Title: Scalable and portable disc player for various optical disc sizes
Abstract: A scalable and portable disc player or recorder for containing and transferring audio, video or computer data to and from an optical disc of various sizes. The casing of the disc player provides a case scaling mechanism having a set of pivotal wings and slidable sleeves that can be adjusted to accommodate various optical disc sizes. This same process changes the structural size of the disc player casing.
Patent Number: 6,862,739 Issued on 03/01/2005 to Hunter, et al.
| Inventors:
|
Hunter; Charles L. (Loveland, CO);
Taugher; Lawrence N. (Loveland, CO)
|
| Assignee:
|
Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. (Houston, TX)
|
| Appl. No.:
|
698862 |
| Filed:
|
October 27, 2000 |
| Current U.S. Class: |
720/653 |
| Intern'l Class: |
G11B 017//04 |
| Field of Search: |
720/653,652,654,655,657
369/75.11,289.1,291.1,75.2,77.1,289,291,75.1
|
References Cited [Referenced By]
U.S. Patent Documents
| 4403317 | Sep., 1983 | Suzuki et al.
| |
| 5265083 | Nov., 1993 | Ishii et al. | 369/75.
|
| 5870367 | Feb., 1999 | Yamamori | 369/75.
|
| 6134206 | Oct., 2000 | Furukawa et al.
| |
| 6137759 | Oct., 2000 | Ogiro et al. | 369/75.
|
| 6169720 | Jan., 2001 | Kamemura et al. | 369/75.
|
| 6229779 | May., 2001 | Berry et al. | 369/75.
|
| 6385154 | May., 2002 | Kokubo et al. | 369/75.
|
| 6477128 | Nov., 2002 | Ma | 369/77.
|
| Foreign Patent Documents |
| 2000 187973 | Jul., 2000 | JP.
| |
| 2000 195246 | Jul., 2000 | JP.
| |
Primary Examiner: Castro; Angel
Claims
What is claimed:
1. A scalable optical disc player comprising:
a top and bottom cover, each cover having a pair of mounting posts adjacent
a back side of the player;
a top and bottom set of wings, each wing pivotally couples to the
respective mounting post and including a guide pin, wherein said top and
bottom set of wings expand away from respective sides of the player and
contract towards respective sides of the player; and
a top and bottom sleeve movably coupled between the respective cover and
pair of wings, each sleeve includes a pair of guide slots being positioned
to receive each respective guide pin of each wing, wherein the top and
bottom sleeves expand a front side of the player away from the back side
and contract the front side towards the back side.
2. The disc player of claim 1, further including a data transfer device
("DTD") attached to a surface of the bottom cover.
3. The disc player of claim 2, further including data connectors coupled
between an exterior surface of the bottom cover and the DTD for
transferring data from the disc to the connectors, via the DTD.
4. The disc player of claim 3, wherein the DTD can read and/or write data
to/from the disc.
5. The disc player of claim 1, wherein the top and bottom sleeves and set
of wings can expand or contract to accommodate optical discs of varying
sizes.
6. The disc player of claim 5, wherein the expansion and contraction of the
sleeves and set of wings increases or decreases the overall size of the
disc player.
7. The disc player of claim 1, wherein each wing of the top and bottom set
of wings further include a flange adjacent either the left or right side
of the disc player to protect the disc being contained within the disc
player.
8. The disc player of claim 1, wherein each sleeve of the top and bottom
sleeves further include a flange adjacent the front side of the disc
player to protect the disc being contained within the disc player.
9. The disc player of claim 1, wherein the top and bottom covers hingably
couple to provide the disc player with an open and closed position for
inserting, containing and removing the disc.
10. The disc player of claim 1, wherein a portion of the top cover is
translucent or transparent to allow any indicia on the disc to be visible
while being contained by the disc player.
11. The disc player of claim 1, wherein the top cover further include a
first wall of a first height adjacent the back side of the disc player,
and a second wall of a second height adjacent a side portion of the disc
player, the first height being greater then the second height.
12. A portable disc player having a casing for containing various disc
sizes, the casing comprising:
a top and bottom shell movably attached to allow the insertion and removal
of the disc within a cavity of the casing, wherein the top and a bottom
shell further include a first wall having a first height that extends
along a portion of the shell perimeter, wherein the top shell further
includes a second wall having a second height along a portion of the sides
of the disc player;
a data transfer device ("DTD") attached to the bottom shell for
transferring data; and
a mechanism for scaling the overall size of the player to accommodate disc
size, wherein the top and the bottom shell further includes two mounting
posts adjacent a back side, and the mechanism further includes:
a top and bottom sleeve movably coupled to an interior surface of the top
and bottom shell, respectively, each sleeve having two guide slots and a
flange along a front side of the casing;
a top and bottom pair of wings, each wing providing a guide pin and a
flange along either the left or right side of the casing,
wherein the shells hingeably couple together, each wing pivotally attaches
to the respective cover and movably couples to the respective shell by the
guide slot to accommodate the varying size discs being coupled to the DTD.
