Alpine Electronics, Inc.

Masatoshi Ito

Akira Otsuki

Takashi Miyake

Satoshi Haga

Yoshikatsu Watanabe

Yoshio Imanishi

Osamu Watanabe

Nobuyuki Niiya

Iwao Ohyama

Masami Kojima

A disc device comprising a transfer unit operable to provide a transferring force to a disc inserted from the outside to transfer the disc into a storage area in the device, a sensor unit for detecting the position of the inserted disc, and a control unit for controlling a operational speed of the transfer unit. The control unit controls the operational speed of the transfer unit in the disc loading direction at a low-speed until the disc inserted from the outside reaches the transfer unit. The control unit then adjusts the operational speed of the transfer unit in the disc loading direction from a low-speed to a high-speed when the sensor unit detects that the disc is inserted into the position in which a transferring force from the transfer unit is given to the disc, or after a predetermined period of time has elapsed. Accordingly, the disc device reduces operation noise and resistance when the disc is inserted.

Disc device

A disk device has a driving unit supported by elastic members. In a standby state, locking of the driving unit by a lock member is disengaged, so that the driving unit is elastically supported by dampers and a coil spring. This reduces the time of restriction by pins, thereby preventing damage to the pins. The lock member is operated at the time of receiving a disk, thereby locking the driving unit. Thus, the driving unit does not need to be locked in the casing for prolonged periods of time.

Disk device

A disk apparatus includes a disk guide member, a disk transfer mechanism, a disk rotating section, a disk clamp mechanism, and a control section. The guide member has a pair of detectors arranged in the disk transfer direction with a predetermined distance therebetween so as to be brought into a detection state by a peripheral edge of a disk when the disk reaches such a position as to be clamped by the disk rotating section. The control section operates the disk clamp mechanism so that the disk rotating section is urged toward the disk when one of the detectors is brought into a detection state during the transfer of the disk, determines that a clamping operation of the disk is completed when both of the detectors are in a detection state and the detection state continues for a predetermined time, and then stops the disk transfer mechanism.

Disk apparatus including detection of disk clamping operation

A disk device includes a stock unit with multiple disk holders. When one of the disk holders is selected, the disk holder is moved so as to allow transport of the selected disk to a rotational driving unit. After the selected disk holder has stopped moving, a guide member and a transporting unit are brought closer together to nip a disk held in the disk holder, thereby restricting the disk. A driving unit is then moved to a driving position overlapping the disk which is held in the disk holder, thereby preventing interference between the disk and driving unit. The disk is then transported to the driving unit. Thus, interference between the disk and the rotational driving unit or other structures due to vibrations of the disk within the stock unit can be prevented.

Disk device, and disk changing method for disk device

An automatic volume control to prevent the listener from having an odd sensation is obtained with a plurality of conditions taken into considerations. A plurality of control rules required to infer using fuzzy logic a volume correcting value on the basis of frequency band component levels, L, M and H and a volume level V are stored beforehand in a volume correcting value inferring portion 13. The volume correcting value inferring portion 13 obtains inference results of the individual control rules on the basis of the individual frequency band component levels L, M, H input from a filter circuit 12 and the volume level input from an audio reproducing portion 14, obtains a weighted mean of the respective inference results as a volume correcting value Z, and inputs the volume correcting value to the audio reproducing portion 14 to automatically correct the volume. Furthermore, since a degree with which each of the control rules is associated with volume correction differs, an adjustment coefficient corresponding to each of the degrees is stored beforehand. A weighted mean of the values obtained by multiplying the inference results of the control rules by the corresponding adjustment coefficients is the volume correcting value.

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Iwaki, Japan

Masatoshi Ito