JP2005092935A - Image recording method, optical disk device, program, and information recording medium - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To enable a user to write in a title and contents to a disk, without using a pen and a printer. <P>SOLUTION: The optical disk device for recording data on grooves is provided with a system controller 33 for controlling to form a visual image on a data recording plane by focusing on lands between the grooves and tracking them, and irradiating them with modulated power according to the characters and image data. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2005,JPO&NCIPI

Description

  The present invention relates to an image recording method and an optical disc apparatus, and more particularly to a technique for drawing characters and figures on a data recording surface of an optical disc not enclosed in a cartridge.

CD-Rs typified by write-once optical discs are rapidly spreading along with lower prices for drives and media. Since the CD-R can be reproduced by a CD-ROM drive that is now standardly installed in a PC, it is very convenient for moving data that cannot fit in a floppy (registered trademark) disk. In addition, using a CD-R makes it possible to create an original music CD, so it looks attractive to music lovers. Therefore, the demand for CD-R is rising, and it is not uncommon to own hundreds of CD-Rs alone. In addition, recent CD-R drives have a high writing speed and can burn a large amount of CD-Rs in a short time.
Various methods for forming a visible image on the data recording surface of an optical disc have been proposed. For example, the techniques disclosed in Patent Documents 1 and 2 form a visible image outside the data recording area, and although the image formation does not cause a deterioration in the quality of the recorded data, the area of the image area depends on the data capacity, and the image area It may also occur when it cannot be secured.
The technique disclosed in Patent Document 3 forms a visible image by changing the shape of the groove, and does not create an image at the time of data recording.
In addition, the technique disclosed in Patent Document 4 is to double-write image data in the data area, and there is a problem that the quality of the recorded data is degraded.
Further, the technique disclosed in Patent Document 5 forms a visible image by changing the shape of a recording pit of data, and this also causes a problem of deterioration in the quality of recorded data.
JP 2002-367173 A JP 2003-051118 A Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 11-213455 JP-A-9-306144 JP-A-6-036514

The stamp CD is printed on the label surface, so that the disc can be easily discriminated and the recorded contents can be easily discriminated. However, since the user writes data on the CD-R, the label side is plain or the brand design is printed, and if the data is just written, disc discriminating and judgment of recorded contents are not possible. Impossible. Therefore, the user usually writes the disc title on the CD-R after writing the data. The most common and simple method is handwriting with an oil-based pen. However, it has the disadvantages that an oil-based pen is necessary or that it looks bad because of handwriting.
In addition, there are a method of printing and sticking on a CD-R dedicated label, and a method of printing directly on a printable CD-R with a dedicated printer. According to these methods, a full color clean label can be created. However, the former is not easy and inexpensive because the cost of the label is high and trouble due to peeling occurs, and the latter is expensive printable media and requires an expensive dedicated printer.

By the way, CD-R records data by deforming the recording film and the substrate with a strong laser beam to form pits. The recorded data is read out by a change in reflected light that is returned by applying a weak laser beam. The change in reflected light reacts strongly with the wavelength of the laser beam, but the reflectance in visible light also changes due to the pits, so the color changes between the recorded part and the unrecorded part. Looks.
That is, if a character or mark having a specific meaning is formed by reflected light from a pit with a track as a scanning line, the character or mark becomes visible. Therefore, techniques for forming a visible image outside the data recording area are disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open Nos. 2002-367173 and 2003-051118. However, when the capacity of the recording data is large, there is a problem that an area where an image can be recorded becomes small or an image cannot be recorded on a recordable disc.
Further, a technique for forming a visible image by changing the pit shape of recorded data is disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 6-036514 described above. However, since the pit shape is directly related to the recording quality, it is inevitable that the recording quality deteriorates if the pit shape is changed. In addition, data recording and image recording must be performed at the same time, and data processing becomes complicated, and images cannot be formed on a disk on which data has already been recorded.
The present invention has been made in consideration of the above-described circumstances, and an object of the present invention is to provide a technique that allows a user to enter a title and contents on a disc without using a pen or a printer.

In order to achieve the above object, the invention described in claim 1 is an image recording method for recording an image on a recordable optical disc in which a groove for guiding laser light is previously formed. An image recording method for forming a visible image on the data recording surface by irradiating laser light between the data tracks before recording and changing the visible light reflectance of the portion between the data tracks is the main feature.
According to the second aspect of the present invention, in the optical disk apparatus for recording data on the groove, the land between the grooves is focused and tracked, and the power modulated according to the character and image data is irradiated to the data recording surface. An optical disc apparatus including a system controller that performs control to form a visible image is the main feature.
According to a third aspect of the present invention, in the optical disk apparatus according to the second aspect, the system controller mainly includes an optical disk apparatus that performs control to start image recording after performing write power calibration in the same manner as data recording. Features.
According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, there is provided an optical disc apparatus according to the second or third aspect, wherein the system controller is a main part of the optical disc apparatus that performs control to move to the target position by groove tracking and then shift to land tracking to start image recording. Features.
The invention according to claim 5 is characterized in that the program for causing the system controller to perform the control according to claim 2 is the main feature.
The invention described in claim 6 is characterized in that a computer-readable information recording medium on which the program described in claim 5 is recorded is the main feature.

