Did You Know...
...that the video game, Pong, was invented by a guy who graduated at the bottom of his engineering class? Nolan Bushnell spent more time running the games at a local amusement park than he did on his studies at the University of Utah. His dreams of working for Disney's amusement empire were dashed when the company wouldn't hire him. Taking a boring job, Nolan daydreamed about electronic versions of popular games. He invented Pong, the first video game, and went on to found Atari Co.
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| Number | Title | Issue Date |
| 7437743 | Optical disk drive An optical disk drive which decreases unit costs and reduces the size of a product. The optical disk drive includes a frame, a base chassis rotatably installed on the frame, a spindle motor and a pick-up device installed on the base chassis, a tray moving into and o... | 10/14/2008 |
| 7424724 | Disk apparatus having disk insertion detecting levers disposed in plane of disk and rotatable in axial direction relative to disk The present invention provides a disk apparatus reduced in size and thickness, by reducing the size of a means which detects the insertion of a disk into the disk apparatus. In the disk apparatus of the present invention, an electric circuit board and disk insertion... | 09/09/2008 |
| 7411871 | Optical disk drive An optical disk drive including a sliding portion, which moves a sub frame upward or downward against a main frame; a sensor, which includes tension members which are provided in both sides of the sliding portion so that the tension members are elastically deformed ... | 08/12/2008 |
| 7386866 | Disk drive with improved tray control A disk drive comprising a tray (TR) for receiving a disk, the tray (TR) being supported for movement between a first position within a casing (CS) of the disk drive and a second position projecting from the casing (CS), an electric motor for moving the tray (TR) bet... | 06/10/2008 |
| 7367034 | Disk drive having mechanism to limit tray position during transfer of tray To provide a disk drive having a mechanism to limit position of a tray while being transferred by a simple configuration, guiding parts each having a guide rib and a supporting portion are provided on at least one outer wall on the side facing inside the chassis, an... | 04/29/2008 |
| 7367033 | Device for scanning a disc-shaped data carrier, comprising a transport system for transporting the data carrier Device for scanning a disc-shaped data carrier, comprising a transport system for transporting the data carrier. In the case of a device (1) for scanning a disc-shaped data carrier (2), with a pivotable data carrier plate (4), which features a r... | 04/29/2008 |
| 7360225 | Disc holding mechanism There is provided a disc holding mechanism capable of easily loading and unloading optical discs having different shapes on a disc tray, in which an optical disc is securely fixed and held on the disc tray and the load applied to the disc when it is loaded and unloa... | 04/15/2008 |
| 7355930 | Method of opening/closing a disk tray in a disk drive A method for opening/closing a disk tray of a disk drive. The method includes the steps of when a first event occurs, sending a load/unload command to the disk drive, to which the disk drive responds with a second or third event, and resends the load/unload command ... | 04/08/2008 |
| 7350218 | Optical-disk drive and optical-disk ejection control method An optical disk drive comprises a drive body, a spindle motor, an optical pickup device, a sled motor, a tray, a loading motor, and a controller. When the loaded optical disk is ejected, the controller controls the sled motor and the loading motor so that the return... | 03/25/2008 |
| 7340749 | Method and apparatus to detect presence of or a size of a data cartridge A media-detection system for a cartridge-receiving device may comprise, according to one embodiment, a cartridge-referencing member mounted to the cartridge-receiving device. The cartridge-referencing member is resiliently displaceable by a data cartridge received i... | 03/04/2008 |
| 7334240 | Disk apparatus It is an object of the present invention to provide a high-reliability slot-in type disk apparatus having a buffering function against vibrations vertically generated in recording and reproducing data on an optical disk. A disk apparatus 1 according to the pr... | 02/19/2008 |
| 7334237 | Disc drive apparatus A disc drive apparatus according to the present invention has a tray formed of an optically transparent material and has disc receiving portions. The tray is movable in an ejection and a retraction direction with respect to a casing. A light source is mounted inside... | 02/19/2008 |
