Patent Application
20050265157
This application is based upon and claims the benefit of priority from prior Japanese Patent Application No. 2004-157487, filed May 27, 2004, the entire contents of which are incorporated herein by reference.
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to optical disk apparatuses, such as DVDs (digital versatile disks) and CDs (compact disks). More particularly, the invention relates to an optical disk apparatus for forming images of labels of optical disks by using laser light generated by the optical disk apparatus, and further relates to an optical disk image forming method.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, optical disks, such as DVDs, are widely used as recording media. Ordinarily, a label indicative of the recorded contents is furnished on the surface of such a disk. Generally, such a label is separately created and adhered to the disk surface or is directly printed on the disk. However, techniques have been proposed in which a layer of a material variable in color upon irradiation of laser light is formed on a disk, and a label image is formed by using the laser light emitted from an optical disk apparatus.
By way of relevant example, Patent Reference 1 (Jpn. Pat. Appln. KOKAI Publication No. 2002-203321) discloses a technique for forming an image on a color variable layer by using the power of laser light emitted from an optical pickup, in which the tonal gradation of the image can be represented corresponding the intensity of laser light.
In addition, Patent Reference 2 (Jpn. Pat. Appln. KOKAI Publication No. 2004-5848) discloses a technique with an example in which, similar to the above, the power of laser light emitted from an optical pickup is used to form an image on a color variable layer. In this case, gradation data is prepared in units of rotation, and the image is formed corresponding the intensity of the laser light.
However, the publications of the prior arts described above do not have a description regarding how to handle the label image. Particularly, the publications do not have a description regarding how to quickly input to an input section the image information subject to a large volume size. Therefore, according to any one of the publications regarding the above-described optical disk apparatuses for forming the label image on the optical disk by a laser light, problems remain in that techniques for quickly inputting the image information for the label image subject to a large volume size are unknown.
An optical disk apparatus of an embodiment according to the invention comprises a rotation section which rotates an optical disk having a photoimageable layer that is made imageable by laser light; a pickup section having a laser radiation section which irradiates the laser light onto the photoimageable layer; a driving section which drives the pickup section; an irradiation drive section which supplies a driving current to the laser radiation section to drive the laser radiation section to irradiate the laser light onto the photoimageable layer; an input section which inputs image information that is gradation information per rotation path of the optical disk and that is compressed to be represented by a differential component between gradations of adjoining rotation paths from the outside; an expanding section which restores the differential component between the gradations of the adjoining rotation paths from the input section to original gradation information per rotation path of the optical disk; a generating section which receives the restored gradation information per rotation path in the expanding section and which generates drive information for the pickup section and the irradiation drive section in accordance with the received gradation information per rotation path; and a control section which controls the position of the laser light by controlling the driving section in accordance with the drive information generated by the generating section and which controls gradation of a visualized image by controlling the irradiation drive section, thereby controls so that the visualized image is rendered corresponding to the image information on the optical disk.
An embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings.
More specifically, an optical disk apparatus of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to an optical disk apparatus 10 that is a composite recording/playback apparatus as shown in
<Optical Disk Apparatus According to Embodiment of the Present Invention>
First, a configuration of the optical disk apparatus according to the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.
(Configuration)
According to the present embodiment, the optical disk apparatus 10 is disclosed as an apparatus capable of handling both of a DVD-RAM (random access memory) and hard disk as a recording medium. However, the hard disk or DVD-RAM may be replaced with, for example, a recording medium formed of a semiconductor memory. In
The optical disk apparatus 10 shown in
Referring to
As shown in
The optical pickup 51 performs both light reception and radiation with the function of a beamsplitter 56. A radiation of laser light emitted from a laser diode 54 corresponding to a control signal from a laser driver 65 travels through a collimating lens 55, the beamsplitter 56, a one-quarter (¼) waveplate 57, and the like, is focused by the objective lens 59, and is thus directed to irradiates a predetermined region of the optical disk D. Further, reflected light from the optical disk D is expanded by the objective lens 59, split by the beamsplitter 56 to the side of a focusing lens 53, and supplied to a photodetector 52. The photodetector 52 supplies a detected signal S. A tracking error signal and a focus error signal are supplied to the tracking control section 62 and the focus control section 62 via an RF amplifier (not shown), and the detected signal S for generating a reproduction signal is supplied to a data processing section 20.
