Cleaning and liquid contact with solids – Processes – With treating fluid motion
Reexamination Certificate
2000-09-08
2003-03-04
El-Arini, Zeinab (Department: 1746)
Cleaning and liquid contact with solids
Processes
With treating fluid motion
C134S018000, C134S042000, C015S316100
Reexamination Certificate
active
06527871
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The invention concerns an apparatus and a method for removing view-obstructing materials from a surface of lenses of video cameras and other photographic, viewing and imaging equipment.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
During filming, photographing, or assisted viewing (e.g., through binoculars) of events that take place in wet and/or windy weather conditions, serious image degradation occurs due to a combination of rain, and/or other precipitation and debris, that fall and/or accumulate on the lens' surface of video and other imaging/viewing equipment.
Conventional solutions include clear plastic covers, and umbrella-like arrangements are conventionally employed. Such conventional remedies are often inefficient, cumbersome, and not very effective especially in extreme wet-weather and windy/dusty conditions.
During use of imaging equipment, such as copiers, scanners, etc., where image quality depends on having an unobstructed view of the image to be reproduced, the transparent copying/scanning surface which covers a lens, and through which the image to be reproduced is viewed, often becomes contaminated by dust and other view-obstructing particles.
Conventional remedies, such as wiping with a cleaning solution, while sometimes necessary, are often time consuming, inefficient, and add to the cost (e.g., cleaning solution, wipes, etc.) of operating imaging equipment.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The invention solves the above-identified problems by providing a system and a method capable of removing image-degrading moisture, debris, or build-up, from a lens surface, or from a transparent surface (which may be used as a shield, cover, etc, placed between the lens and the image, hereinafter referred to as a “lens shield surface”), which is exposed and/or is susceptible to moisture, or build-up, by delivering air to the lens surface (or lens shield surface) at a sufficiently high velocity to remove and/or prevent formation of the image-degrading moisture, debris, and/or build-up. The inventive system is arranged such than the image is not adversely affected at any time during the moisture or build-up removal, Also, the inventive system requires minimal, if any, action on the part of the user of the system to perform the moisture or built-up removal.
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Hanson Brian P.
Hanson David H.
Torgovitsky Stanislav
El-Arini Zeinab
Sughrue & Mion, PLLC
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