| 7328444 | Shaft support mechanism of optical disk drive and skew adjustment mechanism of optical disk drive A skew adjustment mechanism of an optical disk drive includes: a pair of rod-shaped guide shafts 32a and 32b that hold an optical pick-up unit 31 therebetween and guide the optical pick-up unit; four fixing members each having a pa... | 02/05/2008 |
| 7305682 | Sensor mechanism for detecting tray in/out motion The present invention relates to a sensor mechanism of an optical disc device for detecting tray in/out motion, which comprises a swing bar having a actuating bar, a spinning center and a protrusion portion; a gear for driving the protrusion portion to rotate the sw... | 12/04/2007 |
| 7305685 | Inserting and extracting device for rotatable data carrier plates The invention relates to an inserting and extracting device for rotatable data carrier plates which mechanically moves the data carrier plate (1) from an inserting position into a playing position before playing and back into the inserting position again afte... | 12/04/2007 |
| 7299480 | Loading disc optical detection apparatus A disc drive apparatus includes a tray member, on which a bare disc, or a cartridge accommodating a disc therein is placed, and a disc drive device, into or from which the tray member is loaded or ejected by a drive unit. A medium detection system includes detection... | 11/20/2007 |
| 7290268 | Disc drive apparatus with tray formed of optically transparent material A disc drive apparatus according to the present invention has a tray formed of an optically transparent material and has disc receiving portions. The tray is movable in an ejection and a retraction direction with respect to a casing. A light source is mounted inside... | 10/30/2007 |
| 7290269 | Disk recording and/or reproducing apparatus A plurality of switches are pressed by a single switch operating member. A disk recording and/or reproducing apparatus has a switch mechanism operable when a pair of turn arms is turned so as to be spread away from each other by a disk inserted from a disk slot. The... | 10/30/2007 |
| 7282884 | Procedure for driving a moveable part of an item of furniture A method of driving a moveable part and, in particular, a drawer by a drive unit and, in particular, an electric drive unit. At least over a partial length of track (S2), forming part of the total track traversed by the moveable part, the force exerted on... | 10/16/2007 |
| 7266065 | Apparatus for discriminating optical recording medium and method for discriminating optical recording medium It is an object of the present invention is to provide an apparatus for discriminating an optical recording medium and a method for discriminating an optical recording medium which can reliably discriminate the kind of an optical recording medium even in the case wh... | 09/04/2007 |
| 7251817 | Disk transfer device The disk transfer device according to the present invention includes a disk tray for holding the disk during the disk transfer action and a tray driving mechanism for driving the tray forward and backward between a first position which is the retracted location of t... | 07/31/2007 |
| 7247960 | Motor/encoder assembly for tape drives A magnetic/encoder assembly has a compact design and combines the features of motor, encoder and chuck locating feature within a single motor housing. The motor/encoder includes a DC brushless motor with an inner magnetic rotor. The motor windings and the commutatio... | 07/24/2007 |
| 7247961 | Motor/encoder assembly for tape drives A magnetic/encoder assembly has a compact design and combines the features of motor, encoder and chuck locating feature within a single motor housing. The motor/encoder includes a DC brushless motor with an inner magnetic rotor. The motor windings and the commutatio... | 07/24/2007 |
| 7221985 | On-screen calibration system and operating method thereof An on-screen calibration system for disc drives and the operating method thereof. The calibration system includes an autocollimator detecting the inclined angle of the stage of a disc drive. A control module is connected to the on-screen display module and a bar cod... | 05/22/2007 |
| 7178154 | Disc drive with carrier completely in the drive in a loading position and protruding out of the drive in an eject position A drive for storage disc which permits a convenient means of loading and unloading the storage disc. The drive includes a loading device for transport of a storage disc into the drive, the loading device including a carrier for accommodating the storage disc. In a l... | 02/13/2007 |
