...that it was melting ice cream that inspired the invention of the outboard motor? It was a lovely August day and Ole Evinrude was rowing his boat to his favorite island picnic spot. As he rowed, he watched his ice cream melt and wished he had a faster way to get to the island. At that moment the idea for the outboard motor was born!
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| Number | Title | Issue Date |
| 6795258 | Actuator for optical pickup An actuator for an optical pickup includes a magnetic circuit having a structure in which coils to drive an objective lens in one direction selected from a focusing, tilting, or tracking directions, and magnets to drive the objective lens in the other directions. Th... | 09/21/2004 |
| 6791771 | Composite optical component and its manufacturing method A composite optical component and its manufacturing method are disclosed. A holding member or an optical functional device is subjected to elastic deformation, with both of them fixed together, and the optical functional device is subjected to plastic deformation by... | 09/14/2004 |
| 6788476 | Optical bench The invention relates to an optical bench that has a base plate and can be permanently connected to an associated component. A receiving element for other optical elements that is arranged in such a way in relation to the base plate with connecting elements that it ... | 09/07/2004 |
| 6785063 | Objective lens holding apparatus An objective lens holding apparatus includes an upper supporting portion and a bottom supporting portion not parallel with each other. The upper supporting portion and the bottom supporting portion have respectively one end connecting to an objective lens holder and... | 08/31/2004 |
| 6781772 | Driving apparatus, light-amount regulating apparatus, and lens driving apparatus A driving apparatus includes a rotatable rotor with a ring shape, a first magnetic pole portion, a second magnetic pole portion, and a coil for magnetically exciting the first magnetic pole portion and the second magnetic pole portion. The rotor has magnet portions ... | 08/24/2004 |
| 6771422 | Real time optical information processing system The performance of all pattern recognition and tracking systems is limited by the depth of field of the optical imaging system used to acquire the images. Here an optical imaging system that produces images with a wide depth of field independent of f-number is provi... | 08/03/2004 |
| 6771437 | Athermal optical bench Optical bench mounting and thermal management techniques are disclosed that enable increased dimensional stability. Output power, beam divergence, and boresight stability of the laser are thus maintained. A separate optical bench is pseudo semi-kinematically mounted... | 08/03/2004 |
| 6771439 | Zoom lens control mechanism A zoom lens control mechanism includes a lens barrel with a lens group arranged in advance therein, a lens barrel support portion for the lens barrel seated on, a guiding device and a driving device. The lens barrel has three cylinders with the same center, and each... | 08/03/2004 |
| 6765734 | Adjustable sample holder for optical equipment A holder for optical elements, or samples, in an optical setup. The holder is readily adjustments to accommodate samples of various sizes, such as cylindrical shaped samples of various diameters. The holder provides stable support for the sample, irrespective of the... | 07/20/2004 |
| 6765733 | System and method for mounting components using ball and socket structure Disclosed are systems and methods providing adjustable mounting with multiple degrees of freedom, such as three degrees of freedom allowing controlled adjustment of pitch, roll, and/or yaw. In providing such degrees of freedom, a ball member of a ball and socket mou... | 07/20/2004 |
| 6760166 | Axially displaceable aligning mount for optical components, and method for its manufacture A zero-clearance, axially displaceable aligning mount system for optical components includes an unthreaded mount receptacle having a transverse orifice and includes an aligning mount carrying lens elements or lens combinations. A cured plastic casting compound forms... | 07/06/2004 |
| 6760163 | Optical-position adjusting device for optical unit An optical-position adjusting device for an optical unit comprises a movement-conversion mechanism that converts a rotational movement of a rotary wheel cylinder into a linear movement of a lens barrel, and an optical-position adjusting mechanism that positions the ... | 07/06/2004 |
| 6760167 | Apparatus, system, and method for precision positioning and alignment of a lens in an optical system An apparatus, system, and method for precision positioning and alignment of a lens in an optical system. The apparatus includes a support, a lever having a pivot point, and a first actuator and a second actuator coupled to the lever and to the support. The first act... | 07/06/2004 |
| 6757113 | Optical grating mount Apparatus and method for allowing fine adjustment of a diffraction grating within an optical wavelength-division multiplexing (WDM) device and for maintaining the grating in near-littrow alignment (i.e., to within an accuracy of +/−0.003 degrees) over the device's... | 06/29/2004 |
| 6754013 | Adjustable mount for optical components An apparatus for mounting optical components and adjusting its orientation with respect to the optical axis of other components in an optical system. In one embodiment, the multi-axis gimbal mounting apparatus utilizes a single piece main structure having a pair of ... | 06/22/2004 |
| 6747821 | Method and system for mounting a detector A system (S) for mounting and aligning a detector (D) about an observation instrument (10) includes a first detector (12) movably coupled to the observation instrument (10) off an axis of observation centerline (14) for the observation in... | 06/08/2004 |
| 6744575 | Optical mount and method for use thereof An optical mount, including a first plate, a second plate, an adjustment screw, and a locking screw. The second plate may include an adjustment bore having an adjustment bore thread and a list separating a second plate flange from a second plate body and extends int... | 06/01/2004 |
| 6744565 | Biaxial driving mechanism and image inputting apparatus used this mechanism and light projecting apparatus used this mechanism A biaxial driving mechanism, an image inputting apparatus used this biaxial driving mechanism and a light projecting apparatus used this biaxial driving mechanism, in which a mirror positioned in front of a camera or a light projecting instrument is rotated biaxiall... | 06/01/2004 |
| 6741405 | Hood for a digital image collecting lens A hood for a digital image-collecting lens includes a base member having a recess defined in a bottom of the base member and to receive an image sensor that has a coupling crystal contained in the image sensor. A through hole is defined in the base member and commun... | 05/25/2004 |
