Patents by Inventor Nobuyuki Taniguchi

Nobuyuki Taniguchi 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: 5142318
    Abstract: A camera system with an auto-focusing system includes a camera body and an interchangeable zoom lens. The interchangeable objective lens stores various data to be sent to the camera body for improving automatic focus adjustment, such as an information necessary to convert the detected defocus information into a movement of the driving power source to carry out the automatic focus adjustment. The driving power source in the camera body is controlled in responses to the data from the interchangeable objective lens and the detected focus information, the driving power being transmitted to the interchangeable objective lens. The camera body is further capable of inhibiting the focus adjustment or focus indication in response to a data from the interchangeable objective lens under an unfavorable condition.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 22, 1991
    Date of Patent: August 25, 1992
    Assignee: Minolta Camera Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Nobuyuki Taniguchi, Norio Ishikawa, Yasuaki Akada, Takeshi Egawa, Kunio Kawamura
  • Patent number: 5134434
    Abstract: A photographic camera for use with a detachable IC card, including circuitry for detecting a data relating to a characteristic of a color of light source which illuminates an object to be photographed and a memory for storing the data detected by said detecting circuit into the IC card attached to the camera such that the stored data is capable of being altered.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 24, 1991
    Date of Patent: July 28, 1992
    Assignee: Minolta Camera Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Manabu Inoue, Nobuyuki Taniguchi, Yoshiaki Hata, Takeo Hoda, Yoshinobu Kudo, Hiroshi Ueda
  • Patent number: 5132718
    Abstract: A flashlight emitting device for a camera wherein the flash coverage of a flash device is varied, only when a mode in which flashlight is to be emitted is selected, in response to a zooming operation to assure appropriate exposure and eliminate wasteful consumption of power.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 23, 1990
    Date of Patent: July 21, 1992
    Assignee: Minolta Camera Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Akihiko Fujino, Reiji Seki, Noriyuki Ishii, Sadanobu Ueda, Nobuyuki Taniguchi
  • Patent number: 5130734
    Abstract: In an interchangeable lens including an optical system adjustable for focusing and adapted to be detachably mounted on a camera body which is provided with focus detection means for detecting an amount of defocus of an object image formed by the optical system, and drive means for driving the optical system for the focus adjustment thereof in accordance with the detected amount of defocus. The interchangeable lens comprises, inter alia, a code plate for producing a plurality of digital photographic distance signals representing given discrete photographic distances of the optical system in accordance with the adjustment of the optical system for focusing.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 5, 1988
    Date of Patent: July 14, 1992
    Assignee: Minolta Camera Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Nobuyuki Taniguchi, Takeshi Egawa, Tohru Matsui, Takanobu Omaki, Norio Ishikawa, Akiyoshi Nakamura, Shuzo Matsushita
  • Patent number: 5130733
    Abstract: A camera with its taking optical system having two alternative, large and small, focal lengths and its finder optical system so contrived that the image formed as its focal length is varied continuously is visible through the finder, the latter included in a zoom optical system. The camera calculates the magnification of the image in the finder the photographer intends after seeing it and the focal length selected by him with the condition of the finder's optical system taken into account, and the result is recorded in the film are trimming information at the time of photographing. At the time of printing the photographed image is trimmed according to the angle of vision determined on the basis of the trimming information.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 21, 1990
    Date of Patent: July 14, 1992
    Assignee: Minolta Camera Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Nobuyuki Taniguchi, Yoshinobu Kudo, Manabu Inoue, Michihiro Iwata, Shigeru Wada, Hiroshi Ootsuka, Shinichi Yokoyama
  • Patent number: 5128700
    Abstract: In a camera capable of recording sound data corresponding to photographed frames of a film respectively, the sound data can be recorded in a first memory (e.g. a sound IC card), and data indicating correspondence between the photographed frames of a film and the sound data respectively can be recorded in a second memory (e.g. a film). Though the first memory, namely, the sound recording memory and the second memory, namely, the film are separate, the recorded sounds can accurately correspond to the photographed frames of the film respectively.In a sound playback apparatus, by attaching thereto a medium in which sound data are recorded in each area thereof and a print in each frame of which a code indicating a sound recording area is recorded, the sound playback apparatus can play back sound data corresponding to the photographed frames of the film respectively from the medium.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 11, 1990
