Abstract: A control apparatus for a motor-driven vehicle driven by a motor brakes the vehicle without giving shock to the vehicle. The control apparatus includes a vehicle maneuvering section for sensing a manual driving force as applied to it. The control apparatus also includes a control circuit which, when a manual driving force for driving the vehicle is applied to the maneuvering section, causes the motor to provide a mechanical driving force for the vehicle in accordance with the sensed manual driving force. The control circuit includes a braking force providing device which gradually increases a braking force for braking the vehicle from zero when manual driving force has been removed from the maneuvering section.

Abstract: Motors drive drive wheels of a motor-driven vehicle. A manual-driving-force sensing unit senses manual driving forces for driving the drive wheels and develops manual-driving-force representative signals. A control unit computes, from the manual-driving-force representative signals, preliminary motor driving signals which, when applied to the respective motors, would make the motors produce mechanical driving forces. The control unit also computes, from the preliminary motor driving signals, compensate motor driving signals to be applied to the respective motors, when the direction of rotation of the motors are the same. Each of the compensated motor driving signals is prepared from the corresponding one of the preliminary motor driving signal with the other of the preliminary motor driving signals taken into account.

Abstract: A digital video signal record and playback device for recording on a recording medium a digital video signal coded by using a motion compensation prediction and an orthogonal transform and playing back data from the recording medium. In a data arrangement of a digital video signal, an I picture which can be independently represented in a picture is divided into n areas in the vertical direction, and the data is arranged from the front of one GOP in the unit of area by giving a priority to an area located at the center of the screen. A playback picture is outputted by playing back the I picture read from the recording medium in the unit of area unit. In the case where the whole I picture area cannot be read within a definite time, the area which cannot be read are interpolated by the use of the data of the preceding screen.

Abstract: Manual driving force applied by a wheelchair driver to a motor-driven wheelchair is sensed by a manual-driving-force sensing unit. When the manual driving force reaches a preset value, a control unit makes a motor generate a mechanical driving force supplementary to the manual driving force. The control unit subtracts the preset value from the manual driving force to determine an amount of change by which the current mechanical driving force should be changed, and adds the amount of change to the current mechanical driving force to develop a new mechanical driving force.

Abstract: In optical disk having a track formed of groove tracks and land tracks connected every revolution to form a single spiral, each revolution-of the tracks is divided into sectors, each having identification signal region at the head of the sector, and the identification signal regions in tracks adjacent to each other are aligned in the radial direction. Prepits are formed in the identification signal region, on an extension of a boundary between groove and land tracks adjacent to each other. The prepits have a width substantially equal to the width of the grooves. The identification signal including address information of the sector. The polarity of tracking error signal is detected at the identification signal region of the recording sector, and whether the recording sector is in a groove track or land track is determined based on the polarity of tracking error signal.

Abstract: An optical disk according to the present invention has data recording tracks of lands and grooves. Each of the data recording tracks has a length corresponding to a revolution of the disk and includes a plurality of track sectors. The data recording tracks of lands and grooves are connected alternately to form a continuous data recording spiral. Each of the track sectors has a preformatted identification signal part for representing sector address data and has a data recording part for recording data. The identification signal part has a first address data region and a second address region. The first address data region and the second address data region are shifted by the same predetermined distance in opposite directions from the center of a groove track in the radial direction of the disk. The first address data region is set to represent the address of a groove track sector, and the second address data region is set to represent the address of a land track sector adjacent to the groove track sector.

Abstract: An optical disc using a single-spiral land and groove track format enabling accurate tracking offset correction and reliable detection of the transition point between a land track and a groove track, and a driving apparatus therefor. Four physical address areas PID1, PID2, PID3, and PID4 are recorded to a header area such that PID1 and PID2 are offset one-half track pitch toward the outside circumference of the disc from the groove track center, and PID3 and PID4 are offset one-half track pitch toward the inside circumference of the disc from the groove track center, and the physical address areas PID1-PID4 can be detected by means of a difference signal in the radial direction. The single frequency pattern area VFO at the beginning of each PID is lengthened by PID1 and PID3, thereby enabling tracking offset correction using a sum signal, and detection of the land-groove transition point using a difference signal obtained from the PID offset.

