Patents by Inventor Sotaro YOKOTA

Sotaro YOKOTA 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: 11693261
    Abstract: A focus adjusting tool used to perform an initial setting for a pair of autofocus eyeglasses includes an adjusting lens that refracts reflected light from a visual object, a housing including an inner space that allows a parallel movement of the adjusting lens, an adjusting unit that adjusts a position of the adjusting lens inside the housing, and a first end and a second end in a moving direction of the adjusting lens. The first end is provided with a hole for visually observing a visual object through a power variable lens of the pair of autofocus eyeglasses. The adjusting lens adjusts, in response to the position thereof inside the housing, an incident angle of the reflected light from the visual object into the power variable lens, the visual object being located on the side of the second end.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 30, 2021
    Date of Patent: July 4, 2023
    Assignee: KONICA MINOLTA, INC.
    Inventors: Yoshikazu Watanabe, Takaki Uemura, Sotaro Yokota
  • Publication number: 20210364825
    Abstract: A focus adjusting tool used to perform an initial setting for a pair of autofocus eyeglasses includes an adjusting lens that refracts reflected light from a visual object, a housing including an inner space that allows a parallel movement of the adjusting lens, an adjusting unit that adjusts a position of the adjusting lens inside the housing, and a first end and a second end in a moving direction of the adjusting lens. The first end is provided with a hole for visually observing a visual object through a power variable lens of the pair of autofocus eyeglasses.
    Type: Application
    Filed: April 30, 2021
    Publication date: November 25, 2021
    Inventors: Yoshikazu WATANABE, Takaki UEMURA, Sotaro YOKOTA
  • Publication number: 20200253022
    Abstract: An optical writing device includes a lens, a plurality of light emitting elements that form one pixel on a photoreceptor through the lens, and a control circuit that controls a light emitting state of each of the plurality of light emitting elements. The control circuit controls the light emitting state of each of the plurality of light emitting elements in accordance with an ambient temperature of the plurality of light emitting elements.
    Type: Application
    Filed: January 28, 2020
    Publication date: August 6, 2020
    Inventors: Masayuki IIJIMA, Takaki UEMURA, Yoshikazu WATANABE, Sotaro YOKOTA
  • Publication number: 20190384204
    Abstract: An optical recording device includes: a lens array in which a plurality of lenses is arranged at least in a main scanning direction; a light emitting element substrate that is arranged in proximity to the lens array, and includes a light emitting element group in which a plurality of light emitting elements forming one pixel is arranged for each lens position of the lens array; and a light emission controller that controls the light emitting elements, wherein, in the light emitting element substrate, at least a light emitting element arranged on an end side in the main scanning direction is a special light emitting element, and the light emission controller is able to adjust an irradiation position irradiated with light from the special light emitting element through the lens array by selectively allowing a plurality of light sources in the special light emitting element to emit light.
    Type: Application
    Filed: May 16, 2019
    Publication date: December 19, 2019
    Inventors: Yoshikazu WATANABE, Sotaro YOKOTA
  • Patent number: 10481519
    Abstract: A print head includes: current-driven non-single crystal light emitting elements arranged in a line; thin film transistors that are provided in one-to-one correspondence with the light emitting elements and each supplies a driving current to a corresponding one of the light emitting elements; a detector that detects, when one of the light emitting elements corresponding to one of the thin film transistors emits light, an output voltage of the one of the thin film transistors; and a hardware processor that determines a control voltage to be applied to each of the thin film transistors when next light is emitted according to the output voltage of the one of the thin film transistors detected by the detector and a driving current to be supplied by each of the thin film transistors to cause each of the light emitting elements to emit light with a target light amount.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 14, 2017
    Date of Patent: November 19, 2019
    Assignee: Konica Minolta, Inc.
    Inventors: So Yano, Yoshikazu Watanabe, Sotaro Yokota
  • Patent number: 10482357
    Abstract: An optical print head including light emitting elements, drivers, setters, a detector, and a generator. The detector is for detecting a noise component superimposed on a luminance signal, on transmission circuitry for transmitting the luminance signal from a setter to a driver, in a state in which the setter is outputting the luminance signal. The generator, for each light emitting element due to emit light in a line subsequent to a line for which the detector detected the noise component, generates and causes a setter corresponding to the light emitting element to output an adjusted luminance signal such that the light emitting element emits a light emission amount according to image data in a state in which the noise component detected by the detector is superimposed on the adjusted luminance signal.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 25, 2018
    Date of Patent: November 19, 2019
    Assignee: KONICA MINOLTA, INC.
