Ink container with light-emitting unit to convey information
AssigneeCanon Kabushiki Kaisha
InventorsKenji Kitabatake, Kimiyuki Hayasaki, Nobuyuki Hatasa, Takayuki Ochiai, Shinji Watanabe
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Abstract
A liquid container that can present various information using illumination of a light-emitting unit includes an IC package having a storage element and the light-emitting unit. The storage element stores information used for controlling the amount of light emitted from an LED included in the light-emitting unit, so that variation in brightness of the light-emitting unit can be reduced and the information can be adequately presented.
Claims4
An ink container mounted to an inkjet recording apparatus having a mounting unit configured to be mounted with the ink container and a detecting unit configured to detect light emitted from a light-emitting unit provided to the ink container, the ink container adapted to contain ink used in the inkjet recording apparatus, the container comprising:
- a substrate having a light-emitting unit and a contact receiving an electrical signal supplied by the inkjet recording apparatus;
- a light guide unit disposed with a space to a wall;
- and
- an information storing medium storing individual information about the ink,
- wherein the light guide includes a light entrance unit configured to receive light from the light-emitting unit and a display light exit unit, wherein light entering through the entrance unit exits with floodlighting to outside, and
- wherein the information storing medium performs setting by classifying a light-emitting amount emitted from the light-emitting unit and output from the display unit via the light guide unit into a plurality of ranks, and stores the set rank information.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.