In addition, the optical disk apparatus according to the invention has a write APC (auto power controller) circuit (not shown). The APC circuit receives a front monitor signal from a front monitor (not shown) of the optical pickup 51 and supplies the laser driver 65 with an appropriate control signal C corresponding to the front monitor signal whereby to control the laser driver 65. In particular, the APC circuit controls whether laser light is appropriately output in the event of, for example, writing to the optical disk D and label image forming to be described later.
The control section 30 processes data in units of a recording or reproducing operation, and in addition to sections such as the expansion transfer section and the label forming control section, includes a buffer circuit, an error correction section and the like.
Major configuration elements of the optical disk apparatus 10, shown in
The remote controller R enables substantially the same operations as the operation section 32 provided in a main body of the optical disk apparatus 10. Specifically, the remote controller R enables various operations such as record/reproduction instruction to, for example, the HDD section 18 and the disk drive section 19, edit instruction, tuner operation, and setting of reserved video recording. The optical disk apparatus 10 further has the expanding section (compressing section) 41 having a memory region which receives, for example, outputs of image signals from the selector section 16 and stores the outputs; and a label-information generating section 42 for generating, for example, label information and drive information corresponding to image signals or the like.
(Basic Operations)
First, the following will provide overviews of an optical disk reproducing process and an optical disk recording process to be performed in the optical disk apparatus configured as described above. The optical disk reproducing process is performed the following manner. Under the control of the control section 30, the optical disk D rotated at a predetermined velocity by the disk motor 63 controlled by the disk motor driver 64 is irradiated with laser light driven by the laser driver 65. Reflected light of the laser light is detected by the photodetector 52 of the optical pickup 51, and the detected signal S corresponding thereto is output. The detection signal S is supplied to an RF amplifier included in the data processing section 20. An RF signal having been output from the RF amplifier is supplied to the decoder section 22 and the control section 30. Concurrently, a focus error signal and a tracking error signal, which are used as servo-driving signals, generated in the RF amplifier included in the data processing section 20, are supplied to the focus control section 62 and the tracking control section 62, respectively. In the data processing section 20, RF signals are decoded, and decoded signals are either blended by the video mixing section 24 or are directly output to the outside via the interface section 27. The control section 30 generates a control signal for controlling the rotation of the disk motor 63, whereby controlling the rotation of the disk motor 63.
Further, in the optical disk unit configured as described, an optical disk recording process is performed in the following manner. Under the control of the control section 30, data supplied through, for example, the input section 13 and the selector section 16 is temporarily stored into the expanding section (compressing section) 41 having a memory region and is thereafter supplied to the encoder section 21 to be encoded, and encoded data is output. In accordance with the encoded output and the output of the control section 30, a driving current of the laser driver 65 is supplied to the optical pickup 51. In the optical pickup 51, laser light corresponding to the driving current is emitted from the mounted laser diode 54 and is directed to irradiate the storage area of the optical disk D rotated at a predetermined velocity by the disk motor 63. In this manner, the recording process is performed.
(Detail Operations)
Recording Process, Etc.
The operations of the optical disk apparatus 10 configured as described above will now be described in detail hereinbelow. First, operations primarily in the recording event, including other embodiments, will be described. In the input side of the optical disk apparatus 10, the network I/F section 11 is connected to, for example, a server S through the Internet whereby to download contents information and the like. The tuner section 12 selects a channel of a broadcast signal through an antenna, demodulates the signal, and outputs a video signal and an audio signal. The input section 13 receives from the outside various signals, such as brightness signals, color difference signals, video signals for a composite image or the like, and audio signals. These signals are input under control of the selector section 16 controlled by, for example, the control section 30, and selectively supplied to the encoder section 21. Thus, the encoder section 21 receives through the selector section 16 input signals, such as an external analog video signal and an external analog audio signal from the input section 13, or analog video signal and an analog audio signal from the tuner section 12.
The encoder section 21 has video and audio A/D (analog/digital) converters, a video encoder, and an audio encoder. The A/D converters digitize, for example, an analog video signal and analog audio signal having been input from the selector section 16. Additionally, the encoder section 21 includes a sub-picture video encoder. An output of the encoder section 21 is transformed by the formatter section 23 including a buffer memory into a predetermined DVD-RAM format and supplied to the control section 30.