| 7152234 | Disk device The object is to keep the system safety even if the disk tray of the disk device is drawn out from the PC main body and led to a structurally dangerous state, and to prevent the disk tray from wrong operation beforehand. In addition, in a recording and playback syst... | 12/19/2006 |
| 7145272 | Motor/encoder assembly for tape drives A magnetic/encoder assembly has a compact design and combines the features of motor, encoder and chuck locating feature within a single motor housing. The motor/encoder includes a DC brushless motor with an inner magnetic rotor. The motor windings and the commutatio... | 12/05/2006 |
| 7126786 | Motor/encoder assembly for tape drives A magnetic/encoder assembly has a compact design and combines the features of motor, encoder and chuck locating feature within a single motor housing. The motor/encoder includes a DC brushless motor with an inner magnetic rotor. The motor windings and the commutatio... | 10/24/2006 |
| 7113465 | Method of and apparatus for detecting type of disc A method and apparatus for detecting a type of a disc in a disc drive system includes measuring an elapsed time between when a disc tray is in an open state and when it completely closes, comparing the elapsed time with a predetermined reference value, and determini... | 09/26/2006 |
| 7111308 | Protection method for manual ejection operation of optical disk drive A protection method for manual ejection operation of optical disk drive is proposed. In the present method, a locked state is set when the optical disk drive is in normal rotation. The load-sensing switch would turn to the on position (stage) when the optical disk i... | 09/19/2006 |
| 7069565 | Disk identifying device In a disk identifying device, when a slanting reflecting face is irradiated with light emitted from a light emitting element while a rotary tray is rotating, most of the light reflected from the slanting reflecting face is not incident on a light receiving element, ... | 06/27/2006 |
| 7069566 | Optical disk apparatus having a plurality of drawer detection sensors An optical disk apparatus has a plurality of detection switches for improving safety while a mounting area is prevented from being occupied by the detection switches. A cabinet member accommodates component parts of the optical disk apparatus including a circuit boa... | 06/27/2006 |
| 7055157 | Loading motor control device of optical disc player A loading motor control device of an optical device, which controls a loading motor to move a tray for loading or unloading a disc, and to raise and lower a pickup deck. The loading motor control device includes an optical sensor that has a light-emitting portion an... | 05/30/2006 |
| 7028314 | Media storage system and method for identifying a storage location therein Media storage system and method for identifying storage locations therein. One embodiment of the media storage system may comprise at least one storage library having a storage area therein. At least one access panel operatively associated with the at least one stor... | 04/11/2006 |
| 7003784 | Disk apparatus Provided are a tray 2 for mounting a cartridge 101 that houses a disk and has an aperture for exposing an information layer and a shutter 101a for opening/closing the aperture, a conveyor for conveying the tray 2, an opener 13 | 02/21/2006 |
| 6963519 | Disc device 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 contro... | 11/08/2005 |
| 6922378 | Method and apparatus for controlling the disk tray by detecting the back emf force This invention relates specifically to a method for controlling the disc tray of a data reproducing device, in which the data reproducing device comprises at least a tray motor for driving the disc tray. The method comprises the following steps, including: a step fo... | 07/26/2005 |
| 6904604 | Disc drive with shockproof mechanism having tray with block preventing escape of cam shaft from track The present invention discloses a shockproof mechanism for a disc drive. The disc drive includes a tray and a chassis. The tray has a track thereon, and the track includes a first end and a second end. A shaft is disposed on the chassis and engages with the track. W... | 06/07/2005 |
| 6854124 | Disk drive unit with tray being retractable and ejectable from a main body The disk drive unit of the present invention comprises: a main body; a tray including a disk accommodating section in which an optical disk is held, the tray being retracted into and ejected from the main body; and a driving mechanism for driving the tray. The drivi... | 02/08/2005 |
| 6810524 | Disk changer When a disk tray stops beyond or before a predetermined rotational position, there has heretofore been a likelihood of the disk tray being unable to be inhibited its rotation. As an arm portion 261b is displaced counterclockwise, a shaft portion 262... | 10/26/2004 |
