Did You Know...
...that the Eveready Battery began as an invention called the "electric flowerpot," which was a tube with a battery and light bulb inside? The idea was to fasten this gizmo to the side of a flowerpot so it would illuminate the flowers from the bottom. The idea died on the vine and the businessman who licensed the flower pot, Conrad Huber, was left with a pile of useless tubes -- until he found a way to market them as batteries to light the world!
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| Number | Title | Issue Date |
| 7852732 | Lens apparatus A lens apparatus has a focusing lens unit, a separating optical unit disposed on an optical axis of the lens apparatus, a focus detection unit that detects focus condition using a light beam from the separating optical unit, a first drive unit that drives the focusi... | 12/14/2010 |
| 7372801 | Reproduction-only optical disc and method of recording and/or reproducing data on and/or from the same A reproduction-only optical disc has a lead-in area, a user data area, and a lead-out area. Disc related information recorded on at least one of the lead-in area and the lead-out area is recorded by high frequency groove wobbles, and data of the user data area is re... | 05/13/2008 |
| 7342866 | Optical disc and its information recording method and apparatus Recording timing of a Data segment is set so as to avoid locating a wobble modulated portion as preformat information which indicates information on Physical segments of a recording type optical disc, and a recording start head position of the Data segment to be rec... | 03/11/2008 |
| 7339875 | Information storage medium, playback and recording method An information storage medium includes a substrate forming a first groove having a depth, and a second groove adjacent to the first groove and different depth from the first groove; and a recording layer formed on the substrate to record information marks, making op... | 03/04/2008 |
| 7335459 | Phase-change optical recording medium A phase-change optical recording medium includes a phase-change optical recording film that permits reversible phase change between a crystalline phase and an amorphous phase upon irradiation with light, and an interface film formed of hafnium oxide, or a mixture of... | 02/26/2008 |
| 7334733 | Data access device using rotational head to access data stored in data strips and data arc segments or data circles This invention discloses a data card that has a plurality of data arcs and also a linear data track, e.g., a magnetic or optical data strip, disposed on a flat data storage medium. The data card may be employed as a credit card or ID card with conventional magnetic ... | 02/26/2008 |
| 7321481 | Optical recording medium An optical recording medium includes a substrate, a light transmission layer and a plurality of recording layers between the substrate and the light transmission layer and capable of recording data in the plurality of recording layers and reproducing data recorded i... | 01/22/2008 |
| 7316023 | Disc drive tray for holding discs of various shapes and sizes A disc drive such as an optical disc drive for securely holding discs of various sizes and shapes even in the vertical position. The disc drive includes a tray for holding a disc with a spindle motor installed thereon for rotating a turntable of the spindle motor. T... | 01/01/2008 |
| 7289399 | Tracking error detection apparatus including reduction in false tracking error detection during phase error detection A tracking error detection apparatus comprises a photodetector comprising plural photoreceptor elements; zerocross detection circuits for detecting zerocross points at which two sequences of digital signals intersect the center levels of the respective digital signa... | 10/30/2007 |
| 7283447 | Optical disc and optical disc apparatus The refractive index of a light transmission layer of an optical disk is set within the range of 1.45 to 1.75, the numerical aperture of a lens emitting laser light which is incident onto the light transmission layer is set to 0.65, and the wavelength range of the l... | 10/16/2007 |
| 7276274 | Optical recording medium and method for recording and reproducing data An optical recording medium includes a substrate, a light transmission layer and a plurality of recording layers between the substrate and the light transmission layer and capable of recording data in the plurality of recording layers and reproducing data recorded i... | 10/02/2007 |
| 7277379 | Information recording carrier Plural grooves or lands formed in an information recording carrier include at least a wobbling region and data is recorded wobblingly in this wobbling region by phase shift modulation while recorded digitally with a single or multiple waves as a channel bit. ... | 10/02/2007 |
| 7272087 | Circuit and method for detecting address in pre-groove (ADIP) signal in wobble detection system of optical disc apparatus An ADIP (address in pre-groove) signal detection circuit is capable of correctly and quickly detecting discontinuous points in a wobble signal, and has a simple configuration in a wobble detection system of an optical disc device such as a DVD+R/RW, and an ADIP sign... | 09/18/2007 |
