Patent Publication Number: US-2003228144-A1

Title: Camera with cover attachment movable to actuate operational device

Description:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION  
       [0001] The invention relates generally to cameras such as so-called disposable single-use or one-time-use cameras, and in particular to camera with a decorative and functional cover attachment.  
       BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION  
       [0002] General  
       [0003] Film and cameras that are all in one, commonly referred to as disposable single-use or one-time-use cameras, have become well known. The one-time-use camera is a simple point-and-shoot type camera comprising a conventional film cartridge within a cartridge receiving chamber in a main body part, an unexposed film roll prewound from the film cartridge onto a film supply spool within a film supply chamber in the main body part, a film-exposing backframe opening between the cartridge receiving and film supply chambers in the main body part, a fixed-focus taking lens, a film metering mechanism with a rotatably supported metering sprocket that has respective sprocket teeth for engaging the filmstrip at successive film perforations, a manually rotatable film winding thumbwheel coaxially engaged with a film winding spool inside the film cartridge, a single-blade shutter, a manually depressible shutter release button, an exposure counter wheel that has a numerical series of evenly spaced exposure count indicia and is incrementally rotated to successively view the exposure count indicia, an anti-backup pawl that engages the exposure counter wheel to prevent its reverse rotation, a direct see-through viewfinder having front and rear viewfinder lenses, and in some models an electronic flash. A pair of separate 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.  
       [0004] 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 winding spool inside the film cartridge. This winds an exposed frame of the filmstrip from the backframe opening 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 exposure counter wheel to its next lower-numbered indicia and to pivot a metering lever into engagement with the thumbwheel in order to prevent further manual rotation of the thumbwheel in the film winding direction. 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 in the film winding direction. When 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 breaks away a cover door portion of 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 latent images and make prints for the customer.  
       [0005] Jap. Published Application No. 11-258661—Published Sep. 24, 1999  
       [0006] This publication discloses a one-time-use camera in which a mask plate is positioned between the front cover part and a decorative cover attachment to the front cover part which only partially covers the front cover part. The mask plate is rotatable about a taking lens mount protruding from a lens mount opening in the front cover part, to change the format (aspect ratio) of an object image seen in the viewfinder. A change-over actuator coupled with the mask plate is manually slidable within a curved slot in the cover attachment, to rotate the mask plate.  
       SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION  
       [0007] According to one aspect of the invention, a camera comprising a main body part, a pair of front and rear cover parts that house the main body part between them, and a cover attachment to the front cover part, is characterized in that:  
       [0008] an operational device is mounted on the main body part to be included within the front and rear cover parts, and is depressible to be activated;  
       [0009] the front cover part has a hole positioned over the operational device to permit the operational device to be accessed through the hole to be depressed; and  
       [0010] the cover attachment to the front cover part covers the hole in the front cover part to conceal the hole, and has an actuating member that is depressible through the hole to depress the operational device.  
       [0011] According to another aspect of the invention, a method of activating an operational device that is mounted on a main body part in order to be included within a pair of front and rear cover parts that house the main body part between them in a camera, comprises:  
       [0012] locally depressing a cover attachment to the front cover part at an area of the cover attachment that covers a hole in the front cover part positioned over the operational device; and  
       [0013] moving an actuating member on the front cover part through the hole to activate the operational device when the cover attachment is locally depressed at the area of the cover attachment that covers the hole. 
     
