908results about "Optical recording heads" patented technology

Disk drive spin-up is staggered to reduce peak power requirements. Spin-up of the drives is controlled by selectively delaying voltage inputs to the disk drives. Alternately, spin-up of the drives is controlled by staggering the timing of communications to the disk drives.

The present invention relates to methods and apparatus for dynamically varying a linear velocity of an optical drive during a write operation to an optical disc to reduce the likelihood of a buffer under-run event. By reducing a linear velocity and writing speed while the optical drive writes on the disc, an embodiment of the invention preserves the buffer and reduces a minimum data transfer rate required to sustain writing to the disc for a sustained period of time. The basic components of one embodiment of a CD-RW drive (100) in which the present invention may be implemented include a controller (110), a microcontroller (112), a nonvolatile memory (114), which stores firmware (116) executed by the microcontroller (112), a buffer (118), a spindle motor (120) and an optical pick-up (122).

In a recording method for a recording medium having a data recording area on which a data recording and/or reproducing operation is carried out, and a management data area on which management data to manage a recording and/or reproducing operation for the recording medium are recorded, when new data are recorded on the recording medium in a state where data have been already recorded on the recording medium and a data-recordable area on which the new data can be recorded exists on the data recording area, the recording operation of the new data is started from the head position of the data-recordable area on the basis of the management data recorded on the management data area, and data which have been already recorded on the recording medium are deleted by the same data amount as the new data to be recorded on the data-recordable area from a position on the data recording area of the recording medium at which the recording operation is instructed to start.

A magneto-optical data storage hard disk drive that uses stationary "Light Intensity Modulated Direct Over-Writey" (LIMDOW) or "Magnetically induced Super Resolution" (MSR) "Magneto-Optical Microhead Array Chips' in place of conventional flying-heads, rotary voice-coil actuators, or other similar types of "servo-tracking' mechanisms to simultaneously record and/or reproduce data to and/or from a multitude of data-tracks located across the data-surfaces of a multitude of LIMDOW or MSR disc media that comprise two or more different coercive force regions at room temperature, using a multitude of microheads.

This invention relates to an automated control system and method that furnishes viewers with individualized automated editing and retrieval capabilities over the contents and length of a variable content video program in order to produce a transparently continuous and complete show. The system capabilities include an automated flexible control system design that enables an operator to selectively apply different editing criteria to the variety of subject matters that may be contained within the program. The system controls also include an automated capability for efficiently previewing program scenes of pre-identified categories and classes of subject matter and a capability for determining their inclusion in the program seen by the viewer. Finally, the control system provide a keyword/menu segment/program retrieval facility from an existing program and program database, and a requesting capability for programs to be produced according to viewer-specified requirements.

A high-density read-only optical disc, a method for recording DI (Disc Information) on the high-density read-only optical disc, and a method for reproducing data recorded on the high-density read-only optical disc. The DI recording method for repeatedly recording pit-shaped DI appropriate for the high-density read-only optical disc in a specific recording area contained in a Lead-In or Lead-Out zone more than a predetermined number of times. Therefore, it quickly reads DI recorded in a specific recording area, and normally reproduces data based upon the read DI.

The present invention provides an optical information recording apparatus and method capable of effectively determining appropriate recording parameters in a short time with favorable efficiency, when recording information onto an optical disk having different information recording conditions and information recording characteristics. An information recording condition or an information recording characteristic of an optical disk 1 is identified, and a recording pulse position is corrected at a correction accuracy according to the identifies information recording condition or information recording characteristic, such that a recording mark is formed in a predetermined position.

A disk drive device is constructed for driving an optical disk while communicating with a host apparatus. The device is assembled by a rotation drive section that rotatively driving one optical disk, a plurality of reproduction/record units that can write or read information on the optical disk in parallel with one another, a control section that controls the rotation drive section and controls the plurality of the reproduction/record units concurrently and independently with one another, and an input/output port that connects the plurality of the reproduction/record units to the host apparatus. Each reproduction/record unit has an optical pickup for irradiating an optical beam to write or read the information on the optical disk, an analog front-end circuit for treating the information as a form of an analog signal to be inputted to the optical pickup or outputted from the optical pickup, a digital processing section connected to the analog front-end circuit for processing the information as a form of digital data, and a host interface for controlling the communication between the digital processing section and the host apparatus through the input/output port.

An information recording system includes a storage medium, such as a magnetic or an optical medium, that is formed to have a plurality of adjacent tracks. Each track includes a plurality of storage elements that are arranged substantially along the track in a regular manner. A head disposed in proximity to the storage medium and has a width that spans at least two adjacent tracks. The storage elements are further arranged substantially along first and second axes, such that the first and second axes are substantially perpendicular to each other and are each substantially oriented 45° from an along-track direction associated with a track. The head reads and/or writes information from at least two adjacent tracks spanned by the head.

A recording medium, and a method and apparatus for recording data in the recording medium are disclosed. The recording medium including at least two record layers, each of which includes an inner area, a data area, and an outer area, includes; at least one Optimum Power Control (OPC) area contained in at least one of the inner and outer areas, wherein respective OPC areas contained in neighboring record layers are not arranged at the physically same positions with respect to optical beam. Therefore, data can be effectively recorded in the recording medium.

A recording medium, such as a high-density and/or read-only recording medium, such as BD-ROM, capable of preventing unauthorized duplication of data streams, written thereon, onto another medium, such as a BD-RE or BD-R, which includes physical mark information, and to methods and apparatuses for forming, recording, reproducing, and restricting playback of the recording medium to prevent unauthorized duplication.

An information recording medium includes a user information storage area which stores user information, a test write area which is extendable and for test write of information, a spare area which is extendable and capable of alternatively storing user information, and a recording position management information area including recordable range information expressing recordable ranges in the aforesaid test write area and the aforesaid spare area. The information recording medium, an information reproducing apparatus, an information reproducing method and an information recording method which make it easy to record and reproduce information properly are provided.

A positioning system in an optical card reading apparatus, for accurately positioning the optical card (801) relative to the probe array (102) used to read the data stored on the card. The card (801) is provided with a pattern of servo bands (800) and the sensor (103) used to read out data stored on the optical card (801) has a windowing function which is used to narrow its field of view (802) to define a region of interest (900) corresponding to one or the servo bands (800), and the output is fed to an analogue-to-digital converter. Thus, the “windowing” function of the sensor (103) is used to increase the readout speed and, therefore, the speed of detection of servo marks (800) to enable more rapid positioning of the probe array (102) relative to the optical card (801).