Did You Know...
...that several people are credited with the invention of the flush toilet? Most people have heard of Thomas Crapper (1837-1910), the sanitary engineer who invented the valve-and-siphon arrangement that made the modern toilet possible. Another claimant to "the throne" was British inventor Alexander Cumming who patented a toilet in 1775. Then there's a nameless Minoan (a native of ancient Crete) who lived 4,000 years ago who supposedly was ahead of his time and created the first flush toilet!
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| Number | Title | Issue Date |
| 8189271 | Imaging lens and imaging apparatus An imaging lens includes a first-lens having negative power, and which is a meniscus lens the image-side surface of which has concave shape; a second-lens, the object-side surface and the image-side surface of which are aspheric, and which has double-concave shape i... | 05/29/2012 |
| 8189274 | Imaging optical system There is provided an imaging optical system installed in a mobile communications terminal and a personal digital assistant (PDA) or utilized in a surveillance camera and a digital camera. The imaging optical system including, sequentially from an object side in fron... | 05/29/2012 |
| 8177942 | Electro-optic displays, and materials for use therein A first electro-optic display comprises first and second substrates, and an adhesive layer and a layer of electro-optic material disposed between the first and second substrates, the adhesive layer comprising a mixture of a polymeric adhesive material and a hydroxyl... | 05/15/2012 |
| 8179603 | Optical element and optical system having the same An optical element that has a fine textured structure formed on an exit surface thereof. The fine textured structure satisfies the following conditions: λmin/1.71nsub | 05/15/2012 |
| 8169709 | Liquid optics zoom lens and imaging apparatus A high performance zoom lens system suitable for use with a camera is disclosed. The zoom lens systems employs liquid optics and a movable lens group to provide optical performance over the zoom focal length range at focus distances from close to infinity. The syste... | 05/01/2012 |
| 8169684 | Vehicular rearview mirror elements and assemblies incorporating these elements The present invention relates to improved electro-optic rearview mirror elements and assemblies incorporating the same. Area of the effective field of view of the electro-optic mirror element substantially equals to that defined by the outermost perimeter of the ele... | 05/01/2012 |
| 8169694 | Catoptric objectives and systems using catoptric objectives In general, in a first aspect, the invention features a system that includes a microlithography projection optical system. The microlithography projection optical system includes a plurality of elements arranged so that during operation the plurality of elements ima... | 05/01/2012 |
| 8169711 | Zoom lens and image pickup apparatus having the same A zoom lens comprises a first lens unit having a positive refractive power, a second lens unit having a negative refractive power, a third lens unit having a positive refractive power, and a rear group including at least one lens unit, in order from an object side t... | 05/01/2012 |
| 8159756 | Variable focal length lens system image pick up apparatus A vari-focal length lens system includes a first lens group having a positive refractive power, a second lens group having a negative refractive power, a third lens group having a positive refractive power, and a fourth lens group having a positive refractive power.... | 04/17/2012 |
| 8159757 | Zoom lens A zoom lens includes, sequentially from an object side, a positive first lens group; a negative second lens group; a positive third lens group; and a positive fourth lens group, where 2.0≦D23W/FW≦3.0 is satisfied. D23W is an interval, at a wide angle edge, betwe... | 04/17/2012 |
| 8159589 | Image sensor for high-speed data readout An image sensor for high-speed data readout is provided. The image sensor includes a line memory block temporarily storing a digital signal in unit of lines which is generated based on an analog signal output from a pixel array. The line memory block includes a plur... | 04/17/2012 |
| 8149514 | Zoom lens system, imaging device and camera A zoom lens system of the present invention has a plurality of lens units each composed of at least one lens element and, in order from the object side to the image side, comprises: a first lens unit having negative optical power and composed of two lens elements; a... | 04/03/2012 |
