Patents by Inventor Noriyuki Kimura

Noriyuki Kimura 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: 8655234
    Abstract: A toner supply assembly includes a toner container mount and a toner container including a container body, a cap having a toner outlet, and a shutter for the toner outlet, to move horizontally. The cap includes a shutter guide rail, a contact portion, and a pressed rail provided on a lateral side. The shutter includes a shutter body to engage the shutter guide rail and a deformable portion deformable vertically and including a stopper to contact the contact portion of the cap for inhibiting the shutter from opening the toner outlet, and a stopper release projection pressed by a bottom projection on a bottom surface of the toner container mount in conjunction with installation of the toner container. A pressing member provided in a side portion of the toner container mount engages the pressed rail of the cap, inhibiting the cap from moving upward.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 4, 2011
    Date of Patent: February 18, 2014
    Assignee: Ricoh Company, Ltd.
    Inventors: Eisuke Hori, Nobuo Takami, Yuji Suzuki, Noriyuki Kimura, Hideki Kimura, Kenji Kikuchi
  • Patent number: 8649713
    Abstract: A toner container includes a cylindrical container body, a cap having a toner outlet, and a shutter. The cap includes a primary positioning hole, formed in an upper front surface perpendicular to a longitudinal direction of the toner container, extending in the longitudinal direction, to determine an installation position of the cap relative to the image forming apparatus, a secondary positioning hole, formed in a lower front surface perpendicular to the longitudinal direction of the toner container, extending in the longitudinal direction forward the toner outlet, to subsidiary determine the installation position of the cap, and a first restriction member to position the cap in a horizontal direction perpendicular to the longitudinal direction, projecting vertically upward from an outer circumferential surface of the cap and symmetrical about a virtual perpendicular line passing through a cross-sectional center position of the primary positioning hole perpendicular to the longitudinal direction.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 3, 2010
    Date of Patent: February 11, 2014
    Assignee: Ricoh Company, Limited
    Inventors: Eisuke Hori, Yuji Suzuki, Hideki Kimura, Kenji Kikuchi, Noriyuki Kimura, Nobuo Takami
  • Patent number: 8489001
    Abstract: A powder conveyance device includes a powder container, a conveyance pipe extending downward and including first, second, and third conveyance portions disposed in that order, a first bent portion connecting together the first and second conveyance portions, bent in a direction to increase a horizontal gradient of the second conveyance portion from that of the first conveyance portion, and a second bent portion connecting together the second and third conveyance portions, bent in a direction to reduce a horizontal gradient of the third conveyance portion from that of the second conveyance portion, a powder conveyance member disposed inside the conveyance pipe, and a first powder regulator movably disposed inside the third conveyance portion of the conveyance pipe, to restrict an amount of powder discharged through the discharge port by varying a cross sectional area of a space present above a discharge port in the conveyance pipe.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 10, 2010
    Date of Patent: July 16, 2013
    Assignee: Ricoh Company, Limited
    Inventor: Noriyuki Kimura
  • Publication number: 20120321341
    Abstract: A toner container that is detachably attached to a main body of an image forming apparatus such that a longitudinal direction of the toner container is parallel to a horizontal direction includes: a cylindrical container body that has an opening on one end thereof in the longitudinal direction, and is configured to convey toner contained therein toward the opening; a cap portion into which the opening of the container body is inserted, and which includes a toner outlet at a bottom portion thereof for discharging toner discharged from the opening of the container body to the outside of the toner container in a vertically downward direction; and a shutter member that is held on the bottom portion of the cap portion, and moves along an outer periphery of the cap portion to thereby open and close the toner outlet, wherein the cap portion is formed by integral molding.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 1, 2011
