One-time use camera with film winding detection to enable...

Photography – Disposable or recyclable camera

Reexamination Certificate

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Details

C396S205000, C396S302000, C396S512000

Reexamination Certificate

active

06304722

ABSTRACT:

FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The invention relates generally to the field of photography, and in particular to cameras. More specifically, the invention relates to a one-time-use camera that detects film winding substantially a frame increment to enable an exposure-related component such as an electronic flash or an electronic shutter.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Film and cameras that are all in one, commonly referred to as single-use or one-time-use cameras, have become well known. The one-time-use camera is a simple point-and-shoot type comprising an opaque plastic main body part that supports a conventional film cartridge in a cartridge receiving chamber, an unexposed filmstrip substantially prewound from a film take-up spool in the film cartridge onto a film supply spool in a film supply chamber in order to form an unexposed film roll on the film supply spool, a fixed-focus taking lens, a film metering mechanism with a rotatably supported metering sprocket that engages the filmstrip, a manually rotatable film winding thumbwheel coaxially engaged with the film take-up spool in the film cartridge, a single-blade shutter for exposing successive frames of the filmstrip, a manually depressible shutter release button, a rotatable frame counter for indicating the number of exposures remaining to be made on the filmstrip, a direct see-through viewfinder having front and rear viewfinder lenses, and in some models an electronic flash. A pair of opaque plastic front and rear cover parts house the main body part between them to complete the camera. The rear cover part connects to the main body part and/or to the front cover part to make the main body part light-tight. A decorative cardboard outer box or label at least partially covers the front and rear cover parts and has respective openings for the taking lens, etc.
After each picture is taken with the one-time-use camera, the photographer manually rotates the thumbwheel in a film winding direction to similarly rotate the film take-up spool in the film cartridge. This winds an exposed frame of the filmstrip from a rear backframe (exposure) opening in the main body part into the film cartridge, and advances an unexposed frame of the filmstrip from the unexposed film roll to the backframe opening. The rewinding movement of the filmstrip the equivalent of slightly more than one frame width rotates the metering sprocket in engagement with the filmstrip to decrement the frame counter to its next lower-numbered setting and to pivot a metering lever into engagement with the thumbwheel. When the metering lever engages the thumbwheel, further rotation of the thumbwheel is prevented. Manually depressing the shutter release button to take another picture pivots the metering lever out of engagement with the thumbwheel to permit renewed rotation of the thumbwheel. After the maximum number of exposures available on the filmstrip have been made, and the filmstrip is completely wound into the film cartridge, the one-time-use camera is given to a photofinisher who separates the rear cover part from the main body part and removes the film cartridge with the exposed filmstrip from the cartridge receiving chamber. Then, he removes the exposed filmstrip from the film cartridge to develop the negatives and make prints for the customer. Most of the used parts such as the electronic flash can be recycled, i.e. reused, to remanufacture the one-time-use camera.
PRIOR ART PROBLEM
There is a known problem in the recycling in that the used parts may become worn or damaged, and in that case should not be reused to remanufacture the one-time-use camera.
Thus, it has been suggested that any worn or damaged parts be purposely fractured to render them visibly different during disassembly of the one-time-use camera to retrieve the exposed film. This allows the worn or damaged parts to be readily identified to be discarded, and prevents them from being erroneously reused. This is described, for example, in prior art U.S. Pat. No. 5,349,410 issued Sep. 20, 1994, U.S. Pat. No. 5,761,542 issued Jun. 2, 1998, and U.S. Pat. No. 5,815,740 issued Sep. 29, 1998.
Another suggestion disclosed in prior art U.S. Pat. No. Re. 35,817 issued Jun. 2, 1998 intends that the disassembled camera be returned to the original manufacturer in order to assure that the remanufactured camera does not suffer any loss in quality. The patent proposes to disable some main function component of the one-time-use camera such as the electronic flash, when the frame counter indicates that the maximum number of exposures available on the filmstrip have been made. Preferably, an IC (integrated circuit) chip interrogates the frame counter after each exposure to disable a flash charger circuit in the electronic flash when the frame counter is decremented to “0”. The original manufacturer then must input a reset code to the IC chip to re-enable the flash charger circuit. This permits the electronic flash to be reused in a remanufactured camera.
If the electronic flash has become worn, it should not be reused. However, one might possibly short-circuit, i.e. bypass, the IC chip or remove the IC chip in an attempt to reuse the worn flash unit. This should be discouraged by making the electronic flash tamper resistant.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
A one-time use camera comprising a filmstrip having successive frames including first- and last-to-be-exposed frames and a pre-exposure frame immediately preceding the first-to-be-exposed frame, a backframe opening at which the respective frames of the filmstrip beginning with the first-to-be exposed frame and ending with the last-to-be-exposed frame are exposed during picture-taking, a film cartridge which contains a film take-up spool that is manually rotated decreasing angles of rotation to wind the respective frames of the filmstrip beginning with the pre-exposure frame from the backframe opening onto said spool, and an exposure-related component that must be enabled in order to operate, is characterized in that:
a rotation-sensing detector for sensing rotation of the spool is connected with the exposure-related component to enable the exposure-related component when the spool is rotated an angle of rotation no greater than an angle sufficient to wind the last-to-be exposed frame onto the spool, whereby the exposure-related component can be enabled each time the spool is rotated to wind one of the frames of the filmstrip onto the spool.


REFERENCES:
patent: Re. 35817 (1998-06-01), Zander
patent: 4340286 (1982-07-01), Carr
patent: 4490027 (1984-12-01), Frank et al.
patent: 4806960 (1989-02-01), Momot et al.
patent: 5003333 (1991-03-01), Earnhart
patent: 5258789 (1993-11-01), Labaziewicz
patent: 5349410 (1994-09-01), Kamata
patent: 5761542 (1998-06-01), Lamphron et al.
patent: 5799218 (1998-08-01), Aoki
patent: 5809358 (1998-09-01), Weber
patent: 5815740 (1998-09-01), Wagner
patent: 6195506 (2001-02-01), Yamazaki et al.

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