Patents Examined by Tan Dinh
  • Patent number: 7365930
    Abstract: Formation of wear powder caused by wear of a ramp which is attributable to mutual contact of a lift tab and the ramp is to be reduced in loading and unloading operations. In one embodiment, a spindle motor is turned on by application of power, then the temperature of a ramp is measured and it is determined whether the temperature of the ramp has reached a preset temperature (about 25° C.) or not. If the answer is negative, a heater is energized to heat the ramp for raising the temperature of the ramp. When it is detected that the temperature of the ramp has reached the preset temperature, the heating of the ramp is stopped and the execution of loading and unloading operations is permitted, then an ordinary processing is started.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 1, 2006
    Date of Patent: April 29, 2008
    Assignee: Hitachi Global Storage Technologies
    Inventors: Nobuyuki Ishii, Kazuhisa Murakami, Takashi Takenaka, Tomoki Hiramatsu
  • Patent number: 7366733
    Abstract: There has been a problem that play list reproduction cannot be performed at a data processing level of a CD player and so on which cannot interpret a play list file in an HTML format. A recording and reproducing system has a CD-RW medium 15 of holding a plurality of data files of storing predetermined data, a file recording means 14 of recording in a play list file 17 held on the CD-RW medium 15 a play list describing reproduction order of reproducing predetermined data stored by all or a part of a plurality of data files respectively by using a unique contents ID given to each data file, and a file reproducing means 23 of reproducing the predetermined data stored by all or a part of the plurality of data files respectively based on the recorded play list.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 3, 2003
    Date of Patent: April 29, 2008
    Assignees: Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd., Microsoft Corporation
    Inventors: Chiyoko Matsumi, Keisuke Matsuo, Harutoshi Miyamoto, Nobuyasu Takeguchi, Yasuyuki Torii, Toshihiko Mizukami, Kevin Leigh La Chapelle, Ian Cameron Mercer
  • Patent number: 7362530
    Abstract: An amplifier apparatus for use with a sensor includes: (a) a first and a second amplifying circuit segment coupled with the sensor and cooperating to effect substantially balanced handling of signals received from the sensor; the first amplifying circuit segment includes a first transistor device; the second amplifying circuit segment includes a second transistor device; (b) a countercurrent unit coupled with the first and second amplifying circuit segments for receiving a first indicator signal from the first transistor device and a second indicator signal from the second transistor device; the first indicator signal represents a first parameter in the first transistor device; the second indicator signal represents a second parameter in the second transistor device; the countercurrent unit provides feedback signals to at least one of the first transistor and second transistor devices to reduce input impedance of the apparatus.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 6, 2004
    Date of Patent: April 22, 2008
    Assignee: Texas Instruments Incorporated
    Inventor: Motomu Hashizume
  • Patent number: 7359291
    Abstract: An optical disk recording method of recording data on an optical disk by applying laser light to a track of the optical disk, includes the steps of a) driving a plurality of laser light sources in sequence in a time division manner, and applying a light flux to one track of the optical disk successively, and b) producing a plurality of rows of record marks in the one track.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 5, 2004
    Date of Patent: April 15, 2008
    Assignee: Fujitsu Limited
    Inventors: Akiyoshi Uchida, Masakazu Taguchi, Michio Matsuura
  • Patent number: 7352658
    Abstract: A magnetic recording medium comprises a first magnetic film and a second magnetic film on a substrate. The second magnetic film is composed of a magnetic material preferred for recording and reproduction, and the first magnetic film is composed of a ferrimagnetic material excellent in thermal stability. Information is recorded in the second magnetic film by using a magnetic head. The first magnetic film is heated by being irradiated with a laser beam to lower coercivity, and the information in the second magnetic film is magnetically transferred to the first magnetic film. The recorded information is stabilized, because the first magnetic film is excellent in thermal stability. The magnetic recording medium is highly resistant to thermal fluctuation, and it has high reliability. A magnetic domain of about 0.1 ?m, formed by magnetic recording at a super high density of 50 Gb/inch2, is successfully and stably allowed to exist.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 7, 2001
    Date of Patent: April 1, 2008
    Assignee: Hitachi Maxell, Ltd.
    Inventors: Katsusuke Shimazaki, Norio Ohta, Fumiyoshi Kirino
  • Patent number: 7352680
    Abstract: An optical information recording medium including a substrate, a light absorbing layer which is located overlying the substrate and in which marks are formed to store information and a light reflection layer located overlying the light absorbing layer including a crystal, wherein the optical information recording medium satisfies the relationship, Lt/4 ?Lc? Lm, wherein Lc represents the average particle diameter of the crystal of the light reflection layer, Lm represents the minimum length of the marks, and Lt represents the thickness of the light reflection layer.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 6, 2006
    Date of Patent: April 1, 2008
    Assignee: Ricoh Company, Ltd.
