METHOD OF RECORDING DATA ON AN OPTICAL DISC

Technical Field

This invention relates to a method of recording multiple bands of--data on-.an optical -disc on a non-con¬ tinuous basis.

Background Art

The recording of data on an optical disc of the type used in this invention, is generally done on a one-time basis, i.e. all the data which is to be recorded thereon is done at one time, with the recording of data being effected in a continuous manner from the first track to the last track thereon. The data recorded on the disc is non-eraseable nor is the disc re-useable, as the disc forms a permanent record for the data re¬ corded thereon.

One of the problems which occurs when recording on a high-density disc of the type described on a non- continuous basis is that when an additional band of data is to be recorded on a disc which already has a band of data recorded thereon, some partial destruction of the data already on the disc may result. This partial des¬ truction of data is generally due to the fact that the recording tracks on the discs are extremely close to one another, and any eccentricity in the disc itself or in the associated recording apparatus which is used to record the additional band of data may cause some "re¬ cording over" the previously recorded band of data. This is especially true when the disc is placed on any one of a- lurality of different associated recording apparatuses for the recording of additional bands of data thereon. Some eccentricity errors in the associa¬ ted recording apparatus may be due to spindle eccentri¬ city, eccentricity of the spindle locating a hole in the disc, improper set up of a disc on the spindle of

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the recording apparatus, and manufacturing tolerances on the recording apparatus itself. -

In the prior art, several mechanical solutions were sought to the problem of eccentricity. One solu- tion involved the use of an annular reinforcement means concentrically arranged at the central mounting hole of the disc. The purpose was to prevent damage to the aperture and thereby to prevent the disc from becoming eccentric. Another proposed solution was to provide a disc having an eccentric multilobed triangular centre locating hole which cooperated with a drive hub having ribs to match the lobes of the hole. These solutions require special types of disc.

Other prior art solutions to the eccentricity problem involve special recording equipment. Thus,

U. S. Patent No. 4,142,209 discloses a recording appara¬ tus having means for compensating and correcting eccen¬ tricities. Such means include a movable mirror for de¬ flecting a recording light beam onto the surface of a disc so that a light spot that is formed may be guided or tracked along a selected path on the disc to ensure proper spacing between adjacent tracks. This operation is computer controlled and is initiated automatically.

• Disclosure of the Invention The present invention provides a simple and inexpensive method for substantially overcoming the problem of eccentricity, which method does not require any special equipment but can be- used with any type of optical disc and with any type of conventional recording apparatus.

Thus, according to the invention, there is provided a method of recording data at a predetermined recording density on an optical disc having already re¬ corded thereon at said density one or more bands of data, each band comprising a plurality of tracks and having a portion for producing an end-of-band signal

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indicative of the last recorded track of the respective band, characterized by bringing about a first relative

- radial- movement be-tween a recording means and said disc until the end-of-band signal of the last recorded band is sensed, thereafter bringing about a second relative

- radial movement between said recording, means and said disc by a radial distance corresponding to a predeter¬ mined number of tracks, thereby to produce a recording gap between the last recorded band and the next band to be recorded, and commencing recording of said next band of tracks, said radial distance being irrespective of there being any or no eccentricity of said previously recorded tracks or the tracks of said next band.

Preferably, the said radial distance is deter- mined experimentally with a view to compensating for eccentricity errors likely to be encountered in practice when recording at said predetermined density on any optical disc.

Brief Description of Drawing One embodiment of the invention will now be described, by way of example, with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:

Fig. 1 is a plan view in schematic form of a portion of a high density optical disc which may be used with the method of this invention, showing the or¬ ganization of first, second and third bands of data thereon (hereinafter referred to in the description as segments of data) , and showing a gap between the segments of data recorded thereon; Fig. 2 is an enlarged, schematic, plan view of- the"first segments of data shown in Fig. 1, -showing the organization of data and reference files included in that segment;

Fig. 3 is a schematic diagram, in essentially block form, showing a typical disc recording means which may be used in the method of this invention; and

Fig. 4 is a typical reading means which may be used to read the data recorded on the optical- disc shown in Figs. 1-4.

