Patent Application
20060280052
All of the material in this patent document is subject to copyright protection under the copyright laws of the United States and of other countries. Portions of the material in this patent document are also subject to protection under the maskwork registration laws of the United States and of other countries. The owner of the copyright and maskwork rights has no objection to the facsimile reproduction by anyone of the patent document or the patent disclosure, as it appears in the United States Patent and Trademark Office file or records, but otherwise reserves all copyright and maskwork rights whatsoever.
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to optical disc players.
2. Background of the Invention
Optical disc players have become one of the most popular mechanisms by which a user is able to listen to music, watch movies, or otherwise use data that can be encoded onto a spiral track on the disc and operated by the optical disc player. Optical disc players in automobiles, for instance, or other situations where CD players are installed and are able to receive discs become problematic when the player malfunctions and cannot eject the disc.
In particular, players like those common in automobiles have a grill with an opening on the face of the grill and rollers inside the player used in conjunction with motors and braking mechanisms to smoothly guide the disc into the player so it can be used. When the user wants to eject the disc, the same type of mechanism reverses the process where rollers, motors, and brakes smoothly push the disc partially out of an opening in the grill, to where the user can grasp the disc with their hand and remove it.
With the advent of CD burners and music encoded in a computer readable form, such as mp3s, it has become common for users to arrange their own customized music or video selections on an optical disc and to label the optical disc so that it is easy to determine the content of any particular disc. The most common form of labeling is using a paper having an adhesive on one side “a sticker”, so that it can be affixed to the disc and then the user can write on the label to easily identify its content. Such labels suffer the disadvantage that over time the adhesive wears out and the label can start coming loose at the edges. Moreover the label adds an additional, albeit small, height to the disc that is relevant in a sensitive optical disc holder or carriage. In many carriages, many optical discs are stacked on top of one another in the carriage and if each CD includes an additional label, there is a noticeable upward adjustment in the position of the carriage relative to the opening where the disc is ejected.
In either case, current CD labeling causes a problem. For instance, if the label becomes unstuck at an edge and that edge happens to be aligned with the rollers inside the player (or the opening in the grill), the label can move above the opening in the grill, which stops the roller from ejecting the disc. In such a case, the player must be returned for service where a technician must take the player apart and remove the disc. This situation however is problematic because the user must take their car in for service each time and this problem is becoming increasingly common.
The invention works in an environment where an optical disc, such as a CD, is inserted into an optical disc player. The disc typically has a label that is affixed to an upper surface of the disc, although the present invention will operate on any disc, labeled or unlabeled. If the label is loose, for instance if a portion of the disc becomes raised toward the grill, the CD will become stuck since the raised label will not exit the opening in the grill. This obstructs the disc rollers and causes the motor to not be able to push the disc out of the player. The present invention senses this event and determines that the CD has not been ejected properly. When this happens, the player performs an ejection routine to allow the unstuck label to move to a position where it will not obstruct the slit in the grill or the roller.
In one embodiment, the user inserts a disc into an optical disc player. A loader function is activated, which uses a sensor near the opening of the player to sense that the disc has been inserted, and causes a motor to turn a roller. The roller pulls the disc into the player. When the user attempts to eject the disc, the loader function is activated again. In a multiple disc CD changer, a tray holding the CDs is put into a position of alignment with the opening through a vertical movement. The loader function then activates the motor again which turns the roller in the opposite direction and attempts to push the disc out of the opening in the player.
The sensor, which detects the physical presence of the disc, is used to determine that the loader has not been successful (i.e., the disc is still present in the player). When this occurs an ejection routine is invoked. The ejection routine comprises reactivating the motor with a motor controller to cause the roller to pull the disc back into the player. The disc reaches its final position when it is positioned in alignment with a spindle motor or a stepper motor so the disc can be rotated. The player status is then returned to Play, rotating the disc approximately 90 degrees. The system then tries to eject the disc again and repeats the process. Typically the disc will safely be ejected after the disc has been turned between 90 and 270 degrees. One skilled in the art will understand that other degrees of rotation will suffice so long as the raised portion of the sticker is directed substantially away from the roller.
The invention will be more fully understood by reference to the following drawings, which are for illustrative purposes only:
The present invention operates in an environment where an optical disc, such as a CD, is inserted into an optical disc player, such as a single-disc player or a multi-disc changer. If the label on the disc becomes loose, for instance if a portion of the label becomes raised where the adhesive becomes weak, the scenario shown in
Optical medium 200 may become stuck in certain scenarios, since the raised label may not exit the opening in the grill of the player if the disc aligns in certain configurations.
In some scenarios, the ejection of the medium 410 is not successful. For instance, sensor 450 may be used to recognize that the ejection attempt has been unsuccessful and the disc is physically still present inside the player. Sensor 430 is typically located near the slit in the grill, in close proximity to medium 410 and senses the physical presence of the medium 410 near the sensor 450. If the medium 410 is successfully ejected the sensor 450 is able to determine that it is no longer physically present in the drive. When the ejection attempt is not successful, the sensor 450 shows that the medium 410 is still present and hence, the medium 410 was not properly pushed out of the player.
When sensor 450 determines that an ejection did not succeed, routine 460 is invoked to attempt a successful ejection of the medium 410. Routine 460 can be hardware, software, firmware, or a combination of all three. Routine 460 typically operates in conjunction with a computing device known to those skilled in the art to carry out instructions to the player. In one embodiment of the present invention, routine 460 operates as shown in
Sensor 550 determines whether the medium 510 is still present in the player because if it is, the medium 510 remains in close proximity to sensor 550 and the sensor 550 determines its physical presence. If medium 510 is still present near sensor 550, computing unit 560 is invoked to initiate an ejection routine according to an embodiment of the present invention. First, motor controller 520 reverses motor 530 so that roller 535 turns in direction 570. Roller 535 turning in direction 570 causes medium 510 to move in the direction of arrow 571. Medium 510 is returned to a position of alignment over spindle 500. Instructions 580 in computing unit 560 are executed. This causes status controller 581 to return the player status to PLAY and the disc is rotated 90 degrees on spindle 500. Counter 582 is incremented and motor controller 520 again attempts to move the disc in the direction of arrow 532. This process repeats until the disc is ejected successfully or the counter 582 determines the number of ejection attempts exceeds a threshold and the disc must be removed by another method.
At block 760 the status of the player is returned to PLAY. At block 770 the disc is rotated 90 degrees. At block 780 a counter is incremented. At block 790 it is determined if the number of ejection attempts exceeds a threshold number of times to try to eject the disc. If so, the process is complete. Otherwise, the process repeats at block 710.
Once the disc has been returned to the player to a position of alignment with the spindle motor, the ejection routine is invoked.
In operation, a servo circuit (spindle motor controller) 850 is implemented where the software or firmware 830 sends a command to the servo circuit 850, which sends pulses 810 to the spindle motor 800. The spindle motor 800 begins to rotate (and hence the disc 840 rotates) and at the same time a laser pickup 860 feeds back a first absolute address 870, which is embedded in a spiral track 890 of the disc 840, to the servo circuit 850. As the disc 840 rotates, the laser 860 continues feeding back absolute addresses, for instance second absolute address 880, and the pulses 810 for the particular spindle motor 800 are generated until the disc 840 is rotated the appropriate amount.
Although the description above contains many specificities, these should not be construed as limiting the scope of the invention but as merely providing illustrations of some of the presently preferred embodiments of this invention. Thus the scope of this invention should be determined by the appended claims and their legal equivalents.