| 8149495 | Reflective display having improved brightness and contrast A reflective display, comprising a plurality of pixels (10), each having a first electrode, a light-modifying layer (12), and a second electrode (3; 16) arranged to enable formation of an electric field in the light-modifying layer (12) t... | 04/03/2012 |
| 8149516 | Zoom lens with high optical performance throughout entire zoom range and image pickup apparatus having the same A zoom lens comprises, in order from an object side to an image side, a first lens unit having a positive refractive power, a second lens unit having a negative refractive power, a third lens unit, and a fourth lens unit having a positive refractive power. The fourt... | 04/03/2012 |
| 8139281 | Tunable optical filter apparatus and method A tunable optical filter apparatus and method are disclosed. The apparatus may include a filter driver, a filter device, a detector device and a controller device. The filter driver generates a filter driver signal, including a dither signal. The controller device m... | 03/20/2012 |
| 8134772 | Mirror device with an anti-stiction layer A micromirror device includes an elastic hinge for supporting a mirror on a substrate, and an address electrode for deflecting the mirror. The device further includes a protective layer and an oriented monolayer laid to cover a stopper also functioning as an address... | 03/13/2012 |
| 8120840 | Electrorheological fluid having properties of newtonian fluid An electrorheological fluid is provided. The electrorheological fluid includes polarizing particles and a dispersion medium in which the polarizing particles are dispersed. The polarizing particles may include silica particles. The dispersion medium may include sili... | 02/21/2012 |
| 8116583 | Light modulation panel and imaging lens A light modulation panel is inserted into an optical path of an imaging lens composed of an image-forming optical system to make the imaging lens function as a depth-of-field-extended optical system. The light modulation panel has power that makes a peak position of... | 02/14/2012 |
| 8115990 | Display device and pixel structure thereof A pixel structure of a display device disposed on a substrate includes a plurality of sub-pixel structure. Each sub-pixel structure includes a light-absorption region, a reflection region, a first electrode disposed in the light-absorption region, a second electrode... | 02/14/2012 |
| 8115989 | Anti-stiction electrode Anti-stiction systems may include one or more anti-stiction electrodes driven to provide an electrical force that counteracts a stiction force acting upon a moveable portion of an interferometric modulator. The anti-stiction electrode(s) may be disposed on a back gl... | 02/14/2012 |
| 8111310 | Image sensor and image-capturing device An image sensor includes: a plurality of first pixels that receive a light flux having passed through an optical system and output pixel signals to be used as image signals; a plurality of second pixels that receive a light flux having passed through the optical sys... | 02/07/2012 |
| 8111471 | Imaging lens, imaging device, and portable terminal The imaging lens includes, in order from the object side, a first lens having positive refractive power, a second lens having positive refractive power, and a third lens having negative refractive power. The first lens is provided with a substrate portion which is a... | 02/07/2012 |
| 8111467 | Compact zoom lens A zoom lens includes, in order from an object side to an image plane side, a first lens group fixed to the image plane during zooming, having a positive refractive power, and including a single lens having a negative refractive power, an optical path change member f... | 02/07/2012 |
| 8107172 | Single-lens optical system A single-lens optical system including a stop and a lens sequentially arranged from an object side, and reducing distortion by controlling a distance between the stop and the lens. ... | 01/31/2012 |
| 8102603 | Lens having extended depth of focus, method for designing the same, and optical system having the same The lens includes a plurality of lens layers, each lens layer being axi-symmetric and having an extended depth of focus to focus light in a corresponding section of a focal curve in the form of a straight line located on an optical axis. In the optical system, light... | 01/24/2012 |
| 8102605 | Zoom lens and image pickup apparatus including the same A zoom lens includes first to fourth lens units in order from the object side to the image side. The first, third, and fourth lens units have a positive refractive power. The second lens unit has a negative refractive power. Distances between the lens units are chan... | 01/24/2012 |