  According to the present invention, an image can be formed on the entire surface regardless of the data capacity. In addition, the disc title and disc content can be recorded visually without requiring the user to use a pen or printer. In addition, stable image recording is possible. Moreover, an image can be recorded at an arbitrary place.

Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.
FIG. 1 is a basic structure diagram of the CD-R (enlarged cross-sectional view of the main part). The optical disc 1 has a structure in which a recording layer 3, a reflective layer 4, and a protective layer 5 are laminated on a substrate 2. The substrate 2 is made of a polycarbonate material and has grooves 6 called grooves. Although this groove 6 is for guiding the laser beam, it is meandering slightly, and ATIP information including address and disk information is FM-modulated and recorded.
The recording layer 3 is made of an organic dye material, and when irradiated with a strong laser beam, the recording layer 3 is altered and pits are formed. The reflective layer 4 is made of a metal film such as gold or silver, and has a role of reflecting the laser light transmitted through the substrate 2 and the recording layer 3. The protective layer 5 has a role of preventing the reflection layer 4 from being oxidized and protecting the reflection layer 4 and the recording layer 3 from external damage. Data recording is performed by tracking the laser beam in the groove 6 and irradiating with strong laser beam according to the recording data.
The recording layer 3 that has received strong laser light rises in temperature and the organic dye material changes in quality and also affects the substrate 2 to change its shape. This becomes a pit. When this pit is irradiated with laser light, phase interference, diffusion, etc. occur and the amount of reflected light decreases, so that the recorded data can be read out as a signal.
Many kinds of organic dye materials for the recording layer 3 have been developed, but can be roughly divided into three types: azo, cyanine, and phthalocyanine. All have similar characteristics to light at 780 nm, which is the laser wavelength of the CD, but they have large absorption characteristics for visible light and vary greatly depending on the added material, but the unrecorded surface is visually observed. The azo group appears deep blue, the cyanine group appears blue-green, and the phthalocyanine group appears transparent.
Irradiation with intense laser light alters the organic dye material and changes the visible light characteristics, so that changes in color and contrast can be seen in the recorded and unrecorded areas. Therefore, a visible image can be formed by irradiating the unrecorded portion of the optical disc 1 with a strong laser beam according to the image data as in the case of data recording.

The laser beam is accurately positioned in the groove 6 by the tracking servo based on the tracking error signal (TE signal). There are various TE signal detection methods, but when the laser beam or the optical disc 1 in FIG. 1 is moved left and right with the focus servo applied, a TE signal as shown in FIG. 1 is obtained. When the tracking servo is turned on, the objective lens 7 is controlled so that the signal is stabilized at the white circle point of the TE signal, and as a result, the laser beam can be positioned in the groove 6.
Here, when the TE signal is inverted, a waveform whose phase is shifted by 180 degrees with respect to the TE signal is obtained like the inverted TE signal of FIG. When the tracking servo is turned on based on this signal, the objective lens 7 is controlled so that the signal is stabilized at the white circle point of the inverted TE signal, and as a result, the laser beam can be positioned on the land 8. That is, the positioning of the laser beam on the land 8 can be easily performed by inverting the TE signal.
2A and 2B are diagrams showing an image recording state on the optical disc. FIG. 2A is an overall view of the optical disc, and FIG. There is a data recorded area 10 inside the optical disc 1 and a data unrecorded area 11 outside. Data is recorded in the groove 6, and the data pits 12 are indicated by white circles here.
In order to form an image 13 in the data recorded area 10, an image pit 14 is written in the land 8. An aggregate of the image pits 14 is an image 13. The situation is shown in FIG. 2, and it is impossible to visually check if the image 13 is this size. In practice, the image 13 is formed in a size that can be visually observed. The image 13 can be formed in the data unrecorded area 11, and data can be recorded after the image 13 is formed.