| 6741404 | Lens barrel An external helicoid thread is provided which includes a helicoid thread having a first ridge whose both flanks are formed at a first flank angle, and a helicoid thread having a second ridge whose both flanks are formed at a second flank angle which is different fro... | 05/25/2004 |
| 6741406 | Objective lens, optical pickup-device equipped with same and assembling method of same An objective lens is made up of a light-source-side lens and a medium-side lens wherein at least either one of rim portions of respective opposing surfaces of the light-source-side lens and the medium-side lens forms a rise-up section projected towards the other len... | 05/25/2004 |
| 6741409 | Precision alignment of optical devices A method and apparatus for optical aligning an electrical assembly includes inserting leads of an electrical assembly into guide holes of a nosepiece; guiding the leads exiting the nosepiece into a contact barrel; pressing the exiting leads with spring contacts that... | 05/25/2004 |
| 6721112 | Mirrors drive device The optical element drive device is provided which includes: (i) a plurality of movable members to which a plurality of optical elements having functions for changing a path of light are attached, respectively; (ii) a plurality of support mechanisms for independentl... | 04/13/2004 |
| 6717751 | Image reading apparatus A size-reduced image reading apparatus for optically reading an image drawn on the document surface. The size reduction is achieved this way. Two light sources are so mounted over the document surface at a specific angle formed with the document surface that they ar... | 04/06/2004 |
| 6714364 | Optical pick-up actuator An optical pick-up actuator of the present invention includes a lens holder having a objective lens and tracking and focusing coils, a frame for raising the lens holder in a magnetic field using a suspension wire, and a tilt driving magnetic circuit for driving the ... | 03/30/2004 |
| 6710949 | Tilting device for lens A first substrate is formed with a lens, a plurality of beams for supporting the lens, and a first electrode provided on the plurality of beams. A second substrate is formed with second electrodes at location opposed to the plurality of beams through gaps. A voltage... | 03/23/2004 |
| 6710946 | Lens holder having an adjustment groove of a taper shape Disposed in a corner portion formed by a base plate (122) and a vertical wall (124) with being always pressed against the corner portion by a presser bar spring (16), a lens holder (14A) has an adjustment groove (14Aa) extending in... | 03/23/2004 |
| 6710948 | Optical pickup In an optical pickup, an actuator base of an objective lens unit is attached to an end face of a housing by a reference bolt and two tilt adjusting bolts which are respectively inserted in through holes of the housing. A tapered conical spring is used which has one ... | 03/23/2004 |
| 6710950 | Piezoelectric actuator for digital camera optical system A support for an optical system of a digital camera is constructed which provides adjustable positioning of the lens elements in response to signals from the camera control processor. The support comprises multiple tubes, mounted for relative coaxial movement, which... | 03/23/2004 |
| 6707619 | Video camera device The invention is aimed to miniaturize an angle adjustment mechanism of a mirror barrel and simplify the structure thereof. A ball joint mechanism in which a spherical portion provided to the base end of a mirror barrel is joined to a spherical portion support table ... | 03/16/2004 |
| 6704150 | Bonder chuck and optical component mounting structure interface 12 of 12 An optical component is adapted for pick-and-place-style installation on an optical submount or bench and compatible with a chuck of a bonder that picks-up the optical component, places it on the optical bench, and then typically solder bonds the... | 03/09/2004 |
| 6700714 | Device for beam guiding a laser beam A device for beam guiding a laser beam with at least one optical element, which is positioned with a retaining element to a supporting section, and with a clamping element, which fixes the optical element to the supporting section of a housing section, wh... | 03/02/2004 |
| 6700715 | Oscillation damping system In an oscillation damping system, the oscillations which act on an optical element in an imaging device, in particular on deformation-decoupled mounts and manipulators in a projection illumination arrangement, in particular in a projection objective for m... | 03/02/2004 |
| 6683734 | Positioning an object The present invention concerns a device for positioning an object, consisting of a holder with a holding cup into which the object can be inserted in radial direction, wherein a rotation device is provided, which acts together with the object when the obj... | 01/27/2004 |
| 6680805 | Binocular and optical axis adjusting method for binocular A binocular of this invention includes a pair of objective optical systems, a pair of eyepiece units for integrally holding erecting optical systems and eyepiece optical systems, and a holding member having a first holding portion for holding one of the p... | 01/20/2004 |
| 6680804 | Zoom lens mechanism A zoom lens mechanism includes a switching lens group frame supporting a first sub-lens group frame and a second sub-lens group frame which support first and second sub-sub-lens groups, respectively; a lens group shift mechanism for causing the first and ... | 01/20/2004 |
| 6674585 | Flexure assemblies and methods of making the same Micromachined passive alignment assemblies and methods of using and making the same are provided. The alignment assemblies are used to align at least one optical element. The alignment assemblies may be configured with kinematic, pseudo-kinematic, redunda... | 01/06/2004 |
| 6671107 | Mounting of pre-scan optics for a laser scanning device A pre-scan optics assembly for a laser scanning device. A housing includes reference surfaces against which a pre-scan lens is directly referenced, to restrain the lens against rotation about the optical axis and the scan axis of the device. A lens carrie... | 12/30/2003 |
| 6661588 | Objective lens anti-shock adjustment device An objective lens anti-shock adjustment device comprises a holder that is capable of fixedly holding an objective lens via at least a fastening element. The holder is mounted in a casing by means of a plurality of resilient elements and a plurality of adj... | 12/09/2003 |
| 6654555 | Engagement structure for cylindrical members An engagement structure for cylindrical members includes a first cylindrical member including a plurality of engagement projection portions of different shapes having the same projecting length in the radial direction, and a second cylindrical member incl... | 11/25/2003 |