Abstract: An optical disc having both rewritable area and read-only area is disclosed. The rewritable area has a single spiral pattern of start track land at a leading edge, and a single spiral pattern of end track land at a trailing edge, whereby portions of the physical address area PID deviated approximately Pa/2 from the track of the rewritable area are being intruded into the start track land and the end track land.

Abstract: A turntable is a table mounted to a shaft (4) of a spindle motor and the turntable supports a laminated disc thereon and drives the disc in rotation. The laminated disc includes a lower disc and an upper disc stacked on the lower disc, and is supported on a disc-supporting surface. When the disc is loaded on the turntable, a fitting member fits into the center hole of the laminated disc for centering the laminated disc with respect to the shaft. The fitting member fits the center hole of the lower disc when the laminated disc is supported on the disc-supporting surface. The turntable may include a tapered member which guides the laminated disc to the disc-supporting surface. The laminated disc includes lower and upper discs each having an edge which defines the center hole. The corners of the edges are cut away along a circumference of the center hole. The upper and lower discs are placed together so that the cut-away corner directly face each other.

Abstract: An audio signal is recorded in a semiconductor memory in a plurality of hierarchical levels, with the lowest level sufficing for reproduction with a certain reduced degree of fidelity. Successfully higher hierarchical levels provide successively greater fidelity when reproduced. When the memory has been determined to have reached maximum capacity, recording continues by overwriting the highest hierarchical level of data currently stored in the memory with lower hierarchical levels of new data. A code is recorded in the memory, indicating the number of hierarchical levels recorded therein, for subsequent reproduction. The audio signal can furthermore be recorded in variable-length frames and reproduced at high speed by reading every N-th frame, N being a positive integer, or by reading only frames having at least a certain minimum length.

Abstract: In an optical disk device using an optical disk of a single land/groove spiral configuration, headers dividing each track revolution into sectors have one or more mirror surface parts, and the disposition and/or length of the mirror surface parts is different between sectors at a connecting point and sectors which are not at a connecting point. The device includes a circuit for detecting a connecting point based on the position and/or length of the mirror surface part. The device is further provided with a circuit for predicting the connecting point, thereby making up for any failure of detection by the detecting circuit. Such a predicting circuit may have a circuit for predicting the connecting point based on the phase of the disk motor when a connecting point is previously detected, or alternatively a circuit for predicting the connecting point by counting the number of PLL clocks, from a sector preceding the sector which is at a connecting point.

Abstract: An information reproduction apparatus capable of reducing or eliminating the mute period when a pickup jumps during the reproduction or when a disk is changed in an information reproduction system provided with a disk changer mechanism for selecting one disk from plural disks, or when a disk is forced to change, or an information reproduction apparatus of displaying the time information corresponding to the actual outputting time of information from the output terminal by correcting the time information included in the information read from the recording medium or determined by the recording address, or an information reproduction system provided with a disk changer mechanism capable of checking the contents of other disks during reproduction, or system of reproducing only parts of information which allow to view the contents of all disks.

Abstract: In an optical disk having information recording tracks of lands and grooves, the grooves are wobbled in a radial direction of the disk so as to represent rotation information and sector management information, at least one pair of a wobbling part and an unwobbling part arranged one after another are provided every revolution, such that the wobbling parts in the grooves next to each other do not overlap in the radial direction of the disk. Since the wobble parts in the grooves next to each other do not overlap in the radial direction, the wobble data can be obtained regardless of whether a beam spot is tracing a land track or a groove track, and even in a data part of each sector.