    Publication date: December 20, 2012
    Inventors: Eisuke Hori, Noriyuki Kimura, Nobuo Takami, Yuji Suzuki, Hideki Kimura, Kenji Kikuchi, Junji Yamabe, Masato Suzuki
  • Publication number: 20120248298
    Abstract: An optical sensor has a glass base having a concave portion, and a glass lid is bonded to the base and overlies the concave portion to form an hermetically sealed cavity portion. A photoelectric conversion element is accommodated in the cavity portion. Internal wirings are each connected at one end to the photoelectric conversion element and extend through notches formed in a peripheral edge of the base. The other ends of the internal wirings are connected inside the notches to external wirings that extend along an outside surface of the base and terminate in external terminals.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 29, 2012
    Publication date: October 4, 2012
    Inventors: Hitoshi Takeuchi, Noriyuki Kimura, Koji Noguchi
  • Publication number: 20120219330
    Abstract: A toner container and system for mounting and/or securing the toner container includes a toner container having a toner dispensing hole, a shutter, and a protrusion. The shutter is movable relative to the toner dispensing hole, and is to selectively close the toner dispensing hole. The protrusion is connected to the shutter and movement of the protrusion causes the shutter to move relative to the toner dispensing hole to cover the toner dispensing hole. There is a receiver including a movable catch, the movable catch being in a first position when the toner container is initially inserted into the receiver, and the movable catch moving to a second position upon insertion of the toner container into the receiver. The movable catch interacts with the protrusion of the toner container when the toner container is being removed from the receiver.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 2, 2012
    Publication date: August 30, 2012
    Inventors: Kenji KIKUCHI, Eisuke HORI, Yuji SUZUKI, Hideki KIMURA, Nobuo TAKAMI, Noriyuki KIMURA
  • Publication number: 20120221321
    Abstract: Appropriate processing results or appropriate apparatuses can be selected with a control device that selects the most probable speech recognition result by using speech recognition scores received with speech recognition results from two or more speech recognition apparatuses; sends the selected speech recognition result to two or more translation apparatuses respectively; selects the most probable translation result by using translation scores received with translation results from the two or more translation apparatuses; sends the selected translation result to two or more speech synthesis apparatuses respectively; receives a speech synthesis processing result including a speech synthesis result and a speech synthesis score from each of the two or more speech synthesis apparatuses; selects the most probable speech synthesis result by using the scores; and sends the selected speech synthesis result to a second terminal apparatus.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 3, 2010
    Publication date: August 30, 2012
    Inventors: Satoshi Nakamura, Eiichiro Sumita, Yutaka Ashikari, Noriyuki Kimura, Chiori Hori
  • Publication number: 20120195645
    Abstract: A system with a container including a protrusion, and a receiver to receive the container. The receiver includes a slide block that is movable relative to a body of the receiver, the slide block including two surfaces, a first surface, initially contacted by the protrusion of the container during insertion of the container into the receiver, having a first slope to resist movement of the container towards the receiver, and a second surface, subsequently contacted by the protrusion of the container during the insertion of the container into the receiver, having a second slope to interact with the protrusion of the container to assist movement of the container towards the receiver. This construction provides the user with a changing insertion force to indicate proper mounting of the container.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 29, 2012
    Publication date: August 2, 2012
    Inventors: Nobuo TAKAMI, Noriyuki Kimura, Eisuke Hori, Hideki Kimura, Kenji Kikuchi, Yuji Suzuki
  • Publication number: 20120197629