    
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS  
     [0014]FIG. 1 is a front, exploded, side perspective view of a camera according to a preferred embodiment of the invention; and  
     [0015]FIG. 2 is a front, exploded, top perspective view of the camera shown in FIG. 1.  
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION  
     [0016] The invention is disclosed as being embodied preferably in a disposable one-time-use camera. Because the features of a one-time-use camera unit are generally known, the description which follows is directed in particular only to those elements forming part of or cooperating directly with the disclosed embodiment. It is to be understood, however, that other elements may take various forms known to a person of ordinary skill in the art.  
     [0017] Referring now to the drawings, FIGS. 1 and 2 show a disposable one-time-use camera  10  including a black-colored plastic opaque interior main body part  12 , a black-colored plastic opaque exterior front cover part  14 , and a black-colored plastic opaque exterior rear cover part  16 . The front cover part  14  and the rear cover part  16  house the main body part  12  between them and are connected releasably to one another and to the main body part  12  via known hook- and pin-in-hole connections such as the hooks  18  on the front cover part  14  that are engaged in the holes  20  in the rear cover part  16  and the pin  22  on the front cover part that is received in the hole  24  in the main body part  12 .  
     [0018] As is typical, the main body part  12  has a rearwardly open cartridge receiving chamber for a conventional film cartridge and a rearwardly open film supply chamber for an unexposed film roll on a rotatable film supply spool (not shown). During assembly of the camera  10 , an unexposed filmstrip is substantially prewound from a rotatable film winding spool in the film cartridge and into the unexposed film roll on the film supply spool (not shown). A rearwardly open backframe opening is located between the cartridge receiving chamber and the film supply chamber for exposing successive frames of the filmstrip (not shown) when ambient light is received through a front taking lens  26  within a projecting lens mount  28  mounted on the main body part  12 . The lens mount  28  protrudes through a lens mount opening  30  on the front cover part  14 . See FIGS. 1 and 2.  
     [0019] A rotatable film winding thumbwheel  32  coaxially engages the film winding spool in the film cartridge. The thumbwheel  32  radially protrudes from an elongate narrow opening  34  in the rear cover part  16  in order to be manually grasped or fingered at its periphery to incrementally rotate the thumbwheel in a film winding direction, i.e., counter-clockwise in FIGS. 1 and 2 to similarly rotate the film winding spool. This is done in order to wind an exposed frame of the filmstrip from the backframe opening into the film cartridge after each film exposure, and to move a fresh frame of the filmstrip from the unexposed film roll to the backframe opening.  
     [0020] A flash circuit board  36  for a known-type electronic flash  38  is mounted on the main body part  12  and includes a known-type resilient depressible flash charge dome switch  40  that is intended to be depressed at a center area  42  to be activated. When activated, the dome-switch  40  begins flash charging to ready the electronic flash  38  to be fired.  
     [0021] The front cover part  14  has a hole  44  positioned over the center area  42  of the dome-switch  40 . The hole  44  permits the center area  42  to be accessed through the hole in order to depress the center area to activate the dome-switch  40 .  
     [0022] A decorative and functional silver-colored plastic cover attachment  46  to the front cover part  14  only partially covers the front cover part  14  to permit the front cover part to be visible adjacent the cover attachment for decorative purposes. The cover attachment  46  covers the front cover part  14  directly; that is, there is no intervening part between the cover attachment and the front cover part.  
     [0023] The cover attachment  46  covers the hole  44  in the front cover part and covers several other holes  48  in the front cover part, to conceal each one of the holes. The holes  48  are referred to as “defeat” holes, and they are used during camera manufacture to access certain components on the main body part  12  to temporarily disable them when the front cover part  14  is connected to the main body part.  
     [0024] The cover attachment  46  is connected to the front cover part  14  by means of several u-shaped catches  50  that couple with catch-engaging lugs (not shown) in respective slots  52  in the front cover part and several resilient hooks  54  that couple with respective hook-engaging holes  56  in the front cover part. See FIG. 1.  
     [0025] The cover attachment  46  has a lens opening  58  that reveals the taking lens  26  and an eliptically-shaped lens bezel  60  that surrounds the lens opening.  
     [0026] A resilient cantilevered portion  62  of the cover attachment  46  longitudinally extends over the hole  44  in the front cover part  14  and is manually depressible toward the hole. An actuating member or switch activating projection  64  projects from an inside surface  66  of the cantilevered portion  62  part-way into the hole  44 , to be depressed through the hole  44  when the cantilevered portion is manually depressed. The actuating member  64  then depresses the center area  42  of the dome-switch  40  to activate the dome-switch. See FIGS. 1 and 2.  
     [0027] Method  
     [0028] A method of activating the dome-switch  40  is as follows:  
     [0029] the cantilevered portion  62  of the cover attachment  46  is manually depressible toward the hole  44  in the front cover part  14 ; and  
     [0030] this moves the actuating member  64  on the inside surface  66  of the cantilevered portion  62  through the hole  44  to depress the center area  42  of the dome-switch  40  to activate the dome-switch. See FIGS. 1 and 2.  
     [0031] The invention has been described in detail with particular reference to certain preferred embodiments thereof, but it will be understood that variations and modifications can be effected within the spirit and scope of the invention. For example, instead of the dome-switch  40  being included other known-type operational devices that are depressed to be activated may be used.  
     PARTS LIST  
     [0032] 10 . one-time-use camera  
     [0033] 12 . main body part  
     [0034] 14 . front cover part  
     [0035] 16 . rear cover part  
     [0036] 18 . hooks  
     [0037] 20 . holes  
     [0038] 22 . pin  
     [0039] 24 . hole  
     [0040] 26 . taking lens  
     [0041] 28 . projecting lens mount  
     [0042] 30 . lens mount opening  
     [0043] 32 . film winding thumbwheel  
     [0044] 34 . narrow opening  
     [0045] 36 . flash circuit board  
     [0046] 38 . electronic flash  
     [0047] 40 . dome-switch  
     [0048] 42 . center area  
     [0049] 44 . hole  
     [0050] 46 . cover attachment  
     [0051] 48 . holes  
     [0052] 50 . u-shaped catches  
     [0053] 52 . slots  
     [0054] 54 . hooks  
     [0055] 56 . hook-engaging holes  
     [0056] 58 . lens opening  
     [0057] 60 . lens bezel  
     [0058] 62 . cantilevered portion  
     [0059] 64 . actuating member or switch activating projection  
     [0060] 66 . inside surface