Did You Know...
...that the inventor of the electric motor was a blacksmith named Thomas Davenport? Described as "a brilliantly unsuccessful inventor", Davenport invented the first rotary electric motor. In 1836 he headed out -- on foot -- from his Vermont home to file a patent application at the Patent Office in Washington, D.C. By the time he got there, he had squandered away his money and couldn't afford the $30 filing fee so he turned around and went home. When he later mailed in his application with money he'd raised, the Patent office was destroyed in a fire. He did finally get credit for his invention on Feb. 5, 1837.
PatentStorm News
Make the Most of Our Site
See this month's Top Inventors and Most Cited Patents.
Stay on top of the latest innovations by subscribing to an RSS feed.
Registered users: Manage your profile.
| Number | Title | Issue Date |
| 7397955 | Digital camera and method of controlling same Whether a portrait photography mode has been set is determined. A first threshold value is set when the portrait photography mode has been set and a second threshold value that is smaller than the first threshold value is set when the portrait photography mode has n... | 07/08/2008 |
| 6941065 | Camera interlocks that ensure proper movement of film The camera of this invention has a film cassette compartment, a film spool (13), a film exposing area, and an interlock that prevents moving exposed film from the film cassette. With the camera, a film cassette (2) is loaded into the film cassette comp... | 09/06/2005 |
| 6862406 | Loyalty camera and a system and method for promoting consumer loyalty A camera and method for promoting consumer loyalty for film developing services is provided. A loyalty camera is provided wherein a particular tool is required to rewind the exposed film and assist in manipulating the film door latch. In one embodiment, the tool is ... | 03/01/2005 |
| 6628896 | Motorized single use camera A single use camera which has a motor to advance film comprising a light-tight casing having an exposure aperture through which exposures are made, an unexposed film wound up around a pre-winding take-up spool disposed on one side of the exposure aperture... | 09/30/2003 |
| 6572281 | Film winding-rewinding apparatus for a camera A film winding-rewinding apparatus for a camera comprises a driving pulley, a driven pulley and an endless belt, a rewinding fork, a winding spool, a selective transmission mechanism, and an idler. The driving pulley is attached to a reversible motor. The... | 06/03/2003 |
| 6560411 | Mechanical power switching apparatus and camera If a sun gear is rotated in the clockwise direction, a planetary arm is also rotated in the clockwise direction so as to permit the planetary gear and a transmission gear to operatively mesh. If the sun gear is then rotated in the clockwise direction, a c... | 05/06/2003 |
| 6450705 | Cartridge accommodating device of camera, and cartridge chamber lid of camera A cartridge accommodating device of a camera includes a fork arranged to fit into a spool shaft of a film cartridge, a key member arranged to be movable back and forth with respect to a key way provided in the spool shaft and to transmit a film transport ... | 09/17/2002 |
| 6371666 | Camera having a safety lock mechanism A hook of a cartridge-chamber lid is engaged with one end of an engagement lever to be kept in a closed position. The other end of the engagement lever is engaged with an intermediate lever attached to an upper face of a cartridge chamber. When a photo fi... | 04/16/2002 |
| 6363219 | One-time-use camera with belt-drive connection between manual film winder and film winding spool A one-time-use camera includes a film cartridge with a film winding spool that is rotatable to wind a filmstrip into the film cartridge, a manually rotatable film winding thumbwheel having an axis that is parallel to an axis of the film winding spool, and... | 03/26/2002 |
| 6361224 | Film transport device and camera A film transport device includes a spool arranged to take up and wind thereon a film pulled out from a film cartridge, a motor disposed within the spool, a spool gear arranged to have an output of the motor transmitted thereto and to drive the spool, the ... | 03/26/2002 |
| 6343880 | Camera loadable with photo film cassette A camera has a spool drive shaft disposed to project from an inside of a cassette holder chamber, connected with a spool of a photo film cassette coaxially, to feed a photo film from a cassette, and to wind the photo film back into the cassette. A sun and... | 02/05/2002 |