    Inventors: Katsuyuki Yamada, Shinya Narumi
  • Patent number: 7349302
    Abstract: For protecting the recording from shifting in the position, by conducting sync detection, correctly, from land pre pits, in an optical type recording disc, even if sync pattern errors, in more detail, synchronization is conducted on a recording circuit, with certainty, even if an even sync pattern erroneously changes into an odd sync pattern. When the even sync pattern is detected from an odd sync pattern detection window, a sync lock flag is turned into a condition of unlock. When the sync lock flag continues a lock condition for 16 sectors, the synchronization is carried out on a detection cycle counter and a recording cycle counter.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 15, 2003
    Date of Patent: March 25, 2008
    Assignees: Hitachi, Ltd., Hitachi-LG Data Storage, Inc.
    Inventors: Yutaka Nagai, Takehiko Sekine
  • Patent number: 7349324
    Abstract: An information recording medium is at least composed of a substrate having a microscopic pattern constituted by a continuous substrate of grooves formed with a groove portion and a land portion alternately, a recording layer formed on the microscopic pattern for recording information, and a light transmitting layer formed on the recording layer. The microscopic pattern is formed with satisfying a relation of P??/NA, wherein P is a pitch of the land portion or the groove portion, ? is a wavelength of reproducing light for reproducing the recording layer, and NA is a numerical aperture of an objective lens. The land portion is formed with wobbling so as to be parallel with each other for both sidewalls of the land portion. An auxiliary information based on data used supplementally when recording the information and a reference clock based on a clock used for controlling a recording speed when recording the information is recorded alternately.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 5, 2007
    Date of Patent: March 25, 2008
    Assignee: Victor Company of Japan, Limited
    Inventors: Tetsuya Kondo, Kenji Oishi
  • Patent number: 7340749
    Abstract: A media-detection system for a cartridge-receiving device may comprise, according to one embodiment, a cartridge-referencing member mounted to the cartridge-receiving device. The cartridge-referencing member is resiliently displaceable by a data cartridge received in the cartridge-receiving device. A sensor is operatively associated with the cartridge-referencing member. The sensor detecting the data cartridge in the cartridge-receiving device based on the displacement of the cartridge-referencing member.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 3, 2002
    Date of Patent: March 4, 2008
    Assignee: Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P.
    Inventors: Leslie G. Christie, Jr., Paul Clinton Coffin, Robert L. Mueller
  • Patent number: 7336595
    Abstract: An information recording medium is at least composed of a substrate having a microscopic pattern constituted by a continuous substrate of grooves formed with a groove portion and a land portion alternately, a recording layer formed on the microscopic pattern for recording information, and a light transmitting layer formed on the recording layer. The microscopic pattern is formed with satisfying a relation of P??/NA, wherein P is a pitch of the land portion or the groove portion, ? is a wavelength of reproducing light for reproducing the recording layer, and NA is a numerical aperture of an objective lens. The land portion is formed with wobbling so as to be parallel with each other for both sidewalls of the land portion. An auxiliary information based on data used supplementally when recording the information and a reference clock based on a clock used for controlling a recording speed when recording the information is recorded alternately.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 5, 2007
    Date of Patent: February 26, 2008
    Assignee: Victor Company of Japan, Ltd.
    Inventors: Tetsuya Kondo, Kenji Oishi
  • Patent number: 7333402
    Abstract: A suspension supporting a magnetic head is formed by a member different in material from gimbals. As a result, the characteristic of the gimbals minimizing electric power loss in supplying current while sufficiently elastically holding the magnetic head can be compatible with the characteristic of suspension suppressing variation and impact from the outside or rotational displacement although both characteristics are different from each other. This allows the displacement of the magnetic head caused by the vibration and the impact from the outside or the horizontal displacement associated with the vertical displacement of a recording medium to be decreased, so that inductance of the magnetic head can be decreased and recording speed can be improved.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 21, 2004
    Date of Patent: February 19, 2008
    Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Kazuyoshi Ishii, Kazunori Suzuki
  • Patent number: 7330422
    Abstract: A read-only information storage medium includes: a data area which stores user data; a lead-in area; and a lead-out area. A pattern for achieving a purpose is formed in at least one of the lead-in area and the lead-out area.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 6, 2003
    Date of Patent: February 12, 2008
    Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Kyung-geun Lee, Jae-seong Shim, Jung-wan Ko, In-sik Park, Myong-do Ro, Jin-han Kim, Chang-min Park, In-oh Hwang
  • Patent number: 7327641
    Abstract: Management information is read from an information storage medium having the management information recorded thereon, the management information including track number information imparted to at least one track and group management information for managing as selective recording information one or a plurality of tracks as one group. Judgment is then made upon whether the group management information is included in that management information. A display mode is changed depending on a case where the group management information is recorded and a case where it is not recorded, and it is then displayed in a displaying device.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 10, 2004
    Date of Patent: February 5, 2008
    Assignee: Pioneer Corporation
    Inventors: Takayuki Iijima, Hiroshi Kobayashi, Katsuaki Yamanoi, Shinichiro Abe, Tomoyasu Yamada
  • Patent number: 7327640
