Olympus Optical Company, Ltd.

Olympus Corporation

Qinetiq Limited

Nagaoka University of Technology

Toshio Horiguchi

Hisakatsu Tanaka

Junichi Itoh

Toshihiro Kitahara

Yuichiro Akatsuka

Akito Saito

Mitsuo Oshiba

Kaori Ichikawa

Darren Paul Scattergood

Kouji Orikawa

Robert W Reeve

A hydrogen generator includes a plurality of fuel sticks each of which includes a hydrogen release compound configured to generate hydrogen by a chemical reaction, a pressure-resistant container configured to store therein the plurality of fuel sticks, and a controller configured to carry out control in such a manner that hydrogen is generated selectively from the plurality of fuel sticks.

Hydrogen generator and fuel stick

A dual-power-supply system uses both a fuel cell and a chargeable secondary battery. A differential voltage adding unit adds a differential voltage between the voltage of the fuel cell and a necessary target output voltage to the voltage of the fuel cell by using the secondary battery, thereby obtaining an output voltage of the dual-power-supply system. A control unit detects the output voltage, and controls the differential voltage adding unit such that the output voltage is equal to the target output voltage.

Dual-power-supply system

Information recorded on optical recording media is reproduced by a recording/reproducing unit. A plurality of predetermined items are selected by a keyboard among reproduced information. A list of inspection data of time-series order in which all inspection data of a plurality of selected items are in the time-series order, and a list in which numerical-value data of the selected items are graphed in time-series order are simultaneously displayed on the same display surface.

Information display system for displaying time-series numerical values

An optical information recording/reproducing apparatus using an optical device to radiate a reproducing light beam originating from a second light source onto regions of an optical recording medium that include a track on an optical recording medium which contains at least a spot formed by a recording light beam originating from a first light source, these regions being situated behind and in front of the spot formed by the recording light beam relative to the direction of movement of the recording light beam. The apparatus also includes a tracking error signal generator for using light of the reproducing light beam reflected from the optical recording medium to generate a tracking error signal. This apparatus uses the generated error signal to help the recording light beam to track a track on the recording medium, thus controlling the position of the spot formed by the recording light beam so that the spot will lie in the middle of the track all the time.

Optical information recording and reproducing apparatus having

A hybrid card comprises a substrate carrying an IC chip. An IC terminal is electrically connected to the IC chip and is arranged on a first surface of the substrate. A contact region is defined around the IC terminal and is occupied when a contact terminal of a recording/reproducing apparatus electrically contacts the IC terminal. An optical recording region has a plurality of tracks extending parallel to each other on the first surface. The contact region and the optical recording region are spaced apart in a direction parallel to the tracks.

Hybrid card having IC chip and optical/magnetic recording region thereon

In an optical information recording/reproducing apparatus to stop recording operation upon detecting an error in access operation to a target track, when making the access operation to the target track, if an abnormality is detected in the target track or some track in the neighborhood of the target track during a period of time from an access to the track in the neighborhood of the target track until reaching the target track, information is not recorded on the target track and the occurrence of an abnormality is informed to a host computer.

Optical information recording/reproduction apparatus to stop recording

A recording/reproducing apparatus for recording/reproducing data by relatively moving either of an optical card and optical head wherein, in order that data may be recorded/reproduced on the optical card by moving either of the optical head and optical card, during an access operation to gain access to reach a target track, such data process as adding data for detecting and correcting errors to data to be recorded in the optical card by a data encoding circuit or correcting errors on data already read out by an error correcting circuit is made in parallel. The data are also transferred during the access operation.

Optical card recording/reproducing apparatus wherein a data process is

An optical card recording/regenerating apparatus performs at least either recording or regenerating while reciprocating an optical card with respect to an optical head. At this time, the apparatus drives the optical card so that the relative speed between the optical card and optical head will be constant over a data division of the optical card and part of ID divisions in the vicinities of both edges thereof. When the relative speed becomes constant, the apparatus performs at least either recording or regenerating. The apparatus offers a smaller drive length. This realizes downsizing of an optical recording/regenerating apparatus and reduction of an access time.

Optical card recording/regenerating method and apparatus for driving

An apparatus for recording/reproducing information on/from an optical card, in which a card identifying information data, which is recorded on the outside of a normal data recording portion of an optical card, can be reproduced by an optical head, a demodulating circuit and a focusing/tracking circuit, which are originally provided for recording/reproducing information on/from the normal data recording portion of the optical card. Therefore, in the apparatus according to the invention, it is unnecessary to specially provide the other apparatus for reproducing the card identifying information data, so that the apparatus as a whole can be made small and the cost therefor can be decreased.

