Patents by Inventor Noboru Koyama

Noboru Koyama 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).

  • Publication number: 20100272489
    Abstract: An ink ribbon cartridge includes: a supply spool, on which an ink ribbon is wound; a winding spool which takes up the ink ribbon sent from the supply spool; and a cartridge main body which has a supply-side ribbon housing section which houses the supply spool so as to be able to rotate, and a winding-side ribbon housing section which houses the winding spool so as to be able to rotate, and in which a head entry opening portion, into which a thermal head enters, is formed between the supply-side ribbon housing section and the winding-side ribbon housing section, and opening portions for the ribbon, which make the ink ribbon extend in the head entry opening portion, are formed on the head entry opening portion side of the supply-side ribbon housing section and the head entry opening portion side of the winding-side ribbon housing section.
    Type: Application
    Filed: February 19, 2010
    Publication date: October 28, 2010
    Applicant: Sony Corporation
    Inventors: Noboru Koyama, Kazuyoshi Murata, Shingo Hitose
  • Patent number: 7764325
    Abstract: An electro-optical device includes a substrate; a plurality of data lines and a plurality of scanning lines arranged in a pixel region on the substrate; transistors disposed in associated pixel portions in the pixel region on the substrate, the transistors being electrically connected to the data lines and the scanning lines, and the transistors each having a semiconductor layer subjected to hydrogenation performed from an upper layer; storage capacitors disposed below the transistors in the associated pixel portions on the substrate, the storage capacitors being electrically connected to the transistors; and pixel electrodes disposed in the associated pixel portions on the substrate, the pixel electrodes being electrically connected to the transistors and the storage capacitors.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 9, 2007
    Date of Patent: July 27, 2010
    Assignee: Seiko Epson Corporation
    Inventor: Noboru Koyama
  • Publication number: 20090201355
    Abstract: A thermal head which forms an image on a recording medium by pressing a protruding portion on which heating elements are arranged on the recording medium while driving the heating elements to be heated includes a support substrate in which a concave gap portion facing the protruding portion is formed and a glaze layer provided on the support substrate and in which the protruding portion is formed, in which the glaze layer has a base layer stacked on the support substrate as well as forming a ceiling surface of the gap portion and a heat resistant layer stacked on the base layer and on which the heating elements are arranged.
    Type: Application
    Filed: January 29, 2009
    Publication date: August 13, 2009
    Applicant: Sony Corporation
    Inventors: Noboru Koyama, Mitsuo Yanase, Toru Morikawa, Kazunori Onuma
  • Publication number: 20090195632
    Abstract: A thermal head which forms an image on a recording medium by pressing a protruding portion on which heating elements are arranged on the recording medium while driving the heating elements to be heated includes a head body portion in which the protruding portion and a concave gap portion facing the protruding portion are formed and a heat conductive layer provided on the side of the protruding portion of the head body portion, in which the heat conductive layer includes an electric insulating layer securing electric insulation to the heating elements and a heat diffusion layer diffusing heat generated from the heating elements.
    Type: Application
    Filed: January 29, 2009
    Publication date: August 6, 2009
    Applicant: Sony Corporation
    Inventors: Noboru Koyama, Mitsuo Yanase, Toru Morikawa, Kei Sato
  • Publication number: 20080317536
    Abstract: A printer apparatus is disclosed. The printer includes: a thermal head having heat generating elements arranged in the form of a line extending longer than the width of a printing medium in the width direction of the printing medium substantially orthogonal to the conveying direction thereof; and a platen disposed opposite to the thermal head with a conveying path for the printing medium interposed between them so as to cooperate with the platen to sandwich the printing medium beyond the width of the printing medium with an ink ribbon interposed. The platen is put in contact with an end portion of the thermal head located beyond the width of the printing medium.
