JPH08249802A - Optical disk - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE: To easily identify the kind of an optical disk by providing the outer peripheral end face of this disk with appearance shapes and/or visually recognizable and/or tactually identifiable physical characteristics. CONSTITUTION: For example, a stepped shape projecting in the central part is formed on the outer peripheral end face 107 of the both side stuck type optical disk 100, by which this disk is identified from disks of other shapes with the tactile sensation of the fingers. This outer peripheral end face 107 may be a stepped shape recessing at the center, straight tapered shape, tapered shape projecting or recessing in the central part, semicircular shape or zigzag shape. The end face 107 is formed vertically asymmetrically like a straight tapered shape, by which the identification of the side A and the side B is made possible. The visual identification in addition to tactile sense is made possible by the characters inscribed on the end face 107 or the surface roughness thereof, etc. Such physical characteristics may be formed on the surface in the inner peripheral part between a clamping zone and a data recording region in addition to the end face 107.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION The present invention has a thickness and an outer diameter of CD.
The present invention relates to an optical disc having the same physical format as that of the above but having a different physical format.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art CDs (compact discs) that are widely used at present include CD-DA for music, CD-ROM, CD-I, video CD, photo C.
There are various variations such as D and CD-R. The shapes of these optical disks are specified by ISO / IEC10149.

FIG. 16 shows a typical conventional CD. CD
Reference numeral 1 is a disk shape with an outer diameter of 120 mm and a thickness of 1.2 mm, which is made of a transparent substrate such as polycarbonate and has a recording surface on one side.
Further, there is a center hole 4 in the center of the disc and a clamping zone 3 on both sides of the inner peripheral portion of the disc for attachment to a reproducing apparatus. This shape is specified for each disc,
There is no distinctive shape depending on the disc type, and it is difficult to distinguish these disc types from the shapes.

On the other hand, the CD has a label 2 printed on the recording surface side of the disc. A title, a manufacturer / sales company name, a symbol, a CD logo mark, etc. relating to the disc are printed. The user sees this label 2 to identify the type of disc.

When these CDs are reproduced by the reproducing apparatus, C
There are a form in which D is inserted into the reproducing device by itself, and a form in which it is inserted into the reproducing device in a dedicated caddy. In either case, the user handles the optical disc directly by hand.

[0006]

As described above, there are several types of optical discs having the same shape but different formats, and it is difficult to distinguish the optical discs from the appearance. Therefore, there is a possibility that the optical disc is mistakenly inserted and reproduced in an unsupported reproducing device, and the reproducing device malfunctions to damage the reproducing device or the optical disc. Therefore, an optical disc having a simple identification method is desired.

In view of the above problems, it is an object of the present invention to provide an optical disc that allows the user to easily identify the type of optical disc.

[0008]

Recently, a new optical disc having the same size as a CD has been developed. For example, FIG.
As shown in FIG. 3, there is a bonded disc 100 having the same outer diameter of 120 mm and the thickness of 0.6 mm as the CD. While the CD has a 1.2 mm thick single disk structure, the bonded disk 10
0 has a structure in which two substrates 101 each having a thickness of 0.6 mm, which is half the size of a CD, are bonded to each other with their recording surface sides facing each other with an adhesive layer 102 having a thickness of several tens of microns. Similar to a CD, a center hole 104 is provided at the center of the disc and a clamping zone 103 is provided on both sides of the inner peripheral portion of the disc for attachment to a reproducing apparatus.

The laminated disk 100 has a C shape.
Since it is the same as D, it is difficult to distinguish it from the shape. Further, in the bonded disc 100, both sides are often recordable and / or reproducible discs, and in this case, a label cannot be printed on one side like a normal CD. Therefore, it is difficult to identify the type of the disc by visually recognizing the appearance.

Further, the bonded disc 100 cannot be reproduced by a normal CD reproducing apparatus, but is reproduced by a dedicated reproducing apparatus.

The optical disc according to the present invention is an optical disc for recording and / or reproducing information, which is characterized in that the outer peripheral end face of the disc has an external shape and / or a physical feature capable of being visually recognized and / or touched.

[0012]

In the optical disk according to the present invention, the outer peripheral end surface 107 or the inner peripheral surface 106 of the optical disk has an external shape and / or a physical feature capable of being visually recognized and / or touched. , Peripheral edge portion 10
7. The inner peripheral portion 106 can be held by a finger, and the difference in shape can be discerned by tactile sensation, so that it can be easily distinguished from the conventional CD.

[0013]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Various embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the accompanying drawings.

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing an optical disc according to the first embodiment. Optical disc, for example double-sided laminated disc 1
The outer peripheral end surface 107 of No. 00 has a stepped shape with a convex central portion. When the user handles the disc, the stepped outer peripheral end face 107 is held with a finger, and the difference in the shape is recognized by the tactile sensation of the finger, so that the disc is distinguished from the normal optical disc having a flat surface. In the present embodiment, the central portion has a convex step shape, but as shown in FIG. 2, the outer peripheral end surface 107a may have a concave step portion.

Further, in the present embodiment, the outer peripheral end face has a step shape, but the present invention is not limited to this. As shown in FIG. 3, an outer peripheral end surface 107b having a straight taper shape may be used,
4 may be a tapered outer peripheral end surface 107c that is convex at the disk center, or may be a tapered outer peripheral end surface 107d that is concave at the disk center in FIG. 5, a semicircular shape in FIG. 6, and a jagged shape in FIG. The outer peripheral end surface 107e of
The same effect as above can be obtained. As shown in FIG. 3, if the outer peripheral end surface 107b is vertically asymmetrical, the A surface and the B surface can be distinguished.