Description
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to an optical disc player and more
specifically to a portable disc player/recorder that provides a scalable
casing for containing various disc sizes.
2. Background of the Invention
Today, most electronic data, whether it is audio, video or computer, is
stored and transferred via an optical disc, such as a compact disc ("CD")
or a Digital Versatile Disc ("DVD"). With this growing use of the optical
disc, many portable disc players for reading these discs have been
developed.
In general, a portable disc player or recorder may be a peripheral
component of a laptop computer or a stand alone portable device that can
be carried in the palm of a user's hand. With either type, the player will
provide a casing for containing a data transfer device ("DTD") having
various conventional mechanisms that allow the player to read and/or write
data to and/or from the disc. At a minimum, the DTD will include a
conventional optical pickup unit ("OPU") having a sled motor, a spindle
motor, and an actuator or voice coil; and general electronics for
encoding, decoding and transferring the signal obtained from the optical
disc by the OPU to at least one input/output ("I/O") port. The I/O ports
are also conventional and may be used to couple the signal to anything
from a processor to a set of headphones. In some instances, the DTD may
also include a processor for translating the audio, video or computer
signal.
The casing of each optical disc player will also include a mechanism for
inserting the optical disc. One of the most common mechanisms of a laptop
for handling the insertion and removal of a CD and/or DVD utilizes a tray.
The tray is typically activated by the user and requires the operation of
various mechanical parts. Another mechanism allows the user to position
the CD and/or DVD into a slot in the front of the drive. With either of
these mechanisms, the positioned disc must be picked up at some point in
the insertion process and positioned on a motor spindle of the OPU for
subsequent reading and writing operations. When ejection of the CD is
desired, the same mechanism removes the CD from the motor spindle and
ejects it to some position that resides partially outside of the drive so
that the operator can grasp the disc.
Although some portable hand-held disc players may use the above mechanism
to insert and remove a disc, most stand alone disc players utilize the
casing. More specifically, the casing in most stand alone disc players,
such as a CD player, provides a top portion that is hinged to the bottom
portion. Therefore, by using a common latch system, the top portion of the
casing can be secured to the bottom portion to contain a disc, and opened
to remove or insert a disc. As with the laptop mechanisms, the disc would
be secured to the motor spindle of the OPU during the insertion process.
Other elements that are typically associated with a portable disc player
include a power source or plug, LEDs for displaying operational
conditions, at least one operational button and a central processing unit.
Obviously, the stand alone disc player may have numerous buttons to
accommodate the various operations of the player and may provide a LCD for
displaying the progress of the player while operating. Some of the buttons
could be used for operations selected from the group including play, stop,
skip, volume, forward, rewind, and pause. General directional arrows may
also be employed for menu options provided by a processing unit.
When the above portable disc players are designed to accommodate both 80
and 120 mm discs, the size of the casing is always larger then a 120 mm
disc. Consequently, when an 80 mm disc is positioned within a disc player
that can accommodate both 80 and 120 mm discs, the size of the disc player
will not change. Since a 120 mm CD or DVD provides nearly twice the
surface area as a 80 mm CD, a player that only accommodates an 80 mm disc
will have a much smaller casing and therefore will be much easier to carry
and stow. However, such a device can only be used for a 80 mm disc.
Although most audio, video and computer data is sold today on a 120 mm
disc, the future of optical disc technology is moving toward the much
smaller 80 mm disc. Therefore, it would be desirable to have a single
portable disc player that could be structurally scaled to accommodate a
representative size of the disc it accepts. The present invention is
directed to overcoming the above problems associated with conventional
disc drives.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
In general, the present invention provides a disc player, with optional
recording capabilities, that can accommodate various optical disc sizes.
The case for the disc player includes a top and bottom shell and a
scalable mechanism. The shells pivotally couple together and interact to
form a cavity for containing the disc. The scalable mechanism provides a
set of wings and sleeves that pivot and slide, respectively, while being
coupled to the top and bottom shells, to change the structural size of the
disc player. The disc player casing also includes an data transfer device
("DTD") that attaches to the bottom shell for transferring data from the
disc to a desired I/O port.
