Projection system employing adjustable mirror for image framing

Claim 1

A compact motion picture projection apparatus comprising a housing of substantially opaque material, said housing including a transparent viewing screen providing a front surface of said housing, said screen bordered by a substantially opaque portion of said housing which portion forms a masking element disposed around the perimeter of said screen, means for receiving a strip of photographic film having a plurality of substantially uniformly spaced perforations and a plurality of substantailly uniformly spaced recorded scenes of given length arranged along the length of such film strip, such recorded scenes being located longitudinally with respect to such perforations within a predetermined distance so as to provide a predetermined scene-toperforation tolerance, an aperture plate defining a projection plane located rearwardly of said screen and in adjoining reLation to a top surface of said housing, said aperture plate including an aperture substantially equal to the width of such recorded scenes and at least equal in length to the length of such recorded scenes plus such scene-to-perforation tolerance, means for progressively positioning each of such recorded scenes at such projection plane including shuttle means for cooperating with such perforations of said film strip so as to intermittently advance such film strip and progressively locate incremental sections of such film strip over said aperture, said shuttle configured for intermittently advancing each such perforation a predetermined distance so as to progressively locate each such scene over said aperture at a point within a predetermined distance equal to said perforation-to-scene tolerance such that the full length of each such scene is progressively located within the length of said aperture, means for directing light downwardly through each scene and through said aperture along a downward optical path when such scene is located over said aperture so as to project an image of said aperture including an image of such scene along said given path, a reflector element located in said given path for redirecting such image forwardly along a second path to said screen, said masking element enclosing a screen area substantially equal in length and width to the image of such scenes such that the masking element intercepts the image of said aperture and precludes further transmission of portions thereof exceeding the length of the image of such scene at said screen, said reflector element being pivotally mounted in said housing and configured for rotation around an axis substantially normal to the longitudinal axis of such image, and means coupled to said reflector element and extending exteriorly of said housing so as to be accessible to the operator of said apparatus for initial pivotal adjustment of said reflector element during projection operation whereby such scene images may be positioned within said masking element and other portions of the image of said aperture are masked from view.