    Abstract: When the user designates the reproduction of searching audio data, the designated searching audio data and audio volume data are read from a searching data recording portion. The searching audio data is reproduced corresponding to the audio volume data. When the user designates the reproduction of main audio data, the audio data is read from a disc and reproduced. In addition, the number-of-reproduction-times data corresponding to the number of times the audio data has been reproduced, audio volume data, audio quality data, and time period data for the designated main audio data are updated in the searching data storing portion. The searching audio data corresponding to the designated main audio data is read from the disc in accordance with the audio quality data and the time period data and recorded to the searching data storing portion.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 11, 2001
    Date of Patent: February 5, 2008
    Assignee: Sony Corporation
    Inventors: Akira Tange, Yoichiro Sako, Tomihiro Nakagawa, Shunsuke Furukawa, Junichi Kudo, Kaoru Kijima, Yoshimasa Utsumi, Mitsuru Toriyama, Tatsuya Inokuchi, Kazuko Sakurai
  • Patent number: 7324294
    Abstract: A magnetic recording disk drive has a patterned magnetic recording disk with data blocks of magnetizable material separated by nonmagnetic regions, a read head for reading the magnetized data blocks and generating a readback signal, and a timing circuitry that generates from the readback signal a series of timing pulses. When the read head is over a nonmagnetic region the readback signal is significantly reduced, and this signal reduction is detectable to determine the position of the nonmagnetic regions. The timing circuitry includes a rectifier that rectifies the readback signal, a highpass filter that filters the rectified signal at the frequency of the data blocks, and a peak detector that detects the peaks of the filtered signal and generates a series of timing pulses, each pulse representing a nonmagnetic region.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 29, 2004
    Date of Patent: January 29, 2008
    Assignee: Hitachi Global Storage Technologies Netherlands B.V.
    Inventor: Andreas Moser
  • Patent number: 7321544
    Abstract: The present invention is intended to provide an information recording medium in which ID regions (identification regions) have a high recording density. The information recording medium according to the present invention has identification regions where identification information is recorded by means of protrusions and recesses provided on edges of the information storage stripe along the width of the information storage stripe.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 24, 2003
    Date of Patent: January 22, 2008
    Assignee: Fujitsu Limited
    Inventor: Satoshi Yamashita
  • Patent number: 7317665
    Abstract: Information recording equipment of the present invention includes a multiplexer to generate n pieces of synchronous high-speed pulses. Instead of a normal m:1 multiplexer configuration for parallel-serial conversion, an m:n multiplexer configuration is used which generates m pieces of output signals from n pieces of input signals. The recording equipment including the m:n multiplexer enables high-resolution and high-speed pulse generation and carries out multipulse and multilevel signal generation.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 9, 2004
    Date of Patent: January 8, 2008
    Assignees: Hitachi, Ltd., Hitachi-LG Data Storage, Inc.
    Inventors: Koichi Watanabe, Hiroyuki Minemura
  • Patent number: 7313055
    Abstract: Provided is a magneto-optical recording medium capable of accurately reproducing a signal of a recording density exceeding a resolution of an optical system without making a constitution thereof complicated. The magnetic domain wall displacement type magneto-optical recording medium, comprises: a magnetic domain wall displacement layer in which a magnetic domain wall moves to contribute to information reproduction; a memory layer holding a recorded magnetic domain corresponding to the information; and a switching layer which is arranged between the magnetic domain wall displacement layer and the memory layer and has a Curie temperature lower than Curie temperatures of the magnetic domain wall displacement layer and the memory layer.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 2, 2003
    Date of Patent: December 25, 2007
    Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventor: Tomoyuki Hiroki
  • Patent number: 7308533
    Abstract: In an additional writing format optical disk library unit or the like, the processing for automatically reorganizing a volume is carried out effectively so as to intend to reuse media. Whether the number of residual blank media surfaces in a volume is small is judged. If the number is small, media surfaces each having a low data valid rate are extracted from the volume. Valid data on the extracted media surfaces is written and added to a medium surface which is currently set as a writing target, so that data relocation is carried out. Media surfaces occupied only by invalid areas are deregistered from the volume. Further, the media surfaces deregistered from the volume are formatted. The formatted media surfaces are re-registered into the volume.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 20, 2002
    Date of Patent: December 11, 2007
    Assignee: Hitachi Software Engineering Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Kenichi Tezuka, Junichi Takahashi, Takuya Mizokami
  • Patent number: 7301855
    Abstract: An optical disk apparatus records new information related to the ROM information into RAM at a position linked with the ROM information of an optical information storage medium while continuously regenerating the ROM information of the optical information storage medium. At least the ROM signals are read at n (n>2) times of the information regeneration velocity V, which is a reference, and stored in a buffer memory for reading, then the stored information is output at a velocity of the information regeneration velocity V. And while the stored information is being output from the buffer memory for reading, the input information is stored in the buffer memory for writing, then the optical head is accessed an address position that is managed so that the time relationship of the output information and the input information link for recording.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 6, 2004
    Date of Patent: November 27, 2007
    Assignee: Fujitsu Limited
    Inventors: Nobuhide Aoyama, Yasuaki Morimoto