When a directly compressed digital video signal, digital audio signal, or the like is directly input, the encoder section 21 is capable of directly supplying the compressed digital video signal, digital audio signal, or the like to the formatter section 23. In addition, the encoder section 21 is capable of directly supplying an analog-digital (A-C) converted digital video signal, audio signal, and the like to, for example, the video mixing section 24 or the selector section 17.
In the video encoder included in the encoder section 21, a digital video signal is converted into a digital video signal compressed at a variable bitrate based on the MPEG2 or MPEG1 standard. A digital audio signal is converted into a digital audio signal at a fixed bitrate based on the MPEG or AC-3 standard, or is converted into a linear-PCM digital audio signal.
Suppose that a sub-picture video signal has been input from the input section 13, or suppose that a DVD video signal having such a data structure is broadcast and the signal is has been received by the tuner section 12. In this case, the sub-picture video signal in the DVD video signal is encoded by the sub-picture video encoder (run length encoding) into a sub-picture video bitmap.
The encoded digital video signal, digital audio signal, and sub-picture video data are packed by the formatter section 23 into a video pack, audio pack, and sub-picture video pack. Further, the packs are aggregated into a format standardized by DVD-recording standards (standards for recording into, for example, a DVD-RAM, DVD-R, and DVD-RW).
In the optical disk apparatus 10 shown in
Edit Process, Etc.
A description will now be made in detail primarily regarding the process of editing recorded information, including another embodiment. An edit process can be performed in such a manner that video objects of multiple broadcast programs recorded in the hard disk or the optical disk D are partly deleted and connected to a different object of a broadcast program.
To facilitate the edit process, the control section 30 includes an MPU (microprocessing unit) or a CPU (central processing unit); a ROM into which control programs and the like are written; and a RAM for providing a work area necessary for program execution.
Preferably, in accordance with control programs stored in the ROM, the MPU of the control section 30 uses the RAM as a work area whereby, for example, to perform read/write address determination in the disk drive section 19, defective location detection, unrecorded area detection, video-recording information position setting, UDF recording, and AV address setting. The control section 30 additionally has a control function for a label image forming process described below.
By way of still another embodiment, the control section 30 preferably has components (not shown) such as a directory detector section and a management information control section serving for the edit event and the video-recording event. Further, the control section 30 preferably has components (not shown) such as a VGM information creating section (VGM=total video management information), a copy-related information sensing section, a copy-and-scrambling information processing section (RDI processing section), a packet header processing section, a sequence header processing section, and an aspect ratio information processing section.
In the event of the edit process or another process, the contents to be notified to a user in the MPU execution results are either displayed on the display section 31 of the optical disk apparatus or displayed as OSDs (on-screen displays) on the display section 26. The control section 30 further has the operation section 32 which feeds operation signals for operating the apparatus. The operation section 32 is preferably provided together with the remote controller R.
The control section 30 thus performs control of various components such as the disk drive section 19, the HDD section 18, the encoder section 21 and/or the decoder section 22. The control in this case can be executed with timing in accordance with time data issued from an STC (system time clock). Ordinarily, the video-recording operation and the playback operation are executed in synchronization with time clock data provided from the STC. However, other processes may be executed with timing independent of the timing provided from the STC.
Reproducing Process, Etc.
A description will now be made in detail primarily regarding the process of reproducing recorded information, including another embodiment. The decoder section 22 has a separator, a memory, a V decoder, an SP decoder, and an A decoder. The separator separates and takes out each pack from a signal of a DVD format having a pack structure. The memory is used during the execution of, for example, pack separation and other signal processes. The V decoder decodes main video image data (video pack contents) separated by the separator. The SP decoder decodes sub-picture video data (sub-picture video pack contents) separated by the separator. The A decoder decodes audio data (audio pack contents) separated by the separator. Additionally provided is a video processor that appropriately mixes decoded sub-picture images with decoded main video images whereby to output images in which sub-pictures such as menus, highlight buttons, and subtitles are superimposed with the main video image.
An output video signal of the decoder section 22 is input to the video mixing section 24. The video mixing section 24 performs mixing of text data. The video mixing section 24 is coupled with lines for directly taking signals from the tuner section 12 and the input section 13, for example. The video mixing section 24 is connected to a frame memory (not shown) that is used as a buffer. When an output of the video mixing section 24 is supplied to the selector section 17 and is selected by the selector section 17, the output is either displayed on the display section 26 or is supplied to the external device through the I/F section 27.