Best Mode of Carrying Out the Invention

5 Fig. 1 is a plan view, in schematic form, of a portion of a high-density, optical disc designated generally as 10 which may be used with the method of this invention. In a preferred embodiment, the disc 10 is a substrate made of plastic material such as Mylar

10. (manufactured by DuPont Inc.) which has a thin layer of reflective material thereover. The recording density of the disc 10 may be of the order of one hundred times that of a disc (not shown) of comparable dimensions on which data is recorded magnetically. Consequently, the

15 disc 10 is capable of providing permanent storage of data at a low cost per bit when compared to "magnetic discs". Generally, there are about 5,900 tracks per centimeter as measured along a radial line on the disc 10.

20 The method of the invention is used when it is necessary to record data at different recording times and at low cost, and to provide a permanent record for this data which has to be readily accessed. The data, for example, may be a digitized image of the front and

25 back of a check used in banking. When a customer at a particular banking location wishes to verify the signa¬ ture on a check which is charged to his account, for example, it is necessary to locate the particular dig¬ itized image for the check on the disc 10, read the data

30 associated with the check, and output the data just read to a display unit (not shown) which visually displays the image of the check to permit inspection by the customer, or the image displayed may be reproduced on a printer (not shown) associated with the display unit to 5 produce a hard copy thereof. The organization of re¬ cording segments on the disc 10 facilitates accessing

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the associated data thereon, and facilitates the record¬ ing of segments of data thereon.

The disc 10 (Fig. 1) has a spindle hole 12 which is used to locate and mount the disc on a spindle 14 (Fig. 3) on a turntable 16 which is associated with a recording apparatus designated generally as 20 in Fig. 3. Due to eccentricities in the spindle hole 12 and the spindle 14 and manufacturing tolerances for a plurality of recording apparatus (like 20) on which the disc 10 may be placed for recording as previously stated, for example, it was possible to accidentally "record over" previously recorded segments of data on the disc 10 when recording was done on a non-continuous basis.

In the method of the present invention, a gap 18 is left between the last recorded segment and the next segment to be recorded. The distance of relative movement between the recording head and the disc pro¬ ducing the gap 18 was determined by studying the eccen¬ tricities of the spindle hole 12, the manufacturing tolerances of the recording means 20, and the other factors mentioned earlier herein to ascertain an eccen¬ tricity factor. From experimentation, it was determined that for an optical disc (like 10) having a recording density about 5,900 tracks per centimetre (as measured in a radial direction) a radial distance of approximately 15 tracks would provide the necessary separation between segments of data. This distance of approximately 15 tracks appears to be sufficient to compensate for the eccentricities mentioned in almost all optical disc recording operations. The gap 18 consists of a complete absence of data therein, and prevents any overlapping of _ . recorded data without any great, cost..penalty due to a loss in available recording area.

The disc 10 (Fig. 1) may be of the type which has concentric recording tracks thereon, or it may be of the type which has one continuous spiral or recording track thereon, starting from the center of the disc and

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continuing to the outer edge thereof. Between each of the segments of data like the first ^' and second segments up to the Nth segment of data near the outer edge of the disc 10, there is present a gap 18. Near the outer rim of the disc 10 there is located an "end of media" signal on a track 23; this signal comprises a character which is repeated on the entire track 23. The "end of media" signal on track 23 is utilized to indicate to the recording apparatus 20 (Fig. 3) that only a few more record tracks remain on the disc 10. The recorder interface 52 then ascertains the amount of data yet to be recorded. If the remaining data to be recorded is a small amount, this small amount of data will be record¬ ed, and subsequently, the associated index and directory files will be recorded on the disc 10. If the _. amount of data yet to be recorded is large, further recording of data is stopped and the associated index and directory files are immediately recorded.

Each segment of data, like the first segment and the second segment of data (Fig. 1) may have the format shown in exaggerated size in Fig. 2 to facilitate the showing thereof.