    Abstract: In conventional network-type speech translation systems, devices or models for recognizing or synthesizing speech cannot be changed in accordance with speakers' attributes, and therefore, accuracy is reduced or inappropriate output occurs in each process of speech recognition, translation, and speech synthesis. Accuracy of each processing of speech translation, translation, or speech synthesis is improved and appropriate output is performed in a network-type speech translation system by, based on speaker attributes, appropriately changing the server to perform speech recognition or the speech recognition model, appropriately changing the translation server to perform translation or the translation model, or appropriately changing the speech synthesis server or speech synthesis model.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 3, 2010
    Publication date: August 2, 2012
    Inventors: Satoshi Nakamura, Eiichiro Sumita, Yutaka Ashikari, Noriyuki Kimura, Chiori Hori
  • Publication number: 20120163877
    Abstract: A toner container which includes a main body for storing toner, an opening for dispensing toner, and a mechanism for sealing the opening. The mechanism for sealing the opening includes a slidable shutter which includes a cover and an extension, connected to the cover part, including a pushing surface and a blocking surface. The mechanism for sealing further includes a restriction which contacts the blocking surface to prevent the slidable shutter from sliding.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 2, 2012
    Publication date: June 28, 2012
    Inventors: Kenji KIKUCHI, Eisuke HORI, Yuji SUZUKI, Hideki KIMURA, Nobuo TAKAMI, Noriyuki KIMURA
  • Publication number: 20120166176
    Abstract: A conventional speech recognition dictionary, translation dictionary and speech synthesis dictionary used in speech translation have inconsistencies.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 3, 2010
    Publication date: June 28, 2012
    Inventors: Satoshi Nakamura, Eiichiro Sumita, Yutaka Ashikari, Noriyuki Kimura, Chiori Hori
  • Publication number: 20120068340
    Abstract: Provided is a BGA semiconductor package including: a substrate on which a semiconductor device is mounted; an adhesive for adhering the semiconductor device and the substrate to each other; a micro ball having conductivity, the micro ball being fitted into a through-hole provided in the substrate; a bonding wire for electrically connecting the semiconductor device and the micro ball to each other; and an encapsulation member for encapsulating, with an encapsulation resin, the semiconductor device, the adhesive, a part of the micro ball, and the bonding wire, only on a surface side of the substrate on which the semiconductor device is mounted, in which at least a part of a bottom surface of the micro ball has an exposed portion as an external connection terminal, which is exposed through the through-hole provided in the substrate as a bottom surface of the encapsulation member.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 21, 2011
    Publication date: March 22, 2012
    Inventor: Noriyuki Kimura
  • Publication number: 20120033998
    Abstract: A toner supply assembly includes a toner container mount and a toner container including a container body, a cap having a toner outlet, and a shutter for the toner outlet, to move horizontally. The cap includes a shutter guide rail, a contact portion, and a pressed rail provided on a lateral side. The shutter includes a shutter body to engage the shutter guide rail and a deformable portion deformable vertically and including a stopper to contact the contact portion of the cap for inhibiting the shutter from opening the toner outlet, and a stopper release projection pressed by a bottom projection on a bottom surface of the toner container mount in conjunction with installation of the toner container. A pressing member provided in a side portion of the toner container mount engages the pressed rail of the cap, inhibiting the cap from moving upward.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 4, 2011
    Publication date: February 9, 2012
    Inventors: Eisuke HORI, Nobuo Takami, Yuji Suzuki, Noriyuki Kimura, Hideki Kimura, Kenji Kikuchi
  • Publication number: 20110222871
    Abstract: A toner replenishing device includes a sub hopper (toner container), a toner detection sensor, an agitator, and a paddle. The sub hopper contains toner. The toner detection sensor is located on a wall surface in the sub hopper and detects whether toner remains at a height at which it is located. The agitator rotates in the sub hopper to clean the detection surface of the toner detection sensor. The paddle serves as a toner collecting unit that collects toner to the vicinity of the detection surface of the toner detection sensor in the sub hopper.