FIG. 3 is a functional block diagram of the optical disc apparatus according to the embodiment of the present invention. Arrows indicate typical signals and data flows, and do not represent all the connection relationships of each block. Hereinafter, the configuration will be described together with the operation.
The optical disk 1 is driven to rotate by a spindle motor 21. The spindle motor 21 is controlled by a motor driver and servo means so that the linear velocity is constant or the angular velocity is constant. This linear velocity or angular velocity can be changed in stages.
The optical pickup 22 includes a semiconductor laser, an optical system, a focus actuator, a track actuator, a light receiving element, and a position sensor, which are not shown in FIG. 3, irradiates the optical disk 1 with laser light, and records data on the optical disk 1 And a unit for reading data. The optical pickup can be moved by a seek motor.
These focus actuator, track actuator, and seek motor are controlled so that the laser spot is positioned at the target location by a motor driver and servo processing based on signals obtained from the light receiving element and the position sensor.
In the case of reading, the reproduction signal obtained by the optical pickup 22 is amplified and binarized by the read amplifier 23 and then input to the CD decoder 24 to undergo deinterleaving and error correction processing. Subsequently, this data is input to the CD-ROM decoder 25 and subjected to error correction processing in order to further improve the reliability of the data. Thereafter, this data is temporarily stored in the buffer memory 27 by the memory manager 26, and sent to a host (not shown) at once through the host interface 28 when it is arranged as sector data.
In the case of writing, data sent from the host through the host interface 28 is temporarily stored in the buffer memory 27 by the memory manager 26. Writing is started when some data is stored in the buffer memory 27, but before that, the laser spot must be positioned at the writing start point.
This point is obtained by a wobble signal preliminarily carved on the optical disc 1 by meandering tracks. The wobble signal includes absolute time information called ATIP, and this information can be extracted by the ATIP decoder 29. The synchronization signal generated by the ATIP decoder 29 is input to the CD encoder 30 so that data can be written at an accurate position.
The data in the buffer memory 27 is subjected to error correction code addition and interleaving by the CD-ROM encoder 31 and the CD encoder 30, and is output as a signal modulated from the CD encoder 30 to the recording EFM. Recording is performed on the optical disc 1 by a laser beam controlled by the optical pickup 22. The LD control unit 32 constantly controls the light emission state so that a laser beam is emitted at a write power according to the recording EFM, and appropriate recording and reproduction can be performed.

Next, image recording will be described. The image data sent from the host is temporarily stored in the buffer memory 27 through the host interface 28 and the memory manager 26. Recording is started when image data has been received or when a certain amount of image data has been received. If image data has not been received, reception of image data is continued during recording.
The system controller 33 activates the spindle motor 21 and the image encoder 34 to move the optical pickup 22 to the home position. The spindle motor 21 rotates at a constant angular velocity in accordance with a reference signal output from the image encoder 34. The spindle controller 35 compares the reference signal output from the image encoder 34 with the FG signal output from the spindle motor 21 and performs accurate rotation control in synchronization with the image data.
The image data is converted into a pit signal by the image encoder 34, and the FG signal of the spindle motor 21 is used to synchronize the start position of the data for one line of the image so that it always has the same rotation angle. 32. Since this synchronization performance greatly affects the image quality, it is better to increase the number of FG pulses or to provide a dedicated index pulse circuit.
In addition, the specification of the image data may be about half a circle instead of one line. The LD control unit 32 irradiates or stops the write power to the optical disc 1 according to the pit signal. Here, writing by CAV is shown, but writing by CLV is also possible. The write power may be modulated by data output from the CD encoder 30. Reference numeral 36 denotes a track focus control unit, and 37 denotes a TE inversion unit.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart for performing power calibration for image recording. This flow shows processing executed by the system controller 33 in accordance with a program (not shown) in the system controller 33 (the same applies to the flow of FIG. 5 described later).
When image recording is started by an instruction from the host (S1), first, the optical pickup 22 is moved to the inner peripheral PCA area (S2). Then, the place where the power calibration test is performed is determined according to how far the count area is recorded (S3). Then, recording is performed by changing the power at the test place (S4).
Then, recording is performed in the count area corresponding to the test place (S5). Then, the recording level of the test place is read (S6), and the image write power is determined (S7). Then, the image recording process described in FIG. 3 is performed (S8). The power calibration here may be simple if power calibration at the time of data recording is used.
FIG. 5 is a flowchart for starting image recording from an arbitrary location on the optical disk. In the description of FIG. 3, the image recording is started from the home position of the optical pickup 22, but the image recording is started from the radial position designated by the instruction from the host (S1). First, the groove is tracked (S2), and the current address is acquired from ATIP or SubQ (S3).
The optical pickup 22 is moved to the target address corresponding to the designated position from the host (S4), and the current address is acquired again from ATIP or SubQ (S5). When the target address is reached (S6), the TE signal is inverted and switched to land tracking (S7). Then, an image recording process is performed (S8). When the recording is completed, the TE signal is returned to the groove tracking (S9).

The basic structure figure of CD-R. It is a figure which shows the image recording state to an optical disk, (1) is a general view of an optical disk, (2) is the principal part enlarged view. 1 is a functional block diagram of an optical disc apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention. The flowchart which performs power calibration for image recording. The flowchart for starting image recording from the arbitrary places of an optical disk.

Explanation of symbols

1 Optical disc 33 System controller

Claims (6)

  In an image recording method for recording an image on a recordable optical disk in which a groove for guiding laser light is formed in advance, a laser light is irradiated between data tracks after data recording or before recording, and a portion between data tracks A visible image is formed on the data recording surface by changing the visible light reflectance of the image recording method.   In an optical disk apparatus that records data on a groove, control is performed to form a visible image on a data recording surface by focusing and tracking lands between grooves and irradiating power modulated according to character and image data. An optical disc apparatus comprising a system controller.   3. The optical disk apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the system controller performs control to start image recording after performing write power calibration in the same manner as data recording.   4. The optical disk apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the system controller performs control to move to the target position by groove tracking and then shift to land tracking to start image recording.   The program which makes a system controller perform control of Claim 2.   A computer-readable information recording medium on which the program according to claim 5 is recorded.

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