| 7237725 | Security marking system and method for minimizing pirating of data on data media including compact discs and digital versatile discs The present invention is a method and system of marking data media products by introducing a predetermined tracing substance constituting a security marking into a polycarbonate (or polystyrene) composition during the manufacturing stages of the polycarbonate materi... | 07/03/2007 |
| 7236449 | Optical recording medium, stamper for producing optical recording medium, recording/reproducing apparatus, and recording/reproducing method On a magneto-optical disk, a first groove Gv1, a second groove Gv2, and a third groove Gv3 are formed so as to be adjacently arranged. The first groove Gv1 and the second groove Gv2 are deep grooves, and the third groove Gv3... | 06/26/2007 |
| 7236433 | System and method of recording and reproducing information A method and apparatus for recording information by irradiating light onto a medium to form a recorded domain, and method and apparatus for reproducing the recorded information are provided. In one example of the method, a plurality of light spots are modulated sync... | 06/26/2007 |
| 7236447 | Optical disk, method of playing optical disk, and optical disk drive An optical disk includes a recording region formed on a substrate for recording user data, and a management region formed on the substrate which includes an identification information region for recording disk-specific identification information such as address info... | 06/26/2007 |
| 7215622 | Method and apparatus of determining a recording location on a high-density recording medium The present invention relates to method and apparatus of determining a recording location of a high-density recording medium. The present method determines a targeted recording location on a high-density rewritable or read-only recording medium based on successively... | 05/08/2007 |
| 7206272 | Method for recording asynchronously produced digital data codes, recording unit used for the method, method for reproducing the digital data codes, playback unit used for the method and information storage medium A recording and reproducing system is broken down into a recording unit for producing a digital audio data signal from MIDI music data words asynchronously produced at irregular intervals and a playback unit for reproducing the MIDI music data codes from the digital... | 04/17/2007 |
| 7193963 | Method for inputting information into a data storage medium that is optically recordable and readable In a method of entering information into an optically writable and readable data storage medium having a polymer film which can be changed locally by heating in order to store information and to which there is assigned an absorber dye (34) which is set up to ... | 03/20/2007 |
| 7174369 | System and methods of updating compact disc cards and graphical user interface for updating same A system and method for updating a compact disc card (CD-card) includes a computer having software defining a server. The server has first compact disc card updating software for storing compact disc card update data. A plurality of remote computers are in communica... | 02/06/2007 |
| 7162726 | Disk apparatus A disk apparatus of the present invention, in which a cartridge accommodating a disk-like recording medium and having an opening opened or closed by a shutter member is loaded to the disk apparatus, includes a loading chassis; a cartridge transporting member provide... | 01/09/2007 |
| 7158273 | Holographic data memory A holographic data storage medium has a polymer film which is set up as a storage layer whose refractive index can be changed locally by heating. The polymer film is set up for the storage of optical phase information via the local optical path length of the polymer... | 01/02/2007 |
| 7154829 | Optimal recording method for optical recording media and optical recording medium stored with information about optimum recording conditions Disclosed is an optimal recording method for optical recording media which is capable of recording information about optimum recording conditions on an optical recording medium in order to allow a subsequent recording of data at an optimum recording power, based on ... | 12/26/2006 |
| 7151727 | Disc-shaped recording medium, disc-state recording medium cutting apparatus, and disc drive apparatus There is provided an optical disc having preformed thereon a spiral wobbled track as a grove and/or land along with data is to be recorded. The track is wobbled for a series of predetermined signal units each composed of an FSK information bit part based on a wavefo... | 12/19/2006 |
| 7151729 | Optical recording medium having read-only storage area and writeable storage area and recording/reproducing apparatus and method therefor An optical recording medium having a read-only storage area and a writable storage area and a recording/reproducing apparatus and method therefor. The optical recording medium is a hybrid disc having both the read-only storage area, which is suitable for mass produc... | 12/19/2006 |