In one embodiment, the present invention provides a portable disc player
casing that includes a top and bottom shell movably attached to allow the
insertion and removal of the disc within a cavity of the casing; an data
transfer device ("DTD") attached to the bottom shell for obtaining and
transferring data; and a mechanism for accommodating the size of the disc
and changing the structural size of the player.
In still another embodiment, a process is provided for reading/writing data
to/from an optical disc. The process includes the steps of: opening a disc
player casing to expose a cavity and a data transfer device ("DTD");
adjusting the size of the casing to accommodate the size of the disc,
securing the disc to the DTD; closing the casing to contain the disc
within the cavity; and implementing the DTD to transfer data from the disc
to an I/O port, via the DTD.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
Other aspects and advantages of the invention will become apparent upon
reading the following detailed description and upon reference to the
drawings, in which:
FIG. 1 illustrates an isometric view of an optical disc player while
containing a 120 mm disc in accordance with the invention;
FIG. 2 illustrates an isometric view of the disc player of FIG. 1 while
containing a 80 mm CD;
FIG. 3 illustrates the disc player of FIG. 1 while containing a 120 mm
disc;
FIG. 4 illustrates the disc player of FIG. 2 while containing a 80 mm CD;
FIG. 5 illustrates an isometric view of the top shell of FIGS. 1-4;
FIG. 6 illustrates the disc player of FIG. 3 with the top shell removed;
FIG. 7 illustrates the disc player of FIG. 4 with the top shell removed;
and
FIG. 8 illustrates an isometric view of the optical pickup unit of FIGS.
1-4.
While the invention is susceptible to various modifications and alternative
forms, specific embodiments thereof have been shown by way of example in
the drawings and are herein described in detail. It should be understood,
however, that the description herein of specific embodiments is not
intended to limit the invention to the particular forms disclosed, but on
the contrary, the intention is to cover all modifications, equivalents,
and alternatives falling within the spirit and scope of the invention as
defined by the appended claims.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
Illustrative embodiments of the invention are described below. In the
interest of clarity, not all features of an actual implementation are
described in this specification. It will of course be appreciated that in
the development of any such actual embodiment, numerous
implementation-specific decisions must be made to achieve the developers'
specific goals, such as compliance with system-related and
business-related constraints, which will vary from one implementation to
another. Moreover, it will be appreciated that such a development effort
might be complex and time-consuming, but would nevertheless be a routine
undertaking for those of ordinary skill in the art having the benefit of
this disclosure.
Turning now to the drawings, FIGS. 1 and 2 illustrate the inventive optical
disc player 10 in an open position providing a first and second structural
configuration for containing a 120 mm CD or DVD 30 and a 80 mm CD 32,
respectively. The disc player 10 includes a top and bottom shell or cover
12 and 22, a top and bottom sleeve or tray 14 and 24, a top and bottom set
or pair of wings 16, 18 and 26, 28, and a data transfer device ("DTD") 40.
As will be discussed in more detail, the top and bottom set of wings 16,
18 and 26, 28 include a respective flange 16A, 18A and 26A and 28A, and
the top and bottom sleeves 14 and 24 provide a respective flange 14A and
24A. The DTD 40 connects to the bottom shell 22 to receive the CD or DVD
within the casing of the disc player 10 and provides conventional
mechanisms as described in the background of the invention for obtaining
and/or providing data to and/or from a CD or DVD being contained by the
disc player while operating.
In a preferred embodiment, the DTD 40 can be connected to a compatible
processing unit (not shown) by a known data cable and conventional I/O
ports. The I/O port(s) (not shown) would be coupled between the DTD 40 and
an exterior surface of the disc player 10. As an example, the data cable
for connecting the DTD 40 to a processing unit may be selected from the
group including serial, parallel, USB and the like. In addition, the top
shell 14 would include a conventional LCD display and operational buttons
(neither shown) for controlling the operation of the disc player. The
operational buttons could be used for operations selected from the group
including play, stop, skip, volume, forward, rewind, and pause. General
directional arrows may also be employed for menu options. In an
alternative embodiment, the skilled artisan should appreciate that the
processing unit could be incorporated as a part of the DTD 40 to assist
with operational functions of the disc player and associated buttons and
LCD.
