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AssigneeMinolta Co., Ltd.
InventorsShinichi Suzuki, Tetsuro Kanbara, Minoru Kuwana, Hitoshi Hagimori, Junji Hashimura
Estimating the term…
An apparatus for driving a collapsible lens mount having several telescoping segments includes, for each movable segment, a transducer that expands and contracts responsive to a wave pulse and a drive shaft coupled to the transducer. By varying the wave pulse conditions, the expansion and contraction are made to occur at different rates. A coupling member on each segment frictionally engages the drive shaft and transmits movement of the drive shaft during relatively slow drive shaft movements to the lens segment. The apparatus may also include a lens hood driven by the transducer and drive shaft apparatus of the invention.
A lens driving apparatus, comprising:
A lens device comprising:
A lens driving apparatus, comprising:
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.
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No related US applications are recorded in the indexed filing history.
By relative axial movement of several lenses, e.g. of varifocal objective lens: controlled by a microcomputer
Optical elements, systems or apparatus
Term ended 6 Jul 2015 (estimated)
USPTO file history isn’t available for this patent, so only indexed dates are shown.
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention pertains to a drive mechanism for a lens member in which an electro-mechanical transducer is used.
2. Description of the Related Art
FIG. 1 is a cross-sectional view showing the construction of a collapsible lens mount of a first embodiment in which the present invention is applied.
FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional view showing the collapsible lens mount shown in FIG. 1, said lens mount being collapsed.
FIG. 3 is a cross-sectional view along the line 3--3 of the collapsible lens mount shown in FIG. 1.
In the following description, like parts are designated by like reference numbers throughout the several drawings.
Preferred embodiments of the present invention are described below to illustrate the invention. The invention is not limited to the described embodiments, and those knowledgeable in the art will understand that variations, changes and equivalents may be made without departing from the scope of the invention.
A first embodiment illustrates an example in which the present invention is applied in a collapsible lens mount.