    Type: Application
    Filed: May 6, 2008
    Publication date: December 25, 2008
    Applicant: Sony Corporation
    Inventors: Toru Morikawa, Shuichi Ota, Noboru Koyama, Atsushi Yanbe
  • Patent number: 7466329
    Abstract: A printer device that prints an image to a printing paper using a thermal head formed with a plurality of heating resistors. The printer device includes: edge position detection means for performing edge position detection to an incoming printing paper using the thermal head based on a change of temperature increase observed in, as a result of energization, any of the heating resistors opposing the printing paper and the remaining heating resistors not opposing the printing paper; and control means for exercising control over an image printing operation using the thermal head based on a detection output derived by the edge position detection means.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 13, 2007
    Date of Patent: December 16, 2008
    Assignee: Sony Corporation
    Inventors: Noboru Koyama, Tetsuya Hoshino
  • Publication number: 20080143810
    Abstract: A thermal head includes a head containing a glass layer. The glass layer has a projecting portion on one surface and a concave groove on the other surface at a position opposed to the projecting portion. The head further contains a heating resistor disposed on the projecting portion, and a pair of electrodes disposed on both sides of the heating resistor. The thermal head further includes a rigid substrate on which a control circuit for the head is provided, and a flexible substrate for electrically connecting the head and the rigid substrate.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 6, 2007
    Publication date: June 19, 2008
    Inventors: Tooru Morikawa, Izumi Kariya, Noboru Koyama, Mitsuo Yanase
  • Publication number: 20080106588
    Abstract: A thermal head includes a glass layer provided with a groove section formed inside the glass layer, a heat generating resistor disposed outside the glass layer, and a pair of electrodes provided to both sides of the heat generating resistor, wherein a part of the heat generating resistor exposed between the pair of electrodes is defined as a heat generating section, and at least one of the pair of electrodes has a smaller width in an end section on an opposite side to a side of the heat generating section than a width of an end section on the side of the heat generating section.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 15, 2007
    Publication date: May 8, 2008
    Inventors: Izumi Kariya, Noboru Koyama, Mitsuo Yanase, Tooru Morikawa
  • Publication number: 20070290080
    Abstract: Disclosed is an electrostatic spraying device (10) which has a spray cartridge (15), a power supply (16), and a controller (17). In the spray cartridge (15), a nozzle unit (30) is mounted to the lower part of a solution tank (20). The tip of a spray nozzle (31) of the nozzle unit (30) is situated below a liquid level (51) in the solution tank (20). There is a head difference between the tip of the spray nozzle (31) and the liquid level (51) in the solution tank (20), which head difference causes water solution in the solution tank (20) to be supplied into the spray nozzle (31). Upon application of a voltage to the spray nozzle (31) from the power supply (16), the water solution is sprayed from the tip of the spray nozzle (31).
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 28, 2005
    Publication date: December 20, 2007
    Inventors: Mamoru Okumoto, Noboru Koyama
  • Publication number: 20070257980
    Abstract: A thermal head includes a glass layer having a protruding section formed on one surface and a concave groove section formed on the other surface facing the protruding section, a heat generation resistor provided on the protruding section, and a pair of electrodes provided to both sides of the heat generation resistor, and a part of the heat generation resistor exposed between the pair of electrodes is defined as a heat generation section, the protruding section has a smaller curvature radius in both sides than a curvature radius in a central portion, and a width of the groove section is one of equal to and larger than a length of the heat generation section.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 12, 2007
    Publication date: November 8, 2007
    Applicant: Sony Corporation
    Inventors: Noboru Koyama, Izumi Kariya, Mitsuo Yanase, Toru Morikawa
  • Publication number: 20070229644
    Abstract: A printer device that prints an image to a printing paper using a thermal head formed with a plurality of heating resistors. The printer device includes: edge position detection means for performing edge position detection to an incoming printing paper using the thermal head based on a change of temperature increase observed in, as a result of energization, any of the heating resistors opposing the printing paper and the remaining heating resistors not opposing the printing paper; and control means for exercising control over an image printing operation using the thermal head based on a detection output derived by the edge position detection means.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 13, 2007
    Publication date: October 4, 2007
    Inventors: Noboru Koyama, Tetsuya Hoshino
  • Publication number: 20070229642
    Abstract: A printer device that prints an image to a printing paper using a thermal head formed with a plurality of heating resistors. The printer device includes: edge position detection means for performing edge position detection, at four corners, to an incoming printing paper using the thermal head based on a change of temperature increase observed in, as a result of energization, any of the heating resistors opposing the printing paper and the remaining heating resistors not opposing the printing paper; and control means for exercising control over an image printing operation using the thermal head based on a detection output derived by the edge position detection means.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 13, 2007
    Publication date: October 4, 2007
    Applicant: Sony Corporation
    Inventors: Noboru Koyama, Tetsuya Hoshino
  • Publication number: 20070216749
    Abstract: A thermal head includes a glass layer having a protruding section formed on one surface and a concave groove section formed on the other surface facing the protruding section, a plurality of heat generation resisters disposed substantially linearly on the protruding section, and a pair of electrodes provided to both sides of each of the heat generation resistors, wherein a part of each of the heat generation resistors exposed between the pair of electrodes is defined as a heat generation section, the glass layer is provided with the groove section so as to face a line of the heat generation sections, and reinforcement sections are provided on both sides of the line of the heat generation sections of the groove sections.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 7, 2007
    Publication date: September 20, 2007
    Applicant: Sony Corporation
    Inventors: Noboru Koyama, Izumi Kariya, Mitsuo Yanase, Toru Morikawa
  • Publication number: 20070216731
    Abstract: A thermal head includes a base layer having a predetermined thickness and provided with a substantially semicylindrical protruding section integrally formed on one surface of the base layer, a heat generation resistor formed on the protruding section, and a pair of electrodes formed on both sides of the heat generation resistor, wherein a part of each of the heat generation resistors exposed between the pair of electrodes is defined as a heat generation section, and the base layer is provided with a groove section formed on the opposite side of the protruding section and having opening on the other surface of the base layer.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 12, 2007
    Publication date: September 20, 2007
    Applicant: Sony Corporation
    Inventors: Noboru Koyama, Izumi Kariya, Mitsuo Yanase, Toru Morikawa
  • Publication number: 20070165148
    Abstract: An electro-optical device includes a substrate; a plurality of data lines and a plurality of scanning lines arranged in a pixel region on the substrate; transistors disposed in associated pixel portions in the pixel region on the substrate, the transistors being electrically connected to the data lines and the scanning lines, and the transistors each having a semiconductor layer subjected to hydrogenation performed from an upper layer; storage capacitors disposed below the transistors in the associated pixel portions on the substrate, the storage capacitors being electrically connected to the transistors; and pixel electrodes disposed in the associated pixel portions on the substrate, the pixel electrodes being electrically connected to the transistors and the storage capacitors.