In the above embodiment, the outer peripheral end surface 1 of the disk is
Although the external shapes of 07 and 107a to 107e are physical features, the present invention is not limited to this.

As shown in FIG. 8, the outer peripheral edge surface 10 of the disk is shown.
The same effect can be obtained even when the marking 108 such as characters on 7 and the surface roughness of the disk outer peripheral end surface 107 are rougher than the disk surface. If the marking 108 such as characters on the outer peripheral edge surface 107 of the disc is a character string representing the type of the disc such as “CD” or “DVD”, the disc type can be visually identified as well as the tactile sense. It is possible.

As described above, the present embodiment is an optical disk having physical characteristics on the disk outer peripheral end surface 107.

FIG. 9 is a diagram showing a second embodiment of the optical disc of the present invention. In this embodiment, the disk inner peripheral surface 106
It is an optical disc having physical characteristics. The inner peripheral surface 106 between the clamping zone 103 and the data recording area 105 of the optical disk is rougher than the surface roughness of other areas. When the user handles the disc by hand, the inner peripheral surface 106 is touched with a fingertip to identify the roughness of the disc surface by palpation. As a result, it is possible to identify the difference from the smooth surface of the normal CD and identify the CD.

In this embodiment, the surface roughness is changed over the entire circumference of the region 106, but it may be partially changed. Further, as shown in FIG. 10, the surface roughness may be changed only in a certain area 109 such as a character or a character. For example, if a character string representing a disc type such as “CD” or “DVD” is used, it is possible to identify the disc type not only by tactile sense but also visually. Note that even if the surface roughness of the region 106 is changed for both sides,
The surface roughness of 06 may be changed. In this embodiment, the physical characteristics of the surface roughness of the disk inner peripheral surface 106 are used, but the present invention is not limited to this. As shown in FIG. 11, a projection 110 on the inner peripheral surface 106, a through hole 111 in FIG. 12, a recess 112, or the like may be used. The protrusion 110 and the through hole 11
A plurality of recesses 112 may be provided in the region 106. The protrusion 110 and the recess 112 may be provided on both sides or only one side.

[0021]

As described above, according to the optical disk of the present invention, the user can easily distinguish it from the conventional optical disk. Further, even a visually handicapped person can easily identify the type of the optical disc because it is a touch-based identification method.

Further, when the outer peripheral end surface and the inner peripheral surface are provided with asymmetric shapes on both sides, it is possible to distinguish between the A surface and the B surface.

Further, by making the outer peripheral end face non-slip, the user plays a role of a non-slip when handling the optical disk by hand.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1A is a sectional perspective view showing an optical disc according to an embodiment of the present invention, which is cut in half, and FIG. 1B is an enlarged vertical sectional view showing a portion near an outer peripheral end face of an optical disc.

FIG. 2 is an enlarged vertical cross-sectional view showing a portion in the vicinity of an outer peripheral end surface of an optical disc according to a modified example.

FIG. 3 is an enlarged vertical cross-sectional view showing a portion in the vicinity of an outer peripheral end surface of an optical disc of a modified example.

FIG. 4 is a longitudinal cross-sectional view showing, in a partially enlarged manner, a portion in the vicinity of an outer peripheral end surface of an optical disc of a modified example.

FIG. 5 is a vertical cross-sectional view showing, in a partially enlarged manner, a portion in the vicinity of an outer peripheral end surface of an optical disc of a modified example.

FIG. 6 is a vertical cross-sectional view showing, in a partially enlarged manner, a portion in the vicinity of an outer peripheral end surface of an optical disc of a modified example.

FIG. 7 is a perspective view showing an optical disc of another embodiment.

FIG. 8 is a perspective view showing an optical disc of another embodiment.

FIG. 9 is a front view showing an optical disc according to another embodiment.

FIG. 10 is a front view showing an optical disc according to another embodiment.

FIG. 11 is a longitudinal sectional view showing an optical disc of another embodiment.

FIG. 12 is a longitudinal sectional view showing an optical disc of another embodiment.

FIG. 13 is a vertical sectional view showing an optical disc of another embodiment.

FIG. 14 is a perspective view showing an optical disc of another embodiment.

FIG. 15 is a front view showing an optical disc according to another embodiment.

FIG. 16 is a perspective view showing a conventional general CD.

[Explanation of Codes] 100 ... Optical disc 106 ... Disc inner peripheral surface 107, 107a to 107e ... Disc outer peripheral end surface

Claims (11)

[Claims] 1. An optical disc for recording and / or reproducing information, wherein the outer peripheral end face of the disc has an external shape and / or a physical feature capable of being visually recognized and / or touched. 2. The optical disk according to claim 1, wherein the outer peripheral end surface of the disk has a step shape. 3. The optical disk according to claim 1, wherein the outer peripheral end surface of the disk is tapered. 4. The optical disk according to claim 1, wherein the outer peripheral end surface of the disk has a semicircular shape. 5. The optical disc according to claim 1, wherein the outer peripheral end face of the disc is notched. 6. The optical disk according to claim 1, wherein the outer peripheral surface of the disk has a marking such as characters. 7. The surface of the disk outer peripheral end surface is made rougher than the surface of the disk main surface.
The described optical disc. 8. An optical disc for recording and / or reproducing information, wherein the inner peripheral surface of the disc has an external shape and / or a physical feature capable of being visually recognized and / or touched. 9. The surface roughness of the entire area or a part of the area in the area between the clamping zone of the disk main surface and the data recording area is compared with the surface roughness of the data recording area. The optical disc according to claim 8, wherein the optical disc is roughened. 10. The optical disk according to claim 8, wherein a projection is provided in an area between the clamping zone of the main surface of the disk and the data recording area. 11. The optical disk according to claim 8, wherein the area between the clamping zone of the disk main surface and the data recording area has a recess.