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US 2002/0163569 A1Published application
Printer
AssigneeOlympus Corporation
InventorMasaaki Shibuya
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
The present invention provides a printer in which a current is conducted to a thermal head 20 in order to pre-heat the thermal head 20 concurrently with battery checking prior to printing. Thereafter, power supplied from a battery is fed to the thermal head 20, which is a load, immediately before the color inks on an ink ribbon 7a are transferred. At the predetermined timing immediately succeeding the feeding of power (in 5 to 10 msec), a voltage developed from the battery 8 is detected. The detected voltage is corrected so that a printing density of inks transferred from the thermal head 20 will remain constant irrespective of whether the voltage developed from the battery 8 is high or low.
Claims19
A printer comprising:
- a thermal head for transferring a plurality of color inks successively to paper so that a color image can be printed on the paper according to image data;
- battery power supply means;
- voltage detecting means for detecting a voltage developed from said battery power supply means;
- and
- control means for feeding power supplied from said battery power supply means to a load at the timing immediately preceding the transfer of the color inks to the paper, instructing said voltage detecting means to detect the voltage developed from said battery power supply means at the predetermined timing immediately succeeding the feeding of power, and performing correction according to the result of the detection so that a printing density of inks transferred from said thermal head will remain constant irrespective of whether the voltage developed from said battery power supply is high or low.
2 more elements
A printer comprising:
- a thermal head for transferring a plurality of color inks successively to paper so that a color image can be printed on the paper according to image data;
- battery power supply means;
- battery detecting means for conducting a current to a first load so as to detect a remaining battery capacity of said battery power supply means;
- display means for, when the remaining battery capacity detected by said battery detecting means is judged to be equal to or smaller than a battery capacity required for printing, displaying at least an indication of the fact;
- voltage detecting means for detecting a voltage developed from said battery power supply means;
- and
- control means for feeding power, which is supplied from said battery power supply means, to a second load smaller than said first load at the timing immediately preceding the transfer of the color inks to the paper, then instructing said voltage detecting means to detect the voltage, which is developed from said battery power supply means, at the predetermined timing immediately succeeding the feeding of power, and then performing correction according to the result of the detection so that a printing density of inks transferred from said thermal head will remain constant irrespective of whether the voltage developed from said battery power supply means is high or low.
4 more elements
A printer comprising:
- a thermal head for transferring a plurality of color inks successively to paper so that a color image can be printed on the paper according to image data;
- battery power supply means;
- voltage detecting means for detecting a voltage developed from said battery power supply means;
- and
- control means for feeding power, which is supplied from said battery power supply means, to a load at the timing immediately preceding the transfer of the color inks to the paper, then instructing said voltage detecting means to detect the voltage, which is developed from said battery power supply means, at the predetermined timing immediately succeeding the feeding of power, and then performing correction according to the result of the detection so that printing density of inks transferred from said thermal head will remain constant irrespective of whether the voltage developed from said battery power supply means is high or low, wherein for the correction performed by said control means, a correction value is determined based on the voltage detected by said voltage detecting means;
- and
- when the same voltage is detected among transfers of color inks, the correction value is determined to assume the same value among the transfers.
4 more elements
A printer comprising:
- a thermal head for transferring a plurality of color inks successively to paper so that a color image can be printed on the paper according to image data;
- battery power supply means;
- voltage detecting means for detecting a voltage developed from said battery power supply means;
- and
- control means for feeding power, which is supplied from said battery power supply means, to a load at the timing immediately preceding the transfer of the color inks to the paper, then instructing said voltage detecting means to detect the voltage, which is developed from said battery power supply means, at the predetermined timing immediately succeeding the feeding of power, and performing correction according to the result of the detection so that a printing density of the inks transferred from said thermal head will remain constant irrespective of whether the voltage developed from said battery power supply means is high or low,
- wherein when the voltage detected by said voltage detecting means is a first voltage, the correction performed by said control means results in printing at a maximum density.
3 more elements
A printer comprising:
- a thermal head having a plurality of heating elements arranged therein in order to print a color image on paper according to image data;
- first correction value determining means for calculating a printing ratio relative to each gray-scale level specified in image data representing one line, and determining a correction value according to calculated printing ratios;
- second correction value determining means for performing an arithmetic operation using all gray-scale data items, based on which said all heating elements are heated for printing one line according to the image data, and determining a second correction value according to the result of the arithmetic operation;
- and
- control means for controlling the amounts of heat to be generated from said heating elements according to the correction values determined by said first and second correction value determining means.
2 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.