The first segment of data, for example, starts out with a data portion included in bracket A as shown in Fig. 2. In the example being discussed, the data portion in bracket A may consist of a plurality of digitized images of the front and back of particular checks used in a banking system, as previously described. The recording area on the disc 10 is divided into a plurality of sectors (not shown) and each recording track like 22 and 24 within a particular sector is assigned its own logical sector number like sector #1 and sector #2, respectively to facilitate the retrieval of the associated data therein. In one embodiment of the disc 10, there are 30 sectors dividing the recording area ^' thereon. Each of the tracks like 22 and 24 on the disc 10 has a mark like 26 which may be located along a radial

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line 28, shown as a dashed line in Fig. 1, to indicate the start and finish of the associated track when a spiral track is utilized on the disc 10.. The mark such as 26 may be an "end of track binary decode" and the

5 "start of track binary decode". As the data in bracket A -is being recorded- on the disc ._L0, ..a conventional buffer 30 (Fig. 3) is utilized to prepare an index file shown in bracket B in Fig. 2 and a directory file shown in bracket C. The index and directory files provide the

10 referencing means to access the data on the disc. The directory file has a last recording track C-l which is followed by a single recording track (bracket E) which contains a single character which is repeated throughout the entire track to signify the end of the first record-

15 ing segment. The nature of the index and director files shown in brackets B and C, respectively, will be dis¬ cussed later herein.

Fig. 3 shows a conventional recording apparatus 20 which may be used to record the data on the disc 10.

20 Because the actual construction of the recording appara¬ tus does not form a part of this invention, it is des¬ cribed only generally herein. One such recording means is shown in a publication entitled "A Review of the MCA Disco-Vision system" by Kent D. Broadbent, which was

25 presented on April 26, 1974 at the 115th SMPTE Technical Conference and Equipment Exhibit in Los Angeles, Cali¬ fornia. Another recording means of the same general type is shown in ϋ. S. Patent 4,118,734 which issued on October 3, 1978.

30 The recording apparatus 20 (Fig. 3) includes the turntable 16 and spindle 14 on which the disc 10 is mounted as shown. The turntable 16 is rotated in the direction shown by arrow 32 by a motor 34 which is mounted on a carriage 36. The carriage 36 is moved in

35 opposed directions, as shown by arrow 38, along a radial line (like line 28 in Fig. 1) on the disc 10 by the carriage drive means 40. The carriage drive means 40

is controlled by the control means 42 to permit the recording head 44 to record data on the disc 10.

The recording apparatus 20 also includes a laser 46 whose coherent light output is fed into a modulating device such as a Pockels Cell 48 which re¬ ceives the signals 50 to be recorded via the buffer 30 and an associated recorder interface 52. The output of the Pockels Cell 48 is fed into the usual associated prism 54, optics 56, recording head 44, and lens 58 to provide a writing or recording beam 60 to the disc 10. A second laser 62 and associated optics 64 provides a "read after record" beam 66 which is coupled to a read photodiode 68 whose output is fed into the read means 70. The "read after record" beam 66 is actually posi- tioned behind the recording beam 60 to check on the data actually being recorded on the disc 10; however, it is shown as being displaced from this position in Fig. 3 to facilitate the showing thereof. The "read after record" beam 66 may also be optically coupled to a tracking transducer 72 whose output is coupled to the control means 42 which controls the movement of the carriage drive means so as to enable the recording head 44 to record within the appropriate tracks on the disc 10.

A reading apparatus designated generally as 74 in Fig. 4 may be used to read the disc 10. Because the reading apparatus 74 is conventional, and not a part of this invention, it is described only generally herein.

The reading apparatus 74 includes a spindle 76 and turntable 78 to receive the disc 10 as shown in Fig. 4. A motor 80 drives the turntable 78 in the direction shown by arrow 82. The motor 80 and turntable 78 are mounted on a carriage 84 and moved in opposed directions as shown by arrow 86 by a carriage drive means 88 which is under the control of a control means 90. The carriage drive means 88 operatively moves the disc 10 along a radial line thereon so as to position the appropriate tracks on the disc 10 under the reading,

The reading apparatus 74 also includes a laser 94 whose output beam passes through conventional optics including a lens 96, beam splitter 98, mirrors 102 and 104 and a prism 106 and objective lens 108 associated with the reading head 92. A reading beam

110 of light, -reflected by the prism.106 is. fed into an optical detector 112, whose output is fed to a reader output interface 114 via a signal buffer 116. A tracking beam of light 118 is fed into an associated tracking transducer 120 whose output is fed to the control means 90 to thereby enable accurate reading of the tracks on the disc 10.