FIGS. 3 and 4 illustrate the same disc player 10 of FIGS. 1 and 2 having
the first and second structural position. However, with these
illustrations the top shell 12 is in a fully closed position to secure the
disc within the casing cavity. In addition, FIGS. 3 and 4 show the sleeves
14, 24 and wings 16, 18, 26, 28 in a fully expanded position to contain
the 120 mm disc and in a fully contracted position to contain the 80 mm
optical disc, respectively. In the closed position, flanges 16A and 18A of
the top set of wings 16 and 18 interact with flanges 26A and 28A of the
bottom set of wings 26 and 28 to enclose and protect the optical disc
adjacent a right and left side of the disc player 10. In addition, flanges
14A and 24A of the top and bottom sleeves 14 and 24 interact with one
another to enclose and protect the CD and DVD adjacent a front portion of
the disc player 10. In particular, the sleeves 14 and 24 and wings 16, 18
and 26, 28 expand to closely surround and protect the 120 mm CD or DVD of
FIG. 1, and the sleeves 14, 24 and wings 16,18 and 26, 28 contract to
closely surround and protect the 80 mm CD of FIG. 2.
Now that the basic components of the inventive disc player have been
described, FIGS. 5-8 will layout the functional elements of each component
and how they operate together to receive and contain a CD or DVD for data
transfer operations. In particular, FIG. 5 illustrates the top shell 12 of
the disc player 10 after being removed from the disc player of FIGS. 1-4.
FIGS. 6 and 7 illustrate the disc player 10 without the top shell 12 of
FIG. 5, and FIG. 8 illustrates a conventional DTD 40 as shown in FIGS. 1-2
and 6-7.
Before the detailed description for each element of the shell is disclosed,
it should be noted that the top sleeve 14 and set of wings 16 and 18
provide a mirror image of the bottom sleeve 24 and set of wings 26 and 28
for all functional aspects and structure. Similarly, the top shell 12
provides the same functional aspects as the bottom shell 22 for the
purposes of the present invention. Therefore, any element of the top shell
that would not be mirrored on the bottom shell, such as additional
mounting post for the DTD 40 on the bottom shell, a conventional LCD,
operational buttons and accommodating circuitry for the top shell, and
conventional latch system components attached to the top and bottom shell,
would be contemplated by the present invention to other known concepts
associated with disc player.
Turning to FIG. 5, the top shell 12 includes two mounting posts 50 and a
wall 12A. The two mounting posts 50 reside near a back region of the disc
player 10 to receive complementing holes 56 of each set of wing 16, 18 and
26, 28 (see FIGS. 6 and 7). In a preferred embodiment, each hole 56 of a
wing surrounds a top portion of a respective post 50 when attached. With
this arrangement, the top portion of the post would provide a smaller
diameter then the lower portion of the post 56 closest to the surface of
the top shell. Therefore, the hole of each wing would rest on a ledge of
the respective post while attached. If desired, a securing element (not
shown), such as a screw, could also be positioned through the hole 56 and
screwed into a reciprocating hole of the post to attach each wing 16, 18,
26, and 28 to each respective mounting post 50.
The wall 12A for the top shell 12 can be divided into three sections: a
back section 12A' and two side sections 12A". As illustrated, the back
section 12A' extends the entire length of a back region and along a
portion of a side region of the disc player 10. Each side section 12A"
extends from the back section 12A', adjacent the side region, to a
predefined region near the front side of the disc player as illustrated.
The distance of the side sections 12" will allow any portion of a CD being
contained by the disc player 10 to extend out of the shell for the wings
and sleeve to protect. In general, the difference in height between the
wall sections 12' and 12A" will be greater then the thickness of the CD or
DVD and the wings.
As noted above, the bottom shell 22 is very similar to the top shell 12. In
particular, the bottom shell 12 provides two mounting posts (not shown)
adjacent a back region of the shell 10 that complements the posts 50 of
the top shell 12. However, the wall 22A for the bottom shell 22 provides
only one height that surrounds the entire parameter of the surface, and
the height for the bottom shell wall is greater then the height of the DTD
40 as illustrated in FIG. 8.
Before the top or bottom wings 16, 18 and 26, 28 can be attached to their
respective mounting posts 50, the DTD 40 of FIG. 8 should be attached to
the bottom shell 22 of the disc player 10 as illustrated in FIGS. 1 and 2.
The DTD 40 can be secured to the bottom shell 22 by a Conventional means
such as screws, glue or rivets using the securing arms 46A, 46B and 46C
illustrated in FIG. 8. The DTD 40 also secures a disc 30, 32 within the
disc player 10 by a conventional securing platter 48. Besides the securing
platter 48, the DTD 40 also includes the various conventional mechanisms
(not shown) selected from the group including an optical pickup unit
("OPU") having a motor spindle, a sled motor, an actuator or voice coil,
and a power source; and general electronics for encoding, decoding, and
transferring the signal obtained from the optical disc to an input/output
("I/O") port, via the OPU. The I/O ports may be connected to a processor
and will typically be specifically designed for the type of electronic
data that the player will read or write, whether it is audio, video or
computer. Therefore, the inventive disc player may also provide the
associated I/O ports to accommodate the transfer of audio, video and
computer data to the appropriate device for using the same. In addition,
the power source could be a conventional battery pack structure integrated
within the bottom shell of the disc player, a power cord, or both, using a
conventional technique.