Abstract: An optical disc using a single-spiral land and groove track format and an address signal enabling simple sector address management and format compatibility with read-only optical disc media is disclosed. Four physical address areas PID1-PID4 are recorded to a header area such that PID1 and PID2 are offset one-half track pitch toward the outside circumference of the disc from the groove track center, and PID3 and PID4 are offset one-half track pitch toward the inside circumference of the disc from the groove track center, and the header area is shared by groove track sectors and land track sectors. A groove track sector address is written to PID3 and PID4, and the sector address of the land track sector adjacent on the outside circumference side of that groove sector is written to PID1 and PID2. The address of each sector increases 1 in the same sequence as the sectors are formed in the recording spiral.

Abstract: A motor-driven vehicle includes a vehicle body. A wheel has a fixed axle secured to the vehicle body. A driving arrangement which includes a driving unit and a battery is built in the wheel. A manipulating unit is mounted on the vehicle body, which produces an electrical signal to be supplied to the driving arrangement. The fixed axle has a hollow in it, and a signal line interconnecting the manipulating unit and the driving arrangement is disposed in the hollow in the axle.

Abstract: An audio signal is recorded in a semiconductor memory in a plurality of hierarchical levels, with the lowest level being adequate for reproduction with a certain reduced degree of fidelity. Successively higher hierarchial levels provide successively greater fidelity when reproduced. When the memory has been determined to have reached maximum capacity, recording continues by overwriting the highest hierarchical level of data currently stored in the memory with lower hierarchical levels of new data. A code is recorded in the memory, indicating the number of hierarchical levels recorded therein, for subsequent reproduction. The audio signal can furthermore be recorded in variable-length frames and reproduced at high speed by reading every N-th frame, N being a positive integer, or by reading only frames having at least a certain minimum length.

Abstract: An audio signal is recorded in a semiconductor memory in a plurality of hierarchical levels, with the lowest level sufficing for reproduction with a certain reduced degree of fidelity. Successively higher hierarchical levels provide successively greater fidelity when reproduced. When the memory has been determined to have reached maximum capacity recording continues by overwriting the highest hierarchical level of data currently stored in the memory with lower hierarchical levels of new data. A code is recorded in the memory, indicating the number of hierarchical levels recorded therein, for subsequent reproduction. The audio signal can furthermore be recorded in variable-length frames and reproduced at high speed by reading every N-th frame, N being a positive integer, or by reading only frames having at least a certain minimum length.

Abstract: A disc apparatus includes a readout unit, an audio signal output unit, a memory, a switch, and a controller. The readout unit reads out data from a disc wherein the data includes at least digital audio data. The audio signal output unit produces an audio signal output in accordance with the digital audio data. The memory stores the digital audio data read from the disc by the readout unit. The switch switches the digital audio data supplied to the audio signal output unit between the digital audio data stored in the memory and the digital audio data currently being read by the readout unit.

Abstract: An information reproduction apparatus capable of reducing or eliminating the mute period when a pickup jumps during the reproduction or when a disk is changed in an information reproduction system provided with a disk changer mechanism for selecting one disk from plural disks, or when a disk is forced to change, or an information reproduction apparatus of displaying the time information corresponding to the actual outputting time of information from the output terminal by correcting the time information included in the information read from the recording medium or determined by the recording address, or an information reproduction system provided with a disk changer mechanism capable of checking the contents of other disks during reproduction, or system of reproducing only parts of information to allow the monitoring of the contents of all disks.

Abstract: A digital signal which is recorded on a recording medium with being encoded is duplicated to another recording medium without being decoded. An audio signal is recorded and/or reproduced using data recorded in a TOG of the recording medium. A first data signal (2-channel audio signal) is intermittently recorded on and/or reproduced from a first area of the recording medium, and a second data signal (other 2-channel audio signal) is intermittently recorded on and/or reproduced from a second area of the recording medium during a period in which the first data signal is not recorded or reproduced.