[JPT]

Recently, I’ve been keeping my eye on a site I found that shows the patents published by companies in Japan. It’s easy to see the camera-related patents because Ricoh Imaging is listed separately from Ricoh overall. I know that these patents are not necessarily a clear indication of what products Ricoh will come out with. Nevertheless, I thought it was interesting to see the volume and type of patents they are applying for. It’s an interesting counterpoint to the assertions that Ricoh Imaging is not working on anything.

Here is link to Ricoh Imaging (Japanese): ???????????????????? 2017?

In terms of volume, the trend is that number of patents published by Ricoh Imaging has increased year on year.
2014 - 87; 2015 - 125; 2016 - 132; 2017 - 130 (to Oct 12, so you can project that they’ll be over 150 for the whole year)

Trying to look at the content of the patents is quite difficult, because of the technical nature of the descriptions, the language problem and the fact that the images don’t always show up properly, for me at least. From what I can understand, Ricoh has been working on a number of areas.
- There are a lot of patents related to the prism and mirror set up. It seems that research is focused on DSLRs.
- There are numerous patents related to sensors, such as on-sensor AF, reducing rolling shutter effects and so on, which might indicate something new for Ricoh.
- There are several about lens motors and casings.
- Of the optical designs, most are zooms.

The site also shows a patent ranking of all companies, and I was surprised to see Ricoh (overall, not imaging) in 6th position, keeping company with some very big corporations. I think this indicates that it is quite a research focused company. Interestingly, Canon is top of all companies, but again this is the group as a whole, not particularly the camera division.
1 - Canon
2 - Mitsubishi Electric
3 - Panasonic
4 - Toyota
5 - Toshiba
6 - Ricoh
7 - Seiko-Epson
8 - Fujitsu
9 - NEC
10 - Denso

[normhead]

Recently, I’ve been keeping my eye on a site I found that shows the patents published by companies in Japan. It’s easy to see the camera-related patents because Ricoh Imaging is listed separately from Ricoh overall. I know that these patents are not necessarily a clear indication of what products Ricoh will come out with. Nevertheless, I thought it was interesting to see the volume and type of patents they are applying for. It’s an interesting counterpoint to the assertions that Ricoh Imaging is not working on anything.

Here is link to Ricoh Imaging (Japanese): ???????????????????? 2017?

In terms of volume, the trend is that number of patents published by Ricoh Imaging has increased year on year.
2014 - 87; 2015 - 125; 2016 - 132; 2017 - 130 (to Oct 12, so you can project that they’ll be over 150 for the whole year)

Trying to look at the content of the patents is quite difficult, because of the technical nature of the descriptions, the language problem and the fact that the images don’t always show up properly, for me at least. From what I can understand, Ricoh has been working on a number of areas.
- There are a lot of patents related to the prism and mirror set up. It seems that research is focused on DSLRs.
- There are numerous patents related to sensors, such as on-sensor AF, reducing rolling shutter effects and so on, which might indicate something new for Ricoh.
- There are several about lens motors and casings.
- Of the optical designs, most are zooms.

The site also shows a patent ranking of all companies, and I was surprised to see Ricoh (overall, not imaging) in 6th position, keeping company with some very big corporations. I think this indicates that it is quite a research focused company. Interestingly, Canon is top of all companies, but again this is the group as a whole, not particularly the camera division.
1 - Canon
2 - Mitsubishi Electric
3 - Panasonic
4 - Toyota
5 - Toshiba
6 - Ricoh
7 - Seiko-Epson
8 - Fujitsu
9 - NEC
10 - Denso

No Nikon?

[JPT]

Nikon's nowhere near as big as those companies. I haven't looked far down the list but it was not in the top 50.

[Pentax Syntax]

Recently, I’ve been keeping my eye on a site I found that shows the patents published by companies in Japan. It’s easy to see the camera-related patents because Ricoh Imaging is listed separately from Ricoh overall. I know that these patents are not necessarily a clear indication of what products Ricoh will come out with. Nevertheless, I thought it was interesting to see the volume and type of patents they are applying for. It’s an interesting counterpoint to the assertions that Ricoh Imaging is not working on anything.

Here is link to Ricoh Imaging (Japanese): ???????????????????? 2017?

In terms of volume, the trend is that number of patents published by Ricoh Imaging has increased year on year.
2014 - 87; 2015 - 125; 2016 - 132; 2017 - 130 (to Oct 12, so you can project that they’ll be over 150 for the whole year)

Trying to look at the content of the patents is quite difficult, because of the technical nature of the descriptions, the language problem and the fact that the images don’t always show up properly, for me at least. From what I can understand, Ricoh has been working on a number of areas.
- There are a lot of patents related to the prism and mirror set up. It seems that research is focused on DSLRs.
- There are numerous patents related to sensors, such as on-sensor AF, reducing rolling shutter effects and so on, which might indicate something new for Ricoh.
- There are several about lens motors and casings.
- Of the optical designs, most are zooms.