Other elements that are typically associated with a portable disc player,
but are not shown, include LEDs or a LCD for displaying operational
conditions, at least one operational button, a speaker, and possibly a
processing unit. In a preferred embodiment, the disc player of the present
invention would include numerous buttons to accommodate the various
operations of the disc player and a LCD for displaying the progress of the
player while operating. The LCD and operational buttons could be
conventionally mounted on a front region of the disc player 10. The
buttons would be used for operations selected from the group including
play, stop, skip, volume, forward, rewind, pause, and general directional
arrows for menu options provided a processing unit, if used.
Once the DTD 40 is secured in place, the top and bottom sleeves 14 and 24
should be positioned between the respective shell 12 and 14 and set of
wings 16, 18 and 26, 28. Looking again at FIGS. 5 and 6, the top sleeve 14
clearly shows a groove 60 adjacent each back corner region of the disc
player 10 for receiving a complementing pin 62 on each wing 16, 18 and 26
and 28. With the pin 62 positioned within the complementing groove 60 of a
wing, the wing can be pivotally attached to the shell by the mounting
posts 50 as described above. Once each set of wings is attached to their
respective posts 50, a user can pull and push on the top and bottom sleeve
14, 24 to create an area large enough for receiving and containing a CD or
DVD having a diameter of various sizes.
In other words, the inventive disc player 10 can provide a first
dimensional size when carrying a 120 mm optical disc as illustrated in
FIGS. 1, 3 and 5 and a second dimensional size when carrying a 80 mm
optical disc as illustrated in FIGS. 2, 4 and 6. In particular, the disc
player 10 provides a structural size that is slightly bigger than the
dimensions of the CD or DVD it contains. Therefore, the inventive disc
player can be scaled to be smaller then conventional disc players for
carrying an 80 mm CD. A skilled artisan should appreciate that the
inventive disc player is not limited to the dimensions of a 80 mm and 120
mm optical disc, and therefore could be modified to accommodate optical
discs that may be smaller, larger and thicker then a conventional CD or
DVD.
In a preferred embodiment, the top shell 12 is at least partially
transparent or translucent so that the user can read labels or other
identification on a contained CD or DVD. In addition, the shells 12 and
22, the sleeves 14 and 24, and the set of wings 16, 18 and 26, 28 are
preferably made from a material such as plastic. A conventional hinge
system couples the top shell to the bottom shell using the back wall
sections of disc player. In addition, a common latch system is also used
to allow the front region of the top shell to secure to the front region
of the bottom shell. Therefore, a top shell can be opened to remove or
insert a disc (see FIGS. 1 and 2) and closed to secure an optical disc
within the disc player (see FIGS. 3 and 4).
Now that the structural components of the present invention have been
described and their function, the process for using the sane will follow.
Generally, the process includes the steps of: opening a disc player to
expose a cavity and an optical pickup mechanism ("DTD"); adjusting the
size of the disc player for securing an optical disc to the DTD; closing
the disc player to contain the disc within the cavity; and implementing
the DTD to transfer data from the disc to an output terminal. As mentioned
above, the I/O port could be used to couple speaks to the disc player to
hear audio data, or to couple a video display to the disc player to view
video data, or to couple a personal computer to the disc player to view
video and computer data or listen to audio data contained on a disc.
With the inventive disc player, the process step for adjusting the disc
player size involves a user slidably moving a sleeve 14, 18 or pivotally
moving one or both of the wings on the top and bottom shell of the disc
player until the size of the optical disc to be inserted into the disc
player will fit into the cavity of the disc player and the protective area
created by the wings and sleeves. Consequently, while the inventive disc
player is adjusted to accommodate a 120 mm or a 80 mm CD, the overall size
is scaled as well.
In summary, the present invention provides a protective disc player for an
optical disc. The disc player is scalable to accommodate 120 mm CDs and
DVDs or 80 mm CDs. When used for a 80 mm CD, the size of the disc player
is small enough to be placed in a typical shirt pocket. A disc may remain
in the disc player during transport, and for operational purposes, the
disc player can be coupled to a computer, speakers, and a video screen,
such as a TV or CRT, when desired. Preferably, the disc player is at least
partially transparent or translucent, so that labels or other
identification on a data storage medium can be read when a data storage
medium is present in the disc player.
*