An output audio signal of the decoder section 22 is converted by a digital-analog (D-A) converter (not shown) to an analog signal, and the analog signal is supplied to the speaker 25 through the I/F section 27, or is supplied to the external device through the I/F (interface) section 27. The selector section 17 is controlled by a select signal sent from the control section 30. This enables the selector section 17 to directly select a signal passed through the encoder section 21 when directly monitoring a digital signal sent from, for example, the tuner section 12 or the input section 13.
In the formatter section 23 of the encoder section 21, individual separation information (information in the event of, for example, GOP-top interruption) is periodically sent to the MPU of the control section 30 during video recording. The separation information has, for example, the number of VOBU packs, an end address of I-picture from the top of the VOBU, and the playback time of VOBU.
Concurrently, information from the aspect information processing section is sent to the MPU at the time of video-recording initiation, and the MPU creates VOB stream information (STI). The STI stores data such as resolution data and aspect data, and initializations are performed in the individual decoder sections in accordance with the STI.
The control section 30 receives data in VOBU units from the formatter section 23 of the encoder section 21, and supplies the data to the disk drive section 19 or the HDD section 18. The MPU of the control section 30 creates management information necessary for the reproduction of stored data and sends the created management information to the control section 30 upon recognition of a command for data-recording termination. Thereby, the management information is recorded into the disk. Thus, when encoding is being executed, the MPU of the control section 30 receives information (such as the separation information) in units of data from the encoder section 21. In addition, at the time of recording initiation, the MPU of the control section 30 recognizes the management information (file system) having been read from the optical disk and the hard disk, recognizes an unrecorded area of the each individual disk, and sets the recording area to the disks through the control section 30.
In addition, as described below, the control section 30 is capable of accessing, for example, a server of contents information provided on the Internet, downloading the contents information, and recording the contents information into a storage area of the HDD section 18. In response to user operations, the contents information recorded into the storage area of the HDD section 18 is read from the HDD section 18, and is decoded by the decoder section 22. The contents information is then appropriately selected by the selector section 17 through the video mixing section 24, and is then supplied to the external device through speaker 25 and the display section 26 or through the I/F section 27.
As described above, the optical disk apparatus 10 of the present embodiment is of the type having a comprehensive functionality that performs the recording/reproducing processes with the optical disk D (or hard disk) for many sources. The label image forming process for the optical disk D in the optical disk apparatus 10 will now be described below.
<Label Image Forming Process Including Compression/Expansion Process for Label Image Gradation Information>
The optical disk apparatus 10 of the one embodiment according to the invention performs not only the recording/reproducing processes described above, but also the optical disk label image forming process using the laser light emitted from the laser diode 54. In this case, further processes are performed. The image information for the label image is input in the optical disk apparatus 10 by being compressed in an external PC (personal computer), and the compressed data (image information) is expanded (expansion process) in the optical disk apparatus 10. Referring to the drawings, a label image forming process as one embodiment of the invention will be described below in detail.
Optical Disk Having Photoimageable Layer
First, as shown in
Compression/Expansion Process
The following will discusses a case where a label image to be supplied for label-image forming is transferred to the input section 13 from an external host computer H shown in
With reference to
It can be said that the compression techniques described take into consideration that image information to be input for label-image forming represents an image attributed to “multiple items of gradation information at individual angles of individual rotation paths of the disc.”
The image information for such label-image forming as described above is generated by, for example, the host computer H in the following manner. In particular, the following will describe a case where image information of an ordinary image format, such as a JPEG or MPEG image information, is input as user-desired image information. Under the control of a control section of the host computer, the image information is read from, for example, the memory section 43. When the image information represents an ordinary rectangular image, a masking process is applied to the label image information, and the image information is transformed into per-rotation-path image information.
More specifically, ordinary image information is configured as individual gradation information in terms of x-coordinate and y-coordinate. However, to form the image information in the form of a spiral or concentric circle on the photoimageable layer of the rotating optical disk, the image information is transformed into a form identifying that “gradation information is attributed to what angle and which rotation path of the disk.” The transformation process is preferably performed using a preliminarily created transformation table to transform the ordinary image information into the form of “multiple items of gradation information at individual angles in individual rotation paths of the disk.”