    Date of Patent: July 7, 1992
    Assignee: Minolta Camera Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Manabu Inoue, Nobuyuki Taniguchi, Hiroshi Ueda, Yujiro Mima, Masakazu Yagi, Masayasu Hirano
  • Patent number: 5117250
    Abstract: A flashlight photographing device wherein the possibility of missing a shutter chance is minimized, a shutter speed can be set appropriately upon trailing shutter blind synchronized photographing, and an interval of time is minimized until a subsequent photographing operation is permitted. The flashlight includes a plurality of flash devices which are controlled such that one of them which has been charged up at the earliest is caused to emit flashlight. After the charged voltage of a main capacitor of one of the flash devices becomes higher than a second predetermined value but lower than a first predetermined value at which the flash device can operate to emit light, operation of an automatic focusing motor or a film winding motor of a camera is started. When trailing shutter blind synchronized photographing is to be performed in an exposure mode wherein a shutter speed is to be automatically set, exposure of the camera is controlled in accordance with a predetermined exposure time as in bulb exposure.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 6, 1991
    Date of Patent: May 26, 1992
    Assignee: Minolta Camera Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Akihiko Fujino, Tsutomu Ichikawa, Katsuyuki Nanba, Nobuyuki Taniguchi
  • Patent number: 5111234
    Abstract: In a camera adapted to function with stored data, aperture value data is stored at a predetermined step in accordance with a manual operation of a manually operable member and digital data, showing a controllable range of an aperture diaphragm of an interchangeable lens, is transmitted from the interchangeable lens and read. The stored aperture value data is detected to determine whether such data is out of the controllable range and the aperture value data to be stored is set to a limited value within the controllable range when the detection of the stored aperture value data is out of the controllable range.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 11, 1990
    Date of Patent: May 5, 1992
    Assignee: Minolta Camera Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Nobuyuki Taniguchi, Masatake Niwa, Akira Fujii, Takeo Hoda, Masaaki Nakai, Minoru Sekida, Masayoshi Sahara
  • Patent number: 5099262
    Abstract: A camera has a function of recording sounds as well as recording images. In this camera, in a self mode in which photographing is executed using a self timer, sounds are recorded during counting of the self timer and in a usual photographing mode in which no self timer is used, sounds are recorded after completion of the photographing. These two modes are changed over automatically according to a selection of one mode. When a user fails to record sounds in the sound recording operation in this camera, the sounds in correspondence with related recorded images can be recorded again from the beginning by operating a reset means. Further, the recording time can be elongated by operating a means for changing over the recording mode during the sound recording operation.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 4, 1989
    Date of Patent: March 24, 1992
    Assignee: Minolta Camera Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Yoshito Tanaka, Hiroyuki Okada, Yoshihiro Tanaka, Nobuyuki Taniguchi, Shinji Tominaga
  • Patent number: 5097281
    Abstract: The disclosure relates to an exposure calculation apparatus which includes plural light measuring devices for measuring lights incident on a plurality of regions of a photographing image plane and outputting measured data of the lights; plural devices for detecting the focusing conditions of objects present in a plurality of the regions of the photographing image plane and outputting data on the focusing conditions; a position detecting devices for detecting the position which a main object occupies in the photographing image plane on the data on the focusing condition outputted from the focusing conditions detecting devices; calculation device for making a plurality of calculations each of which is made depending on at least one of the data of measured lights ouputted from the light measuring devices; and selecting devices for selecting one of the plurality of calculations on the position detected by the position detecting devices and the data on the focusing conditions of the position.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 15, 1990
    Date of Patent: March 17, 1992
    Assignee: Minolta Camera Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Yasuteru Yamano, Takehiro Katoh, Akihiko Fujino, Kenji Tsuji, Shuji Izumi, Masaki Nakai, Nobuyuki Taniguchi
  • Patent number: 5093562