| 6331082 | Camera with combined film advance/rewind mechanism The camera of this invention preferably includes a combined film advance/rewind mechanism for advancing film from a film cassette to a film path and to a film spool and for rewinding film into the cassette after the film has been exposed within the film p... | 12/18/2001 |
| 6321038 | Camera with driving mechanism and lens positioning control mechanism and method A camera, lens positioning mechanism and method use a lens holding member to hold a lens therein for receiving optical information that may be captured on film or digitally. The lens holding member interfaces with a ring-shaped barrel member, geared ring ... | 11/20/2001 |
| 6280103 | APS camera for ensuring the cassett indicator is in the parked position The camera of this invention includes a parking mechanism that ensures a visual exposure indicator of an APS film cassette is in the parked position prior to removing the film cassette from the camera. The camera may include a rotatable wheel that rotates... | 08/28/2001 |
| 6276845 | Power transmission mechanism The present invention provides a power transmission mechanism characterized in that two-directional rotations of a driving shaft can be transmitted to a driven-side shaft, it shows a high degree of freedom in arrangement even when it is applied to a drivi... | 08/21/2001 |
| 6278848 | Rewind interlock for APS camera The camera of this invention preferably includes a rewind interlock that prevents the double exposure of film. Preferably, the camera of this invention is an Advanced Photo System (APS) camera that employs APS film. Such APS film may be contained in a fil... | 08/21/2001 |
| 6223003 | Camera for receiving a roll film A camera for a roll film that is provided with a separate film strip wound around a first spool, and is provided with a second spool includes a first and second spool compartment. The roll film can be loaded into either the first or second spool compartme... | 04/24/2001 |
| 6185376 | Camera for receiving a roll film having an identification mark A camera using a roll film (Brownie film) having an identification mark, on one half of the width of the film strip, is provided with a pair of spool compartments in a camera body. The film can be loaded in one of the spool compartments. The film loaded i... | 02/06/2001 |
| 6176625 | Camera and a method of loading a camera A camera (2) has a film-cassette chamber (12) for receiving a film cassette (13) having a spool therein on which film is wound and a film receiving chamber (14), the camera further comprises a film advance wheel (30) including means (32) for engaging the ... | 01/23/2001 |
| 6170999 | Power transmission device wherein a film take-up spool gear also partakes in film rewinding A power transmission device comprises a spool gear disposed at a film take-up spool and an output gear that outputs a driving force that has been transmitted to the spool gear. The spool gear acts both to drive a take-up spool in the course of film windin... | 01/09/2001 |
| 6164844 | Power transmission apparatus The invention is directed to an engaging mechanism. The engaging mechanism comprises a cam element which moves upon modification of an engaging position, a cam follower abutted against a cam surface of the cam element, a detecting element for detecting a ... | 12/26/2000 |
| 6157785 | Roll-film camera A roll-film camera for receiving a roll-film is disclosed which includes: a pair of spool compartments, each of which the roll-film can be placed in; a reversible film winding mechanism which rotates a spool placed in one of the pair of spool compartments... | 12/05/2000 |
| 6132111 | Manual drive control system for a camera A manual film drive control system for a camera having a manual film drive, the control system comprising a film drive actuation means (85) and a film drive direction switch (90), the film drive actuation means being movable in two directions, movement in... | 10/17/2000 |
| 6122456 | Movement control device A movement control device has a DC motor by which a recording medium is moved by one frame of an image, and a stepping motor by which a recording medium is moved by a small predetermined amount. A driven gear fixed on the output shaft of the DC motor is m... | 09/19/2000 |
| 6106164 | Transmission device of driving-force for camera A transmission device of driving-force for transmitting driving-force of various types of driving sources inside a camera. In order to provide the transmission device of driving-force that can contribute to downsizing of a camera without decreasing a tran... | 08/22/2000 |
| 6061524 | Camera In a zooming-focusing type camera, a driving force of a motor is selectively transmitted to a zooming mechanism for controlling a focal length of an optical lens system, a film winding mechanism for winding a film by a length corresponding to one frame an... | 05/09/2000 |
