JPH0536069A - Optical card information reproducer - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To provide a compact optical card information reproducer at a low cost. CONSTITUTION:An optical head 24 is equipped with a light detector 24-5 constituted of a CCD line sensor, and arranged in a device just behind an optical card insertion port 21. The loading of an optical card holding stand 22 holding an optical card 1 in the device is operated by a loading mechanism 23, and simultaneously the information of the corresponding parts of the entire information tracks of the optical card 1 whose loading is operated on the optical head 24 is successively reproduced by the optical head 24. Therefore, the entire information of the entire information tracks on the optical card 1 can be reproduced by the optical head 24 by scanning the optical card once.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an optical card information reproducing apparatus for optically reproducing information from an optical card.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art An optical card is a recording medium having a large capacity and portability, and is expected to be popularized in various fields. In order to popularize the optical card widely, not only the optical card but also its reproducing device has an important role.

As a conventional optical card information reproducing apparatus, there is one as shown in FIG. 5, for example. FIG. 5 is a schematic perspective view of an essential part showing an example of a conventional optical card information reproducing apparatus. In the figure, an optical card insertion slot 2 provided with an optical card on the front side
, The optical card 1 is mounted on the card holder 4 by the card loading mechanism 3 including the card loading motor 3-1, the card loading roller 3-2, and the like. The card holder 4 holds the optical card 1,
A card scanning mechanism 5 including a card scanning motor 5-1 and a card scanning belt 5-2 reciprocally scans in a direction parallel to the information track of the optical card 1. The optical head 6 reproduces information by accessing a desired track position by a head drive mechanism 7 including a head drive motor 7-1 and a head drive lead screw 7-2.

As shown in FIG. 2, the optical card 1 has a plurality of information tracks 12 recorded in its longitudinal direction in an information recording area 11. An information pit 13 is formed on the information track 12. The above is the method of scanning the optical card in the direction parallel to the information track and reproducing the information by the optical head (Fig. 5). In addition, the method of rotating the optical card to reproduce the information and the optical card There is also proposed a method in which the optical head is fixed and the information is reproduced by scanning the optical head.

[0005]

However, in the above-mentioned conventional optical card information reproducing apparatus, a method of reproducing information by the optical head 6 by scanning the optical card 1 in the direction parallel to the information track 12 (see FIG. In the case of 5), a space twice as large as the information recording area 11 of the optical card 1 is required to scan the optical card 1 to reproduce information.
There is a problem that it is difficult to miniaturize the optical card information reproducing device. Further, a method of rotating the optical card to reproduce information, a method of fixing the optical card and scanning the optical head to reproduce information, and the like have been proposed in order to reduce the size of the device. These proposed methods also require a separate drive mechanism in addition to the optical card loading mechanism, which makes it difficult to reduce the cost of the optical card information reproducing apparatus.

An object of the present invention is to provide a small-sized and low-cost optical card information reproducing apparatus in view of the above conventional problems.

[0007]

The optical card information reproducing apparatus of the present invention is an optical card information reproducing apparatus for optically reproducing information from an optical card, wherein the optical card is arranged along a direction parallel to the track direction of the optical card. It has a loading mechanism to be inserted into this device and a photodetector having, for example, a CCD line sensor or a photodiode array and having a cell number equal to or larger than the number of tracks of the optical card, and Immediately after this, an optical head arranged to reproduce the corresponding information of all tracks of the optical card at the same time as loading the optical card into the apparatus by the loading mechanism is provided.

[0008]

In the optical card information reproducing apparatus having the above construction, the loading mechanism inserts the optical card into the apparatus through the optical card insertion slot along the direction parallel to the track direction. On the other hand, the optical head reproduces corresponding information of all tracks of the optical card at the same time when the loading mechanism loads the optical card into the apparatus. As a result, there is no need for a space for scanning the optical card in the apparatus as in the conventional case, and the optical card information reproducing apparatus can be significantly downsized. Further, since no drive mechanism other than the loading mechanism for the optical card is required, the cost of the device can be significantly reduced. Further, by scanning the optical card once, all the information on the optical card can be reproduced by the optical head, so that the speed required for reproducing the information can be greatly improved.

[0009]

1 is an explanatory view showing an embodiment of an optical card information reproducing apparatus according to the present invention. In the figure, the optical card is constructed as shown in FIG. Reference numeral 21 is an optical card insertion opening provided on the front surface of the device. When a predetermined push button is pressed, the loading mechanism 23 including a loading motor 23-1, a loading roller 23-2, etc. is driven, and the optical card holding table 22 comes out from the optical card insertion slot 21. ing. When the optical card 1 is placed and held on the optical card holding base 22, the optical card holding base 22 is loaded to a predetermined position in the apparatus by driving the loading mechanism 23. Further, reference numeral 24 is an optical head arranged in the apparatus immediately after the optical card insertion slot 21. The optical head 24 is adapted to reproduce the corresponding information of all tracks of the optical card 1 moving on the optical head 24 by loading the optical card holder 22 into the apparatus.

FIG. 3 is a simplified explanatory view showing an embodiment of the optical head 24 shown in FIG. In the figure, the optical head 24
As shown in FIG. 3, a light source 24-1, a lens 24-3 for condensing the illumination light 24-2 from the light source 24-1 on the optical card 1, and a photodetector 24-comprising a CCD line sensor. 5, and a lens 24-6 for condensing the reflected light 24-4 from the optical card 1 on the photodetector 24-5. The CCD line sensor that constitutes the photodetector 24-5 is composed of the same number of cells as the number of information tracks 12 of the optical card 1 here, and the magnification at which an image is formed on the photodetector 24-5. By selecting an appropriate value, the CCD line sensor 1
The two cells correspond.