    Abstract: The focus detecting apparatus of the present invention is adapted to detect focusing state of a taking lens by detecting relative positional relation between first and second images formed by luminous bundles from an object which passed through first and second image re-forming lenses, including first series of photosensitive elements receiving the first image, second series of photosensitive elements receiving the second image, first calculating device related to a plurality of portions of the series of elements each having a prescribed number of elements on the first series of photosensitive elements, for calculating a representative value for each portion, a second calculating device related to a plurality of portions of the series of elements each having a prescribed number of elements on the second series of photosensitive elements, for calculating a representative value for each portion correlation calculating device for calculating correlation between representative values of the portions of the series
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 8, 1991
    Date of Patent: March 3, 1992
    Assignee: Minolta Camera Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Noriyuki Okisu, Hiroshi Ueda, Toshio Norita, Tokuji Ishida, Nobuyuki Taniguchi
  • Patent number: 5084722
    Abstract: A focus condition detecting device which eliminates a wasteful operation thereof to obtain optical results of detection in a shortest period of time and wherein it can be discriminated correctly depending upon data read from a lens regarding an exit pupil of the lens whether or not detection of a focus condition is possible. The device comprises an optical means which forms a plurality of pairs of light images from beams of light from pairs of areas of an exit pupil plane of an interchangeable lens. Relative displacements between the light images are detected by a plurality of focus condition detecting means. Data regarding optical characteristics of the lens are read from the lens, and in accordance with the data thus read, those ones of the focus condition detecting means for which detection of a focus condition is possible are selected from an optical relationship between the optical means and the exit pupil of the lens.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 13, 1990
    Date of Patent: January 28, 1992
    Assignee: Minolta Camera Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Nobuyuki Taniguchi, Toshihiko Karasaki, Hiromu Mukai, Hisashi Tokumaru, Tokuji Ishida
  • Patent number: 5081483
    Abstract: A camera control system is provided having a plurality of microcomputers, each microcomputer operating in conjunction with a respective clock which generates clock pulses at a respective frequency. A first microcomputer controls a second microcomputer after the second microcomputer has stabilized after initial start up. The first microcomputer controls the overall camera operation, and the second microcomputer controls the camera display operation. When a battery is loaded into the camera, both microcomputers are reset.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 7, 1990
    Date of Patent: January 14, 1992
    Assignee: Minolta Camera Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Toshihiko Ishimura, Yasuaki Akada, Reiji Seki, Nobuyuki Taniguchi, Norio Ishikawa
  • Patent number: 5075710
    Abstract: A camera includes a cover for the upper side of the camera body and having a projecting portion shaped as a pentagonal prism with a first manual operable member located at the cover on a first side of the projecting portion for designating one of a plurality of kinds of photographic data. A second manually operable member is located at the cover on a second side of the projecting portion and alters any of the plurality of the kinds of photographic data in combination with the actual designation of the first manually operable member. The designated photographic data is indicated by a display located at the cover on the second side of the projecting portion. A third manually operable member, also located at the cover on the second side of the projecting portion, initiates exposure operation of the camera.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 11, 1990
    Date of Patent: December 24, 1991
    Assignee: Minolta Camera Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Nobuyuki Taniguchi, Masatake Niwa, Akira Fujii, Takeo Hoda, Masaaki Nakai, Minoru Sekida, Masayoshi Sahara
  • Patent number: 5070355
    Abstract: A camera capable of identifying photographing conditions causative of red-eye effect making the eyes of human pictures in a flash-photographed picture come out red, and recording the identified photographing conditions in an external memory provided on a film cartridge loaded thereon. The camera recognizes the possibility of occurrence of red-eye effect on the basis of the focal length of the camera lens, the object distance, the distance between the optical axis of the camera lens and the light source of the flash light device and the object brightness. When the photographing conditions are identified to be causative of red-eye effect, a warning is displayed and flash photographing is forbidden.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 18, 1990
    Date of Patent: December 3, 1991
    Assignee: Minolta Camera Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Manabu Inoue, Nobuyuki Taniguchi, Katsuyuki Nanba, Yoshinobu Kudo, Michihiro Iwata, Shigeru Wada
  • Patent number: 5068737