| 6059464 | Camera A camera comprises a film cartridge chamber for accommodating a film cartridge containing a film. The film cartridge has a first rotational shaft. An operating member is mounted for rotation in first and second opposite directions by manual operation for ... | 05/09/2000 |
| 6033127 | Camera A camera comprises an operating member mounted for rotation in first and second opposite directions by manual operation for winding and rewinding a film, respectively. A rotational winding member is mounted for connection to and disconnection from the ope... | 03/07/2000 |
| 5933669 | Film winding mechanism with reduced space requirements A film winding mechanism of a camera uses a film cartridge in which a film rolled around a cartridge spool is accommodated. The camera has a take-up spool for winding the film that is drawn out of the film cartridge. The film winding mechanism includes a ... | 08/03/1999 |
| 5899591 | Film transporting system for camera using three different transport speeds A film transporting system for a camera, includes a fork to engage with a film feed spool of a film cartridge, for extruding and rewinding a film, a film take-up spool, a film transporting motor, a first gear train for connecting the film transporting mot... | 05/04/1999 |
| 5892997 | Film rewinding apparatus for a camera A film rewinding apparatus for a camera is described whereby the completion of film rewinding is accurately timed even if environmental conditions change. First edge detecting mechanism is positioned on a winding-spool side of the camera on a path on whic... | 04/06/1999 |
| 5890024 | Camera having shutter charging mechanism A camera having a sprocket with a pair of cogs formed on a periphery for engaging a filmstrip having a row of perforations separated at alternate short and long intervals. The periphery is divided by the cogs into a frictional engaging section which provi... | 03/30/1999 |
| 5875365 | Photographic camera with mechanically actuated tension control for reducing variation of speed of filmstrip during rewind A photographic camera (10) includes a supply chamber (14) for receiving a cartridge (16) enclosing a photographic filmstrip (18) wound on a supply spool (92); a rotatable member (90) disposed in the supply chamber for being coupled to rotate a supply spoo... | 02/23/1999 |
| 5854952 | Camera A camera capable of accomplishing with certainty a switching operation between a winding drive system and a rewinding drive system and of contributing to its size reduction. The winding drive system employs a film loading motor 48 and a clutch mechanism i... | 12/29/1998 |
| 5842067 | Film winder unit and camera A film winder and camera. The film winder has a film transport adapted to move film in two opposed directions in response to rotational inputs in forward and reverse directions. An output unit mechanically engages the film transport. The output unit defin... | 11/24/1998 |
| 5835805 | Film transporting device of camera and clutch structure and camera with magnetic recording function A film transporting device transports photographic film by driving a spool of a cartridge and a takeup spool which takes up the photographic film supplied from the cartridge by means of a single motor which is rotatable forward and backward. Unidirectiona... | 11/10/1998 |
| 5823454 | Film transport apparatus A film transport apparatus for selectively advancing a film out of, or rewinding a film onto, a spool shaft of a cartridge. The apparatus has: a) a rotatable member which engages the spool shaft; b) a first drive assembly for pulling on film remote from the cartrid... | 10/20/1998 |
| 5826120 | One-way winder, film advance and camera A one-way winder having a body defining a bifurcated guideway. The guideway has a trunk and first and second branches. The guideway has at least one portal connecting the branches. The director is disposed in the body. The director has an arm-pawl and a g... | 10/20/1998 |
| 5805943 | Film auto-loading device of a camera A camera capable of securing a more stable film loading operation and further of conducting a more stable information recording operation. The camera is equipped with a film loading motor (48), a film winding gear train, a film forwarding gear train and a... | 09/08/1998 |
| 5781810 | Camera with two film supply motors additionally driving the magnetic preparatory operation and method A camera that effectively uses only two film supply motors. The operation of supplying film from a cartridge is performed by driving a first motor in a first direction. The operation preparatory to magnetic recording on the film is performed by driving th... | 07/14/1998 |