Apparatus for recording/reproducing optical information on/from optical

An optical information recording/reproducing apparatus for use in an optical card, in which a moving speed of the optical card is detected on the basis of an information signal read out from the optical card and in which the information signal is corrected with the aid of the thus detected moving speed. Therefore, the data recorded on the optical card can be read out in a stable manner even when the optical card is transferred with a variation of its moving speed; and such apparatus can be manufactured at a low cost.

Information recording/reproducing apparatus for use in an optical card

An optical card of write-once type including a rectangular card-like substrate on which a number of tracks (62) are formed in parallel with each other. In each track, one or more data record sectors (65) are provided and at the same time, one or more alternative information record sectors (66) are provided. When data could not be recorded correctly in a desired data sector in a desired track, the same data is recorded again in an alternative data sector. Then, in an alternative information record sector in the desired track, there in recorded alternative information representing an address of the alternative data sector. The alternative information record sector can be made much smaller than the alternative data sector, so that user area can be utilized efficiently as compared with a known optical card in which one or more alternative data sectors are previously provided. Moreover, the alternative information is recorded in a track in which the data could not be recorded correctly, the access time can be shortened materially as compared with a known optical card in which the alternative information is recorded in a directory track.

Optical card having alternative information record region

An apparatus for recording and reproducing information on and from an optical record medium including a pick-up unit and a main unit to which the pick-up unit is detachably secured. In order to obtain the optimum operational conditions even when the pick-up unit is exchanged, an electrically erasable and programmable read only memory is provided in the pick-up unit and characteristic data for defining the operational conditions such as a threshold level for converting the read out signal into a bivalent signal and a laser output power is stored in the memory. The characteristic data is read out of the memory and the operational conditions of the apparatus are controlled in accordance with the read out characteristic data. When a new optical record medium having a different optical property than the currently used optical record medium is introduced, the characteristic data stored in the memory is rewritten without detaching the pick-up unit such that the operational conditions of the apparatus are reset in conformity with the new optical record medium.

Apparatus for recording and/or reproducing information on and/or from

An optical card apparatus including a recording device for recording in each of a plurality of data blocks in a card-like recording medium user data to be recorded along with data protecting information inhibiting the user data from being carelessly read out, and a reproducing device for reproducing the user data and data protecting information recorded in the recording medium. A data transfer controlling device for permitting the user data to be read out only in case the input secret information data coincide with the data protecting information recorded in the recording medium in the case of reproducing the user data with this reproducing device.

Recording and reproducing apparatus provided in each data block with a

In an apparatus for recording and/or reproducing data on and/or from an optical card having a plurality of tracks, each of which includes a data portion and ID portions provided at both ends of the data portion, in said data portion the data is recorded in a plurality of sectors in a reciprocal manner by projecting from an optical head a recording or reproducing light beam onto the optical card, while the optical card is moved with respect to the light beam, a relative position of the optical card with respect to the optical head is detected to derive a sector position signal. A start point of a sector for which the data will be recorded or reproduced is determined by counting the sector position signal. The sector position signal is derived by counting pulses generated by a rotary encoder coupled with the motor for moving the optical card to derive a count value and a comparator for comparing the count value with a reference value which is generated in accordance with a predetermined track format. The sector position signal may be also derived by counting PLL clock pulses which are generated on the basis of a signal obtained by reading PLL synchronizing regions in the ID portion.

Apparatus with position detecting means for recording and/or reproducing

An apparatus for writing and/or reading information on and/or from an optical card including an optical head having a light source for emitting a light beam and an objective lens for projecting the light beam onto the optical card, a first VCM for driving the optical head in the track direction for effecting a coarse access, a second VCM for moving the optical card in the track direction, and a tracking actuator for moving the objective lens in the seek direction to effect a tracking control. When a desired track is to be accesses, at first the optical head is moved in the seek direction by said first VCM such that the light beam spot is made incident upon a track near the desired track, and then after the movement of the optical card by said second VCM has been judged to be stopped, a deviation of the position of the objective lens with respect to a reference position is detected. After said deviation has been judged to be smaller than a given value, said tracking actuator is driven to effect the track jump by a required number of times to project the light beam onto the desired track. In this manner, the track access can be performed correctly within a short time period without being affected by vibrations of the optical head and optical card and the track skew.

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Hachioji, Japan

Toshio Horiguchi