    Type: Application
    Filed: January 9, 2007
    Publication date: July 19, 2007
    Applicant: Seiko Epson Corporation
    Inventor: Noboru Koyama
  • Publication number: 20050275902
    Abstract: A recording medium including: an image storing medium for storing an image information; and a display section installed on a surface of said image storing medium, wherein said display section includes a radio IC chip.
    Type: Application
    Filed: May 13, 2005
    Publication date: December 15, 2005
    Inventors: Noboru Koyama, Masahito Niikawa, Ayako Doi, Tatsuya Sasazawa, Akiko Murayama
  • Patent number: 6424385
    Abstract: There are provided on an optical disk a high resolution image file for storing a high resolution image data, an index file for storing a predetermined number of low resolution image data, a management file for storing information about the high and low resolution image data, and a management data table for controlling the relative locations of the high resolution image file and index file to each other on the optical disk. A playback apparatus according to the present invention plays back the index file through referring to data of the management file and management data table and produces on a monitor a single screen display of the predetermined number of the low resolution image data saved in the index file. Accordingly, the predetermined number of the low resolution image data can be read out by a single access action thus speeding up the display of index images.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 3, 1996
    Date of Patent: July 23, 2002
    Assignee: Sony Corporation
    Inventors: Noboru Koyama, Fumihiko Kaise, Hiroe Honma
  • Patent number: 6382852
    Abstract: An information recording apparatus and an information recording method are provided for recording additional information on a heat-sensitive recording medium with a simple configuration without seriously affecting a main recorded image. A CPU includes a memory for storing the additional information. The CPU further includes a memory for storing information about thermal energy and glossiness of the heat-sensitive medium. Based on the information about gloss characteristics, the CPU controls a thermal head through a head controller so that a specific amount of thermal energy is applied to an image recording surface of the medium after image recording. The thermal energy applied effects variations of glossiness corresponding to the additional information to record. Through the application of the thermal energy, glossiness of the medium varies and the additional information is thereby recorded on the medium.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 25, 1998
    Date of Patent: May 7, 2002
    Assignee: Sony Corporation
    Inventor: Noboru Koyama
  • Patent number: 6164849
    Abstract: A gloss control apparatus and a gloss control method for achieving even glossiness of an image recording surface of a heat-sensitive recording medium on which an image has been recorded and for controlling the glossiness as desired. In addition, process time and thermal energy required for achieving even glossiness are reduced. A CPU determines thermal energy corresponding to a desired glossiness based on gloss characteristic information about thermal energy and glossiness of the recording medium stored in the internal memory. The CPU controls a thermal head through a head controller so that the determined thermal energy is evenly applied to all over the image recording surface of the medium on which the image has been recorded. Evenness of glossiness of the medium after image recording is thus achieved so that the glossiness the user desires is obtained.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 25, 1998
    Date of Patent: December 26, 2000
    Assignee: Sony Corporation
    Inventor: Noboru Koyama
  • Patent number: 6112010
    Abstract: At a storage section, picture information of intermediate resolution and picture information of low resolution are formed on the basis of picture information of high resolution which has been read out from a frame memory. These picture information are caused to undergo fixed length encoding at a compression/expansion circuit. These picture data of three kinds of resolutions which have been caused to undergo fixed length encoding are respectively recorded in the order of reproduction and continuously onto an optical disk having tri-sected recording areas for respective resolutions. Thus, it is sufficient to read out, from any one of the recording areas, picture data of resolution corresponding to the equipment which outputs picture data. In addition, since the picture data of respective resolutions are continuously recorded in the order of reproduction, the seek time is eliminated thereby contributing to realization of high reproduction speed.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 13, 1999
    Date of Patent: August 29, 2000
    Assignee: Sony Corporation
    Inventors: Noboru Koyama, Fumihiko Kaise, Hiroe Honma