    Abstract: An image sensor system for sensing an image of an object includes a plurality of image sensor arrays. Each array comprises photoelectric converting elements arranged to receive the object image and accumulation cells coupled to each photoelectric converting element for accumulating charges produced from the photoelectric converting element. A buffer memory cells are coupled respectively to the accumulation cells for temporarily storing the accumulated charges shifted from the accumulation cells in response to the completion of the charge accumulation in each array. A shift register is provided to receive accumulated charges from the buffer memory cells in every one of the arrays after all the arrays complete the charge accumulation. The accumulated charges stored in the shift register are then sequentially outputted.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 13, 1991
    Date of Patent: November 26, 1991
    Assignee: Minolta Camera Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Nobuyuki Taniguchi, Toshihiko Karasaki, Tokuji Ishida, Masataka Hamada, Toshio Norita
  • Patent number: 5065176
    Abstract: A camera system with an auto-focusing system includes a camera body and an interchangeable zoom lens. The interchangeable objective lens stores various data to be sent to the camera body for improving automatic focus adjustment, such as an information necessary to convert the detected defocus information into a movement of the driving power source to carry out the automatic focus adjustment. The driving power source in the camera body is controlled in response to the data from the interchangeable objective lens and the detected focus information, the driving power being transmitted to the interchangeable objective lens. The camera body is further capable of inhibiting the focus adjustment or focus indication in response to a data from the interchangeable objective lens under an unfavorable condition.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 18, 1990
    Date of Patent: November 12, 1991
    Assignee: Minolta Camera Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Nobuyuki Taniguchi, Norio Ishikawa, Yasuaki Akada, Takeshi Egawa, Kunio Kawamura
  • Patent number: 5060006
    Abstract: The photographic camera which prints a code signal representing printing information on a film is capable of selecting a real focal length photographing mode for printing a normal range of a frame, plurality of pseudo focal length photographing mode each being different in pseudo focal length from the other, and a close-up photographing mode. Exposure condition is limited in accordance with the selected mode. Upon selection of the photographing modes, a code signal indicative of the said selection is produced and printed between photographing frame on the film surface. The film after photographing with this camera is subjected to printing by means of a printer which reads the code signal printed on the film surface, determines an exposure value in accordance with the code signal and determines an enlargement ratio.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 13, 1990
    Date of Patent: October 22, 1991
    Assignee: Minolta Camera Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Nobuyuki Taniguchi, Yoshiaki Hata, Yoshinobu Kudo, Manabu Inoue, Takeo Hoda, Hiroshi Ueda
  • Patent number: 5057857
    Abstract: A photographic camera system including a mode setting device for selectively setting the system to a real focal length photographing mode for printing an ordinary photographic zone and a pseudo focal length photographing mode for printing a zone narrower than the ordinary photographic zone, a recording device for recording on a film information corresponding to a set one of the photographing modes, a data imprinting device for imprinting data such as date at one of different positions on a photographing portion of the film and a selector device for selecting the one of the different positions in accordance with the set one of the photographic modes.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 7, 1990
    Date of Patent: October 15, 1991
    Assignee: Minolta Camera Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Yoshiaki Hata, Nobuyuki Taniguchi, Takeo Hoda, Manabu Inoue, Yoshinobu Kudo, Hiroshi Ueda
  • Patent number: 5055865
    Abstract: A flashlight photographing device wherein the possibility of missing a shutter chance is minimized, a shutter speed can be set appropriately upon trailing shutter blind synchronized photographing, and an interval of time is minimized until a subsequent photographing operation is permitted. The flashlight includes a plurality of flash devices which are controlled such that one of them which has been charged up at the earliest is caused to emit flashlight. After the charged voltage of a main capacitor of one of the flash devices becomes higher than a second predetermined value but lower than a first predetermined value at which the flash device can operate to emit light, operation of an automatic focusing motor or a film winding motor of a camera is started. When trailing shutter blind synchronized photographing is to be performed in an exposure mode wherein a shutter speed is to be automatically set, exposure of the camera is controlled in accordance with a predetermined exposure time as in bulb exposure.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 27, 1990
    Date of Patent: October 8, 1991
    Assignee: Minolta Camera Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Akihiko Fujino, Tsutomu Ichikawa, Katsuyuki Nanba, Nobuyuki Taniguchi