| 8102454 | Image pickup apparatus An image converter tube 2c and a plurality of image sensors CCDs 1 (eight CCDs 1 here) are provided, and the respective CCDs 1 and image positions in the image converter tube 2c are in one-to-one correspondence. By ca... | 01/24/2012 |
| 8102584 | Enhanced optical readout scheme for a thermal imager employing a reconfigurable spatial light modulator An apparatus includes a reconfigurable spatial light modulator capable of spatially modulating an incident wavefront responsive to an image formed on the modulator. A light source is configured to direct a coherent illumination light beam towards the modulator such ... | 01/24/2012 |
| 8098431 | Method and device for generating white in an interferometric modulator display Various embodiments of the invention relate to methods and systems for generating the color white in displays created from interferometric modulators and more specifically, to the generation of the color white through the use of reflected light at two wavelengths. I... | 01/17/2012 |
| 8094378 | Planar lens A design method, apparatus, and fabrication method for structures for controlling the flow of electromagnetic energy at a sub-wavelength scale is disclosed. Transformational optics principles are used as a starting point for the design of structures that operate as,... | 01/10/2012 |
| 8094222 | Driving method for solid-state imaging device and solid-state imaging device A driving method used for a solid-state imaging device according to the present invention includes: imaging an object for a first storage time when a shutter is open, in a first state that is a state where either at least a part of the peripheral circuitry is suspen... | 01/10/2012 |
| 8089698 | Wide-angle optical lens assembly A wide-angle optical lens assembly comprises, in order from an object side to an image side: a first lens element with a negative refractive power having concave image-side surface, a second lens element with a positive refractive power, a third lens element with a ... | 01/03/2012 |
| 8089706 | Fixed-focus lens A fixed-focus lens disposed between a magnified side and a minified side. The fixed-focus lens has an optical axis and includes a reflective system and a refractive system. The reflective system includes a reflection mirror with a negative refractive power. The refr... | 01/03/2012 |
| 8081391 | Zoom lens for projection and projection-type display apparatus A zoom lens for projection includes a negative first group composed of two lenses, a second group composed of a positive lens, an aperture stop, a third group composed of a positive lens, a fourth group composed of a negative fourth-group-first lens, a fourth-group-... | 12/20/2011 |
| 8081392 | Zoom lens The invention relates to a new mechanism for permitting a zoom lens to focus on a short distance subject by moving a focusing lens group in an amount that varies in an optical axis direction depending on a zooming position. The zoom lens comprises, in order from its... | 12/20/2011 |
| 8081375 | Electrophoretic sheet, electrophoresis apparatus, method for manufacturing an electrophoresis apparatus and electronic device An electrophoretic sheet includes a substrate having one surface and the other surface, a microcapsule-containing layer comprised of a plurality of microcapsules, the microcapsule-containing layer provided on the other surface of the substrate, each of the plurality... | 12/20/2011 |
| 8077377 | Spatial light modulator with structured mirror surfaces The invention relates to methods to improve SLMs, in particular to reflecting micromechanical SLMs, for applications with simple system architecture, high precision, high power handling capability, high throughput, and/or high optical processing capability. Applicat... | 12/13/2011 |
| 8077399 | Four-piece imaging lens module A four-piece imaging lens module includes a fixed aperture diaphragm, a first lens, a second lens, a third lens and a fourth lens arranged from an object side to an image side in a sequence of: the diaphragm; the first lens of a positive refractive power, having a c... | 12/13/2011 |
| 8072675 | Color display devices The present invention is directed to color display devices in which each display cell is capable of displaying three color states. The display fluid filled in the display cells comprises two types of pigment particles. The color display device may further comprise a... | 12/06/2011 |
| 8064126 | Color electrophoresis type display medium panel One embodiment of the present invention is a color electrophoresis type display medium panel having a transparent substrate, a color filter layer, a transparent electrode layer, a microcapsule layer, an adhesive layer and a rear electrode plate, wherein the microcap... | 11/22/2011 |