| 7152097 | System and methods of updating compact discs and graphical user interface for updating same A system and method for updating a compact disc card (CD-card) includes a computer having software defining a server. The server has first compact disc card updating software for storing compact disc card update data. A plurality of remote computers are in communica... | 12/19/2006 |
| 7136334 | Appliance for recording or playing back information having means for signal generation from a wobble signal The invention proposes an appliance for recording or playing back information having means for signal generation from a wobble signal which is scanned from the undulating track on a recording medium, such as a DVD+RW. According to the invention, a signal scanned fro... | 11/14/2006 |
| 7126906 | Optical record carrier, drive unit, data updating method and software version-up method A disc-shaped optical record carrier includes a first area having a spiral track extending in a first direction from an inner side on the disc, and a second area having a spiral track extending in a second direction opposite to the first direction, from an outer sid... | 10/24/2006 |
| 7117181 | Reproduction apparatus and reproduction method of digital video signal or audio signal Assuming that copying is permitted only once in broadcasting or the like, there is provided a reproduction apparatus and a reproduction method of digital video signal or audio signal for preventing a pirated edition disk which is produced by recording a signal onto ... | 10/03/2006 |
| 7107299 | Method and apparatus for managing large numbers of objects having the same property The invention is an apparatus and method for managing large numbers of objects having the same property. In various aspects the invention includes an apparatus for use in managing objects, an apparatus for use in managing slots in a page or swap file, and a method f... | 09/12/2006 |
| 7095700 | Optical disc medium, optical disc recording/reproducing apparatus and method The present invention separates MTF into a plus frequency region and a minus frequency region and uses the plus frequency region and the minus frequency region to thereby enable an effectively usable frequency region to be doubled in effect. Digital information to b... | 08/22/2006 |
| 7092351 | Optical recording medium, optical recording medium producing apparatus and optical recording medium producing method The present invention provides an optical recording medium, in which levels of wobble signals extracted from a recording area formed snakily, a reproduction exclusive area and an impossible area are maintained constant. On DVD-RW, groove tracks are snakily formed on... | 08/15/2006 |
| 7088662 | Optical disc drive and method for controlling the same An optical disc drive according to the present invention can read and write data from/on an optical disc 100 including record tracks to write data thereon and guide tracks for guiding a light beam 40. The drive includes: an optical pickup 101 wi... | 08/08/2006 |
| 7088650 | Methods and apparatus for optical disc data acquisition using physical synchronization markers Methods and apparatus for using physical synchronization markers during optical disc data acquisition are provided. In accordance with this invention, physical synchronization markers on optical discs and/or disc covers can be used to determine absolute and/or relat... | 08/08/2006 |
| 7075870 | Recording/reproducing apparatus for optical information recording medium and optical head A plurality of optical heads each of which comprises an independent light source and optical system are provided on the same side with respect to a recording medium having a plurality of recording layers. Alternatively, with respect to at least one light source in a... | 07/11/2006 |
| 7072261 | Driving method A method for driving a movable component of a hardware device includes the steps of: (1) driving the movable component to move the driving distance by the former force to determine a base time; (2) setting a reference time, wherein the reference time is smaller than... | 07/04/2006 |
| 7054245 | Record carrier, playback device and method of recording information A record carrier has substantially parallel tracks having first variations of a first physical parameter and second variations of a second physical parameter of the track. The first variations represent information recorded on the record carrier, this information be... | 05/30/2006 |
| 7054260 | Hybrid discs A hybrid disc whose recordable-band grooves are wider and shallower than the pre-recorded ROM data pits. The ROM pits may be pre-recorded in ROM grooves that are at least as wide, but shallower than, the ROM pits. The ROM lands intervene between consecutive ROM pits... | 05/30/2006 |
| 7054249 | Access control apparatus and method for controlling access to storage medium In a write process through channels Ch1, Ch2, and Ch3, the deadline of each channel is set based on the transfer rate variable by the ratio of dummy packets to valid packets, and deadline information is written with write data on a disk. In a re... | 05/30/2006 |
