Patent US4357631A successfully refreshed from Google Patents.
Patent EP0109686A2 successfully refreshed from Google Patents.
EP0109686A2
Expired / Lapsed
EP
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Color sensor
Assignee: Maxell Ltd
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Filing: 1983-11-21
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Granted: —
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Expires: 2003-11-21
Abstract
Abstract A color sensor comprising a plurality of light emitting sources of different colors each of which is drived in a time divisional manner to emit the different colors sequentially, a light receiving element for receiving the light from an object illuminated by the respective color lights from the light emitting sources and a circuit arrangement for producing output signals representing the color of the object.
Inventors
- 👤 Kenichi Kitta
- 👤 Yasunori Kanazawa
- 👤 Yoshiro Otomo
Bibliographic Details
Application Number
—
Jurisdiction
EP
Data Source
google_patents
Last Synchronized
2026-10-31 14:46
CPC Classifications
G; G01; G01J; G01J3/00; G01J3/02; G01J3/0205; G01J3/0218; G01J3/46; G01J3/50; G01J3/501; G01J2003/466; G01N; G01N21/00; G01N21/17; G01N21/25; G01N21/31; G01N21/314; G01N2201/00; G01N2201/06; G01N2201/069; G01N2201/0696; G01N2201/08
Claims Analysis
Total Claims: 11
Claim 1
Independent Claim
116 words
(1) A color sensor including a plurality of light emitting sources, each being capable of emitting different color lights respectively for driving said light sources in a time divisional manner to emit said different color lights in time sequentially one after another, and time sequentially projecting the emitted different color lights onto an object, the color of which is to be sensed, a light receiving means for receiving the lights reflected from or passed through the object and producing output signals representing value of the lights from the object corresponding to each of the different color lights, and circuit means for recognizing the color of the object by the output signals of the light receiving means.
Claim 2
Dependent Claim
105 words
(2) The color sensor according to claim 1, wherein said circuit means comprises a level detecting circuit for detecting the level of the output signal of the light receiving means, a plurality of level holding circuits each of which is provided corresponding to each of the light emitting sources for holding the value of the output of the light receiving means produced in a period divided to the corresponding one of the light emitting sources and a logic circuit arrangement for performing logic calculation on the basis of the contents of the holding circuits to produce a a singal representing the color of the object.
Claim 3
Dependent Claim
125 words
(3) The color sensor according to claim 1, wherein said light sources includes light transferring means composed of a plurality of optical fibers bundled together with a part of the one end of the bundle of the optical fibers faced to the light emitting sources to form the first light entrances for the respective light emitting sources and remaining part of the one end of the optical fibers faced to the light receiving means to form the first light exit for the light receiving means and the other end of the bundle of the optical fibers faced to the object to form the second light entrance for receiving the light from the object and the second light exit for projecting the light on the object.
Claim 4
Dependent Claim
68 words
(4) The color sensor according to claim 3, wherein the other end of the bundled optical fibers is so formed that each of the optical fibers forming the second light entrance and the second light exit is distributed to receive the light from the object and to project the light to the object uniformly over all the total area of the other end of the bundled optical fibers.
Claim 5
Dependent Claim
38 words
(5) The color sensor according to claim 3, the end portions of the optical fibers forming the first light entrance is divided into a plurality of groups, each of the groups corresponding to the respective light emitting sources.
Claim 6
Dependent Claim
72 words
(6) The color sensor according to claim 2, wherein the light emitting sources are situated on one wall member of an enclosure with the light emitting portion of the light emitting sources directed to the other wall member of the enclosure to which the light entrance of the light transferring means is faced, said enclosure being provided with light diffusing means disposed between the light emitting sources and the other wall member.
Claim 7
Dependent Claim
19 words
(7) The color sensor according to claim 6, wherein said enclosure is a box separated by a light diffuser.
Claim 8
Dependent Claim
24 words
(8) The color sensor according to claim 6, wherein the enclosure is a hemispherical shape with the inside filled with the light diffusing material.
Claim 9
Dependent Claim
39 words
(9) The color sensor according to claim 6, wherein said light diffusing means is fluorescent material and the respective light emitting sources are light emitting diodes of different colors and one of which is infra red light emitting diode.
Claim 10
Dependent Claim
28 words
(10) The color sensor according to claim 6, wherein one of the light emitting sources is attached to the one wall member with a fluorescent layer interposed therebetween.
Claim 11
Dependent Claim
47 words
(11) The color sensor according to claim 1, wherein one of the light emitting sources is a red light emitting diode and another is a green light emitting diode and the circuit means being arranged to produce the outputs of representing red, green, yellow and other color.
References Cited (Backward Citations)
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