OPTICAL DISC DRIVE APPARATUS AND ITS CONTROL METHOD

• US 20090257330A1
• Filed: 04/08/2009
• Published: 10/15/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 04/11/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Hitachi Consumer Electronics Company Limited (Hitachi, Ltd.)
• Original Assignee: Hitachi, Ltd.
• Inventors: Maruyama, Hideki
• Granted Patent: US 8,134,902 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 369/47.150
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 19/042 due to external shock or vibration
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 19/044 by using a data buffer

Abstract

An optical disc drive apparatus which is mounted on a mobile apparatus, which at least reads information from a disc surface of an optical disc disposed in a predetermined position by using a pickup, which is robust against vibration, and which is capable of preventing collision between the disc surface of the optical disc and the pickup judges a road surface condition associated with location information on the basis of the location information concerning a location on a road on which the mobile apparatus is traveling acquired from external and road surface condition information depending upon a road surface condition of a road on which the mobile apparatus travels, and controls servo characteristics of the optical drive apparatus according to control information associated with the judged road surface condition.

Claims

1. An optical disc drive apparatus which is mounted on a mobile apparatus and which at least reads information from a disc surface of an optical disc disposed in a predetermined position by using a pickup, the optical disc drive apparatus comprising:

road surface condition information storage unit for storing road surface condition information depending upon road surface conditions of a road on which the mobile apparatus travels;

location information acquisition unit for acquiring location information concerning a location on the road on which the mobile apparatus is traveling, from external;

control information storage unit for storing control information in association with the road surface condition, the control information being used to control reading of the information according to the road surface condition; and

a control unit for judging a road surface condition associated with location information on the basis of the location information acquired by the location information and the road surface condition information stored by the road surface information storage unit, reading out control information associated with the judged road surface condition from the control information storage unit, and controlling servo characteristics of the optical drive apparatus according to the control information read out.

2. The optical disc drive apparatus according to claim 1, wherein

the control information in association with the road surface condition stored by the control information storage unit comprises first control information in an ordinary condition under which the mobile apparatus can travel smoothly, second control information in a patched condition under which the road surface is patched, and third control information in a bad road condition under which there are frequently jogs on the road surface, and

the control unit reads out the first control information, the second control information, or the third control information according to the judged road surface condition.

3. The optical disc drive apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the road surface condition information stored by the road surface information storage unit is updated.

4. The optical disc drive apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the location information acquisition unit acquires location information from external by using VICS (Vehicle Information and Communication System) or GPS (Global Positioning System).

5. The optical disc drive apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the mobile apparatus on which the optical disc drive apparatus is mounted is either a vehicle-mounted apparatus or a portable information processing apparatus

6. The optical disc drive apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the control unit exercises intermittent control by stopping information reading from the optical disc when information read from an optical disc is stored in a buffer memory by a predetermined quantity, conducting information reproduction by using information stored in the buffer memory, and conducting information reading from the optical disc when information of a definite quantity from the buffer memory has been used for the reproduction.

7. The optical disc drive apparatus according to claim 6, wherein the control unit changes the definite quantity according to the road surface condition.

8. The optical disc drive apparatus according to claim 7, wherein the control unit decreases the definite quantity in the change as the road surface condition is aggravated.

9. A control method for an optical disc drive apparatus which is mounted on a mobile apparatus and which at least reads information from a disc surface of an optical disc disposed in a predetermined position by using a pickup, the control method comprising the steps of:

judging a road surface condition associated with location information on the basis of the location information concerning a location on a road on which the mobile apparatus is traveling acquired from external and road surface condition information depending upon a road surface condition of a road on which the mobile apparatus travels; and

controlling servo characteristics of the optical drive apparatus according to control information associated with the judged road surface condition.

10. The control method for optical disc drive apparatus according to claim 9, comprising the step of:

exercising intermittent control by stopping information reading from the optical disc when information read from an optical disc is stored in a buffer memory by a predetermined quantity, conducting information reproduction by using information stored in the buffer memory, and conducting information reading from the optical disc when information of a definite quantity from the buffer memory has been used for the reproduction.