The site also shows a patent ranking of all companies, and I was surprised to see Ricoh (overall, not imaging) in 6th position, keeping company with some very big corporations. I think this indicates that it is quite a research focused company. Interestingly, Canon is top of all companies, but again this is the group as a whole, not particularly the camera division.
1 - Canon
2 - Mitsubishi Electric
3 - Panasonic
4 - Toyota
5 - Toshiba
6 - Ricoh
7 - Seiko-Epson
8 - Fujitsu
9 - NEC
10 - Denso

Very interesting! Thanks for sharing. It does indeed look as though Ricoh has some new tricks up its sleeve and I agree its a sign of health that such research is ongoing.

[Jeff Lopez]

It seems that most of these patents to be (or not) are for machine vision and industrial applications, I only found 1 that mentions human interaction..
A zoom with a integrated camera seems to point to surveillance service.

[monochrome]

It seems that most of these patents to be (or not) are for machine vision and industrial applications, I only found 1 that mentions human interaction..
A zoom with a integrated camera seems to point to surveillance service.

Machine Vision is the next big thing. Aside from assembly automation, there is a major application in autonomous vehicles augmenting / replacing radio sensing (radar). Think about Theta tech on top of your car. If you own First Mover patents, who needs to bother with making products?

[Jeff Lopez]

yes, well, car camera patents are like 3 for a dollar, Google and Ford have that covered.
I continued reading some more patents to be from Ricoh, and it seems they stress a lot on CDAF.
We might see a future camera,based on the patent that mentions human interaction, that seems to have tilt functions.

Just for fun, this is insane lol:

http://www.vision-systems.com/articles/2017/10/high-speed-cameras-from-vision-research-achieve-up-to-1-000-fps-at-4k-resolution.html

---

Last edited by Jeff Lopez; 10-14-2017 at 12:25 PM.

[monochrome]

yes, well, car camera patents are like 3 for a dollar, Google and Ford have that covered.
I continued reading some more patents to be from Ricoh, and it seems they stress a lot on CDAF.
We might see a future camera,based on the patent that mentions human interaction, that seems to have tilt functions.

the next wave (coming after the immediate model upgrade cycle - so beginning in roughly six years and lasting for roughly twelve) is to have vehicles actively sense each other’s presence and share processing power in a limited, rolling network of nearby vehicles- even parked cars helping to guide nearby moving cars. Current car camera tech e.g. backup cameras or dashcam is passive; radio is active (say tied in to braking systems or adaptive cruise control but contained within each vehicle); network guidance uses the sensors in adjoining cars, plus their computers, to guide a car. Add spherical or panoramic vision to the multi-threaded network mix and there is hypothetically enough data (including the vision data) and computing power to actually make autonomous vehicles work (includinding recognition of random chaos such as jaywalkers or human-driven vehicles), and discernment of what requires action and what doesn’t. Global vision is required* Radio isn’t enough.


* so is Blockchain technology for identity tracking.

[rawr]

the next wave (coming after the immediate model upgrade cycle ...) is to have vehicles actively sense each other’s presence and share processing power

And all running Windows 10 or Android . And requiring monthly patch cycles, firewalls, anti-virus, 2-factor authentication, and an active Facebook account in order for you to login and start your car. And you will have Govt back-doors installed for 'emergency services', traffic monitoring, and general snooping and surveillance. It's already bad enough with smart-phones, who wants networked smart cars?

[Zygonyx]

Autonomous smart car is enough for some....

[stevebrot]

And you will have Govt back-doors installed for 'emergency services', traffic monitoring, and general snooping and surveillance.

Like in "Minority Report" where the police simply lock the doors and reel you in.


Steve

[mee]

Like in "Minority Report" where the police simply lock the doors and reel you in.


StevetheStevenator

Until nefarious entities learn how to hack these systems, lock the doors, and drive you off a cliff or into a lake. I think I'll keep my manually driven car, thanks.

[afan137]

if only about the imaging, don't forget to search this name: Masakazu Saori
Masakazu Saori Inventions, Patents and Patent Applications - Justia Patents Search

[monochrome]

And all running Windows 10 or Android . And requiring monthly patch cycles, firewalls, anti-virus, 2-factor authentication, and an active Facebook account in order for you to login and start your car. And you will have Govt back-doors installed for 'emergency services', traffic monitoring, and general snooping and surveillance. It's already bad enough with smart-phones, who wants networked smart cars?

I'm going to keep my dumb, 6-cyl.* Accord as long asI possibly can.They're supposed to be good for 250,000 miles. I'm at 46,000.



* For the 2018 models Honda doesn't offer a 6-cyl. engine on Accords any more. There's the same 4-cyl. as a straight Civic, and the Turbocharged 4-cyl. from the Civic Si. The new Accord is built on a stretched version of the Civic / CRC platform, so in a way they don't really make Accords any more.

[JPT]

Well, I didn’t expect this to turn into a thread about malevolent cars. I think the patents under Ricoh Imaging are for consumer cameras because that and binoculars are all they do. I’m not sure how you figured they are for automotive, Jeff. But you might be a lot better at Japanese reading that I am. Anyway, the ones I could understand seemed to entirely relevant to cameras.