    Inventors: So Yano, Yoshikazu Watanabe, Sotaro Yokota
  • Patent number: 10469693
    Abstract: An optical PH includes: a plurality of current-driven light emitting elements that are arranged in a line-shaped region; a controller that outputs a control voltage instructing an amount of a drive current to be supplied to each of the light emitting elements; and a plurality of drivers that correspond one-to-one with the light emitting elements, and each supply the drive current to a corresponding one of the light emitting elements, wherein the drivers each operate as one of: a high-voltage referring driver that supplies the drive current according to a voltage difference between the control voltage and a reference voltage higher than the control voltage; and a low-voltage referring driver that supplies the drive current according to a voltage difference between the control voltage and a reference voltage lower than the control voltage.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 27, 2018
    Date of Patent: November 5, 2019
    Assignee: KONICA MINOLTA, INC.
    Inventors: Yoshikazu Watanabe, So Yano, Sotaro Yokota
  • Patent number: 10379459
    Abstract: An image forming device includes: element arrays each including light emitting elements arranged in main scanning direction, the arrays being arranged in sub scanning direction; a photoreceptor whose surface moves relative to the light emitting elements in the sub scanning direction; a controller outputting control voltage instructing light emission amount for each light emitting element; and drivers each supplying drive current to a corresponding light emitting element according to the control voltage, thus causing the light emitting element to emit light to expose the moving surface of the photoreceptor. Intervals L between the arrays satisfy (D/2)×(V/F)?((V/F)×0.1)?L?(D/2)×(V/F)+((V/F)×0.1) where F expresses frequency of AC noise to be superimposed on the control voltage, V expresses system speed of the surface of the photoreceptor moving relative to the light emitting elements, and D is an odd number.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 5, 2018
    Date of Patent: August 13, 2019
    Assignee: Konica Minolta, Inc.
    Inventors: Yoshikazu Watanabe, So Yano, Sotaro Yokota
  • Publication number: 20180314184
    Abstract: An image forming device includes: element arrays each including light emitting elements arranged in main scanning direction, the arrays being arranged in sub scanning direction; a photoreceptor whose surface moves relative to the light emitting elements in the sub scanning direction; a controller outputting control voltage instructing light emission amount for each light emitting element; and drivers each supplying drive current to a corresponding light emitting element according to the control voltage, thus causing the light emitting element to emit light to expose the moving surface of the photoreceptor. Intervals L between the arrays satisfy (D/2)×(V/F)?((V/F)×0.1?L?(D/2)×(V/F)+((V/F)×0.1) where F expresses frequency of AC noise to be superimposed on the control voltage, V expresses system speed of the surface of the photoreceptor moving relative to the light emitting elements, and D is an odd number.
    Type: Application
    Filed: April 5, 2018
    Publication date: November 1, 2018
    Applicant: KONICA MINOLTA, INC.
    Inventors: Yoshikazu Watanabe, So Yano, Sotaro Yokota
  • Publication number: 20180288266
    Abstract: An optical PH includes: a plurality of current-driven light emitting elements that are arranged in a line-shaped region; a controller that outputs a control voltage instructing an amount of a drive current to be supplied to each of the light emitting elements; and a plurality of drivers that correspond one-to-one with the light emitting elements, and each supply the drive current to a corresponding one of the light emitting elements, wherein the drivers each operate as one of: a high-voltage referring driver that supplies the drive current according to a voltage difference between the control voltage and a reference voltage higher than the control voltage; and a low-voltage referring driver that supplies the drive current according to a voltage difference between the control voltage and a reference voltage lower than the control voltage.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 27, 2018
    Publication date: October 4, 2018
    Inventors: Yoshikazu WATANABE, So YANO, Sotaro YOKOTA
  • Publication number: 20180218244
    Abstract: An optical print head including light emitting elements, drivers, setters, a detector, and a generator. The detector is for detecting a noise component superimposed on a luminance signal, on transmission circuitry for transmitting the luminance signal from a setter to a driver, in a state in which the setter is outputting the luminance signal. The generator, for each light emitting element due to emit light in a line subsequent to a line for which the detector detected the noise component, generates and causes a setter corresponding to the light emitting element to output an adjusted luminance signal such that the light emitting element emits a light emission amount according to image data in a state in which the noise component detected by the detector is to superimposed on the adjusted luminance signal.
    Type: Application
    Filed: January 25, 2018
    Publication date: August 2, 2018
    Inventors: So Yano, Yoshikazu Watanabe, Sotaro Yokota
  • Publication number: 20180074432
    Abstract: A print head includes: current-driven non-single crystal light emitting elements arranged in a line; thin film transistors that are provided in one-to-one correspondence with the light emitting elements and each supplies a driving current to a corresponding one of the light emitting elements; a detector that detects, when one of the light emitting elements corresponding to one of the thin film transistors emits light, an output voltage of the one of the thin film transistors; and a hardware processor that determines a control voltage to be applied to each of the thin film transistors when next light is emitted according to the output voltage of the one of the thin film transistors detected by the detector and a driving current to be supplied by each of the thin film transistors to cause each of the light emitting elements to emit light with a target light amount.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 14, 2017
    Publication date: March 15, 2018
    Applicant: Konica Minolta, Inc.
    Inventors: So YANO, Yoshikazu WATANABE, Sotaro YOKOTA