    Type: Application
    Filed: February 22, 2011
    Publication date: September 15, 2011
    Inventors: Yuji SUZUKI, Eisuke Hori, Nobuo Takami, Kenji Kikuchi, Hideki Kimura, Noriyuki Kimura
  • Publication number: 20110081168
    Abstract: A powder conveyance device includes a powder container, a conveyance pipe extending downward and including first, second, and third conveyance portions disposed in that order, a first bent portion connecting together the first and second conveyance portions, bent in a direction to increase a horizontal gradient of the second conveyance portion from that of the first conveyance portion, and a second bent portion connecting together the second and third conveyance portions, bent in a direction to reduce a horizontal gradient of the third conveyance portion from that of the second conveyance portion, a powder conveyance member disposed inside the conveyance pipe, and a first powder regulator movably disposed inside the third conveyance portion of the conveyance pipe, to restrict an amount of powder discharged through the discharge port by varying a cross sectional area of a space present above a discharge port in the conveyance pipe.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 10, 2010
    Publication date: April 7, 2011
    Inventor: Noriyuki KIMURA
  • Publication number: 20110058857
    Abstract: A toner container includes a cylindrical container body, a cap having a toner outlet, and a shutter.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 3, 2010
    Publication date: March 10, 2011
    Inventors: Eisuke HORI, Yuji Suzuki, Hideki Kimura, Kenji Kikuchi, Noriyuki Kimura, Nobuo Takami
  • Publication number: 20100250241
    Abstract: The invention provides a dialogue-based learning apparatus through dialogue with users comprising: a speech input unit (10) for inputting speeches; a speech recognition unit (20) for recognizing the input speech; and a behavior and dialogue controller (30) for controlling behaviors and dialogues according to speech recognition results, wherein the behavior and dialogue controller (30) has a topic recognition expert (34) to memorise contents of utterances and to retrieve the topic that best matches the speech recognition results, and a mode switching expert (35) to control mode switching in accordance with a user utterance, wherein the mode switching expert switches modes in accordance with a user utterance, wherein the topic recognition expert registers a plurality words in the utterance as topics in first mode, performs searches from among the registered topics, and selects the maximum likelihood topic in second mode.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 29, 2008
    Publication date: September 30, 2010
    Inventors: Naoto Iwahashi, Noriyuki Kimura, Mikio Nakano, Kotaro Funakoshi
  • Publication number: 20100200982
    Abstract: Provided is a resin sealed semiconductor device including: a semiconductor element; a plurality of micro-balls including an internal terminal surface and an external connection electrode in two sides of the micro-balls; metal wires for electrically connecting the semiconductor element and an internal terminal surface; and a sealing body for sealing the semiconductor element, a part of each the plurality of the terminals, and metal wires with a sealing resin, in which a back surface of the semiconductor element is exposed from the sealing body, and a part of each the plurality of micro-balls are exposed as the external connection electrodes from a bottom surface of the sealing body in a projection manner.
    Type: Application
    Filed: February 5, 2010
    Publication date: August 12, 2010
    Inventor: Noriyuki Kimura
  • Patent number: 7550322
    Abstract: A semiconductor device manufacturing method comprises etching a front side of a conductive board to form plural sets of a die pad portion and bonding areas, each set corresponding to one semiconductor device. Semiconductor chips are mounted on respective ones of the die pad portions using conductive paste. Electrodes of the respective semiconductor chips are electrically connected with metal wires to the bonding areas, and then the front side of the conductive board, including the semiconductor chips, the bonding areas and the metal wires, are sealed with a molding resin to form a resin-sealed body. Thereafter, the back side of the conductive board is selectively removed, such as by etching, to leave the die pad portions and the bonding areas protruding from a bottom surface of the resin-sealed body. Then the resin-sealed body is separated into individual semiconductor devices.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 25, 2007
    Date of Patent: June 23, 2009
    Assignee: Seiko Instruments Inc.
    Inventor: Noriyuki Kimura
  • Publication number: 20090022504
    Abstract: An image forming apparatus includes a unit, a mark detector, and a controller. The unit is attachable to and detachable from the image forming apparatus and includes an information mark pattern indicating predetermined information. The mark detector detects the information mark pattern. The controller obtains the information indicated by the information mark pattern based on a detection result provided by the mark detector.
    Type: Application
    Filed: July 18, 2008
    Publication date: January 22, 2009
    Inventors: Nobuo KUWABARA, Masahiko Satoh, Noriyuki Kimura, Eisuke Hori, Hideki Kimura, Hiroyuki Nagashima, Hiroshi Ono, Masahiko Shakuto