When recording data on the disc 10, the recording apparatus 20 shown in Fig. 3 may be used. A - first portion of data coming from the recorder interface 52 is written into the data portion shown in bracket A for the first recording segment shown in Fig. 2. In general, the data may be recorded in binary form with a "hole" being burned in the disc 10 by the recording beam 60 representing a binary "1" and no hole represent¬ ing a binary "0". Conventional coding techniques such as the "2 over 3" or double redundancy code may be used to insure the accuracy of the data being recorded. When recording on tracks which are in the form of concentric circles, each concentric circle or track is identified by a track number and each track contains a fixed number of logical sectors. When recording in tracks which are in the form of one continuous spiral, the track numbers or the logical sector numbers therefor can be designated by using the marks 26 (Fig. 2) previously mentioned. As the data in bracket A (Fig. 2) is recorded on the --- ^• disc 10 the -associated index and directory files are stored in the buffer 30 as previously explained, and after the data is written, the index and directory files in brackets B and C, respectively, (Fig. 2) are recorded on the disc 10. Thereafter, special characters such as the character Z or a character which is undefined are

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recorded in an entire track (in bracket E) to signify the end of the first recording segment shown in Fig. 2. If this is all the data to be recorded on the disc 10 at this time, the disc 10 may be removed from the recording apparatus 20 and stored.

When additional data is to be recorded on the disc 10, the disc is retrieved from storage and is again placed on the recording apparatus 20. The carriage drive means 40 positions the carriage 36 and the disc 10 thereon so that the recording head 44 is over the outermost track (at the rim of the disc 10) and then the carriage drive means 40 moves carriage 36 and the disc 10 so that the recording head 44 moves relatively in an inward direction towards the spindle hole 12 on the disc. The carriage 36 moves the disc 10 in the inward direction, until the read after record beam 66 senses a track containing the special characters (bracket E in Fig. 2), thereby signifying that the first recording segment, in the example being described, is encountered. Thereafter, the carriage drive means 40 moves the car¬ riage 36 and disc 10 in the opposite direction a pre¬ determined radial distance (of approximately 15 tracks) to provide the gap 18 between the first recording segment and the second recording segment as shown in Fig. 1. The recording of the second recording segment can then proceed as previously described.

When reading a disc 10, the disc is placed in the reading apparatus 74 (Fig. 4) and reading is com¬ menced from the outer rim thereof towards the. center of the disc until a last recording track (like C-1 in Fig. 2) for a recording segment is encountered. The last recording track C-1 for a recording segment will indicate the location (logical sector number) of the associated index file by indicating the lowest sector number in- eluded in that file. The reading head 92 will then be positioned, relatively, at tήis logical sector number by _. the carriage drive means 88 to enable the index file

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(included in bracket B in Fig. 2) to be read by reading in a direction from spindle hole 12 of the disc 10 towards its outer rim. The index file (bracket B) contains the logical sector numbers or tracks for the

5 particular data included in bracket A in Fig. 2. The carriage drive means 88 will then move the disc 10 so that the desired tracks are positioned under the reading head 92 and thereafter, reading can be commenced by reading in the direction going from the spindle hole 12

10 towards the rim of the disc 10. The data read can then be routed to the reader output interface 114 for use by a utilization device (not shown) .

The last recording track C-1 in Fig. 2 contains the address of the directory shown within bracket C. At

15 the end of this directory, a code therein would indicate whether or not one or more previously recorded segments, of data are recorded on the disc 10. If there is a previously recorded segment of data thereon, the direct¬ ory would indicate the address of the directory of the

20 immediately prior segment of data. This type of linking exists for referencing all the prior recorded segments.

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