In the optical disk apparatus 10, when the gradation information per rotation path of the optical disk D has been supplied from, for example, the input section 13, the information is selected by the selector 16 and is supplied to an expanding section (compressing section) 41. The expanding section (compressing section) 41 performs a restoration process by expanding the compressed image information in accordance with a reversed process of the compression process described with reference to
Image Forming Process for Label Image
The image forming process for a label image is performed in a manner described hereunder in accordance with the gradation information of the per-rotation path of the optical disk acquired through the expansion process of the expanding section (compressing section) 41 described above. In accordance with the gradation information of the per-rotation path of the optical disk, the label-information generating section 42 generates control signals corresponding to the image information in the form of the individual per-rotation-path gradation information under the control of the control section 30. The control signals are a control signal for the feed driver 67 which supplies the driving current to the pickup-section feed mechanism section 66 of the optical pickup 51; a control signal for the disk motor driver 64 which supplies the driving current to the disk motor 63; and a laser-emission control signal C to be supplied to the laser driver 65 which supplies the driving current to the laser diode 54. Due to these control signals being supplied to individual sections, the individual sections are controlled under the control of the control section 30. In this case, even when a formed image M is a continuous photoimageable region, the driving current from the laser driver 65 does not take the mode of a DC driving current, but takes the mode of a continuous pulse train. This enables the power of laser light to be maximized and enables secure label image forming. This arrangement is made for the reason that if the driving current of the laser diode is supplied to the laser diode 54 in a singular pulse or a continuous DC mode, the maximum emission power is as low as about ½ in value of the power in the case where the driving current of the laser diode 54 in the form of a continuous pulse signal is output.
Due to the above-described laser light emission being applied, the photoimageable layer 76 of the optical disk D is transformed from the transparent state to an opaque photoimageable state corresponding to the light quantity or heat of the laser light. Thereby, as shown in
It is preferred that multiple shots of laser-light irradiation be applied in units of the rotation path to even more securely perform image forming of the photoimageable layer 76. More specifically, not only that concentration gradients are represented at a single shot of irradiation by changing the intensity of the laser light, but also that the number of shots of irradiation to the same region is preferably increased to, for example, two, five, and ten whereby to enhance securability of the concentration representation.
The optical disk apparatus uses the laser diode which is a laser radiation section for laser light used for the information recording process and reproducing process. Thereby, a dedicated optical disk label printer section need not be provided, and configurations of, for example, the optical disk rotation section, pickup section, and pickup driving section and control section can be sharedly used.
As described above, in the optical disk apparatus of the embodiment according to the invention, since the volume size can be compressed by the compression/expansion process, even when transferring the label image from the external host computer H or the like, the process can be quickly and securely performed.
Compression/Expansion Process in Optical Disk Apparatus
The compression/expansion process can be used not only for compression in an external device and for expansion, but also for storing the label image in the optical disk apparatus 10. More specifically, the expanding section (compressing section) 41, shown in
That is, in the optical disk apparatus described above, an optical disk label image to be formed is attributed to spiral or concentric image information, and particularly, no significant differences take place in the gradation information of adjoining rotation paths for the individual per-rotation gradation information. Focusing attention on these attributions, it is arranged such that the image information is input to, for example, the optical disk apparatus after performing the compression/expansion process in the following manner. In an externally connected personal computer or the like, gradation information of the individual per-rotation path of the optical disk is compressed by being transformed into a differential component of the gradations of adjoining rotation paths, and the compressed image information is then input to the optical disk apparatus. In the optical disk apparatus, the differential component of the gradations of the adjoining rotation paths is restored (expanded) to original gradation information per rotation path of the disk whereby to the image forming of the label image.
As described above, even a label image subject to a large volume size is reduced to a very small volume size by being transformed into a differential component of the gradations of adjoining rotation paths, whereby the image information can become quickly input from the personal computer or the like. Consequently, communication failure during transmission is prevented, so that a steady label image forming process can be implemented.
In the above embodiment, while description has been made regarding the one embodiment of the present invention with reference to the optical disk apparatus functioning as the composite machine including the hard disk recorder and the like, the present invention is not limited thereto. It is a matter of course that for example, equivalent processes can be implemented even with an optical disk recording/reproducing apparatus handling only an optical disk.
According to the various embodiments described above, those concerned in the art will be able to implement the invention, and various other modified examples will easily occur to those skilled in the art. Further, it will be possible even for those not having sufficient inventive knowledges and skills to adapt the invention by way of various other embodiments. The invention covers a broad range of applications as long as the applications do not contradict the principles and novel features disclosed herein, and the invention is not limited to the above-described embodiments.
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2004-157487 | May 2004 | JP | national |