The operation of the above-described structure will be described below. When a predetermined push button is pressed, the optical card holding base 22 is driven by the loading mechanism 23 in the direction of the arrow 25a, and comes out from the optical card insertion port 21 as shown by a chain double-dashed line. The optical card 1 is placed and held on the optical card holder 22. Then, the optical card holding table 22 holds the optical card 1 and holds the information track 12 of the optical card 1.
It is driven in the direction of arrow 25b by the loading mechanism 23 along a direction parallel to and is drawn into a predetermined position in the apparatus. Therefore, the optical card 1 is loaded and inserted into the apparatus along the direction parallel to the information track 12 of the optical card 1 while being held by the optical card holding table 22. At the same time that the loading mechanism 23 loads the optical card holder 22 and thus the optical card 1 as described above, the optical head 24 loads information on all the corresponding information tracks 12 on the optical card 1 being loaded on the optical head 24. Are played in sequence. In this case, the light condensed on the optical card 1 by the optical head 24 is the entire information track 12 as shown by the hatched portion (illumination light spot) 26 in FIG.
It is irradiated over. Then, one information track 12 of the optical card 1 is a CC which constitutes the photodetector 24-5.
Since it corresponds to one cell of the D line sensor, all the information on all the information tracks 12 on the optical card 1 is detected by scanning the optical card 1 once.

As can be seen from the above description, in the present invention, the optical head 24 provided with the photodetector 24-5 capable of reproducing the information recorded on the optical card 1 by one scanning is used for the optical card information. An optical card holder 22 on which the optical card 1 is mounted is provided in the device immediately after the optical card insertion slot 21 of the reproducing device.
Is loaded by the loading mechanism 23, that is, the optical card 1 is loaded, and at the same time, the optical head 24
Reproduces information on all information tracks 12 on the optical card 1. As a result, there is no need for a space for scanning the optical card 1 in the apparatus as in the conventional case, and the optical card information reproducing apparatus can be significantly downsized. Further, since no drive mechanism other than the loading mechanism 23 of the optical card 1 is required, the cost of the device can be significantly reduced. Furthermore,
By scanning the optical card 1 once, all the information on all the information tracks 12 of the optical card 1 can be reproduced by the optical head 24, so that the speed (time) required for reproducing the information of the optical card 1 is also significantly improved. To do.

In the present embodiment, the CCD line sensor constituting the photodetector 24-5 is composed of the same number of cells as the number of information tracks 12 of the optical card 1, but in the present invention, this is not the case. Without being limited to this, the CCD line sensor forming the photodetector 24-5 may be composed of a larger number of cells than the number of information tracks 12 of the optical card 1. In this case, one information track 12 of the optical card 1 corresponds to two or more cells of the CCD line sensor.

The present invention is not limited to this embodiment, and various applications and modifications are conceivable without departing from the gist of the present invention. For example, in this embodiment, the photodetector 2
Although 4-5 is composed of CCD line sensor,
The present invention is not limited to this, the photodetector 24-5
May be similarly configured by using a photodiode array.

[0015]

As described above, according to the present invention, the following effects can be obtained. (1) An optical head equipped with a photodetector capable of reproducing information recorded on an optical card by one-time scanning is provided in the apparatus immediately after the optical card insertion slot of the present optical card information reproducing apparatus, and a loading mechanism is provided. Since all the information on all the information tracks on the optical card is reproduced by the optical head at the same time when the optical card is loaded, the space for scanning the optical card in the device as in the conventional device is not required, and the optical card information A drastic downsizing of the playback device can be realized. (2) Since the driving mechanism other than the loading mechanism for the optical card is not required due to the above (1), the cost of the device can be significantly reduced. (3) By scanning the optical card once according to the above (1), all the information of the optical card can be reproduced by the optical head, so that the speed (time) required for reproducing the information is significantly improved compared with the conventional one. Can be made.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is an explanatory diagram showing an embodiment of an optical card information reproducing device according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a partially enlarged plan view showing an embodiment of the optical card 1.

FIG. 3 is a simplified explanatory diagram showing an embodiment of the optical head 24 of FIG.

FIG. 4 is a plan view showing an illumination light spot imaged on the optical card of FIG.

FIG. 5 is a simplified perspective view of an essential part showing an example of a conventional optical card information reproducing apparatus.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 optical card 11 Information recording area 12 Information Track 13 information pits 21 Optical card slot 23 Loading mechanism 24 optical head 24-5 Photodetector 26 Illumination spot

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. An optical card information reproducing apparatus for optically reproducing information from an optical card, wherein a loading mechanism for inserting the optical card into the apparatus along a direction parallel to the track direction, and a track of the optical card. A photodetector having a number of cells equal to or greater than the number of cells, and in the device immediately after the optical card insertion slot, at the same time as loading the optical card into the device by the loading mechanism, An optical card information reproducing apparatus comprising: an optical head arranged to reproduce corresponding information of all tracks. 2. The optical card information reproducing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein a CCD line sensor is used as the photodetector. 3. The optical card information reproducing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein a photodiode array is used as the photodetector.