction unit configured to diffract and disperse reflection light which is reflected from the areas being measured and has passed through each slit, the diffraction unit being disposed such that a direction where a diffraction image expands is inclined at an angle to a direction where the light receiving face expands.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 10, 2010
    Publication date: March 17, 2011
    Inventors: Kohei Shimbo, Manabu Seo, Naohiro Kamijo
  • Patent number: 6744037
    Abstract: A scan beam light quantity distribution method and apparatus using a two-dimensional area light receiving sensor (8) movable in the same direction as scan direction of a scan beam. The two-dimensional area light receiving sensor (8) detects a scan beam while moving in the scan direction of the scan beam. The scan beam received by the two-dimensional area light receiving sensor (8) is correlated with position information when stored in data storage section (10.) By using scan beam data stored in the data storage section, analysis is made on a light quantity distribution of the scan beam scanned in X-direction.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 10, 2001
    Date of Patent: June 1, 2004
    Assignee: Ricoh Company, Ltd.
    Inventors: Hiroshi Yoshikawa, Naohiro Kamijo, Teruki Kamada, Masato Takada