Optical recording apparatus with drawing capability of visible image on disk face

An optical disk apparatus for recording information by irradiating a laser beam onto an optical disk, comprising:

• a pickup that is provided for irradiating the laser beam on the optical disk having an optically recordable side and a thermally sensitive side opposite to the optically recordable side;
• a scanning section that is provided for scanning the laser beam relative to the optical disk;
• a recording control section operative when the optical disk is set to expose the optically recordable side for controlling the pickup and the scanning section to effect recording of information on the optically recordable side by irradiating and scanning the laser beam;
• a drawing control section operative when the optical disk is set to expose the thermally sensitive side for controlling the pickup and the scanning section to effect drawing of a visible image on the thermally sensitive side according to image information, such that the laser beam irradiated onto the thermally sensitive side is changed between a first intensity thermally incapable of acting on the thermally sensitive side of the optical disk and a second intensity thermally capable of acting on the thermally sensitive side of the optical disk;
• and
• a servo section that periodically detects the laser beam reflected back from the optical disk when the laser beam has the first intensity, and that servo-controls the irradiating of the laser beam during the drawing of the visible image based on the detection of the laser beam,
• wherein the drawing control section controls the pickup for forcibly changing the laser beam to the first intensity from the second intensity when the second intensity is maintained over a predetermined period pursuant to the image information, thereby enabling the servo section to detect the laser beam having the first intensity for continuing the servo-control.

An optical disk apparatus for recording information by irradiating a laser beam onto an optical disk, comprising:

• a pickup that is provided for irradiating the laser beam to form a beam spot on the optical disk having an optically recordable side and a thermally sensitive side opposite to the optically recordable side;
• a scanning section that is provided for scanning the beam spot relative to the optical disk;
• a recording control section operative when the optical disk is set to expose the optically recordable side for controlling the pickup and the scanning section to effect recording of information on the optically recordable side by irradiating and scanning the laser beam;
• a drawing control section operative when the optical disk is set to expose the thermally sensitive side for controlling the pickup and the scanning section to effect drawing of a visible image on the thermally sensitive side by irradiating and scanning the laser beam;
• and
• a beam spot control section that controls a size of the beam spot greater in the drawing of the visible image than another size of the beam spot used in the recording of the information.

An optical disk apparatus for recording information by irradiating a laser beam onto an optical disk, comprising:

• a pickup that is provided for irradiating the laser beam on the optical disk having an optically recordable side and a thermally sensitive side opposite to the optically recordable side;
• a scanning section that is provided for scanning the laser beam over the optical disk;
• a recording control section operative when the optical disk is set to face the optically recordable side to the pickup for controlling the pickup and the scanning section to effect recording of information on the optically recordable side by irradiating and scanning the laser beam;
• a drawing control section operative when the optical disk is set to face the thermally sensitive side to the pickup for controlling the pickup and the scanning section to effect drawing of a visible image on the thermally sensitive side by irradiating and scanning the laser beam;
• and
• a gap adjusting section that adjusts a gap between the pickup and the optical disk depending on whether the optical disk is set to face the optically recordable side or the thermally sensitive side to the pickup, thereby respectively optimizing the recording of the information and the drawing of the visible image.

An optical disk apparatus for recording information by irradiating a laser beam onto an optical disk, comprising:

• a pickup that is provided for irradiating the laser beam onto the optical disk having an optically recordable side formed with a guide groove in a circumferential direction of the optical disk and a thermally sensitive side opposite to the optically recordable side;
• a scanning section that is provided for scanning the laser beam over the optical disk;
• a recording control section operative when the optical disk is set such as to face the optically recordable side to the pickup for controlling the pickup and the scanning section to effect recording of information on the optically recordable side by irradiating and scanning the laser beam;
• a servo section operative when the optical disk is set to face the thermally sensitive side to the pickup for servo-controlling the scanning section to enable the laser beam to track the guide groove according to the laser beam reflected back from the thermally sensitive side of the optical disk;
• and
• a drawing control section operative when the thermally sensitive side of the optical disk faces the pickup for controlling the pickup to effect drawing of a visible image on the thermally sensitive side by irradiating the laser beam while the laser beam tracks the guide groove.

An optical disk apparatus for recording information by irradiating a laser beam onto an optical disk, comprising:

• a pickup that is provided for irradiating the laser beam onto the optical disk having an optically recordable side and a thermally sensitive side opposite to the optically recordable side;
• a rotary driving section that is provided for rotating the optical disk at a given rotation speed;
• a clock generating section that generates a clock signal having a frequency proportional to the rotation speed of the optical disk;
• a recording control section operative when the optical disk is set such as to face the optically recordable side to the pickup for controlling the pickup to effect recording of information on the optically recordable side by irradiating the laser beam;
• a drawing control section operative when the optical disk is set such as to face the thermally sensitive side to the pickup for controlling the pickup to effect drawing of a visible image on the thermally sensitive side by irradiating the laser beam according to given image information such that the laser beam is modulated each period of the clock signal;
• a rotation detection section that detects each time the optical disk is rotated one round during the drawing of the visible image;
• and
• a scanning section operative when the optical disk is detected to rotate one round for advancing the laser beam by one step interval radially of the rotated optical disk to thereby scan the laser beam over the optical disk during the drawing of the visible image on the thermally sensitive side.

An optical disk apparatus for recording information by irradiating a laser beam onto an optical disk, comprising:

• a pickup that is provided for irradiating the laser beam onto the optical disk having an optically recordable side and a thermally sensitive side opposite to the optically recordable side;
• a rotary driving section that is provided for rotating the optical disk;
• a rotation detection section that detects each time the optical disk is rotated one round from a radial reference position of the optical disk;
• a recording control section operative when the optical disk is set such as to face the optically recordable side to the pickup for controlling the pickup to effect recording of information on the optically recordable side by irradiating the laser beam;
• a drawing control section operative when the optical disk is set such as to face the thermally sensitive side to the pickup for controlling the pickup to effect drawing of a visible image on the thermally sensitive side by irradiating the laser beam according to given image information;
• and
• a scanning section operative when the optical disk is detected to rotate one round for advancing the laser beam by one step interval radially of the rotated optical disk to thereby scan the laser beam over the optical disk during the drawing of the visible image on the thermally sensitive side,
• wherein the drawing control section operates when the optical disk is detected to rotate one round for activating the pickup to irradiate the laser beam so as to start the drawing of the visible image from the radial reference position of the optical disk, and then operates when the laser beam approaches to the radial reference position for inactivating the pickup to stop the drawing of the visible image before the laser beam reaches the radial reference position of the optical disk.

An optical disk apparatus for recording information by irradiating a laser beam onto an optical disk of various types, comprising:

• a pickup that is provided for irradiating the laser beam on the optical disk having an optically recordable side and a thermally sensitive side opposite to the optically recordable side;
• a scanning section that is provided for scanning the laser beam relative to the optical disk;
• a recording control section operative when the optical disk is set to expose the optically recordable side for controlling the pickup and the scanning section to effect recording of information on the optically recordable side by irradiating and scanning the laser beam;
• a disk detecting section that is provided for acquiring identification information from the optical disk to identify the type of the optical disk set in the apparatus;
• and
• a drawing control section operative when the optical disk is set to expose the thermally sensitive side for controlling the pickup and the scanning section in accordance with the identified type of the optical disk so as to effect drawing of a visible image on the thermally sensitive side by irradiating and scanning the laser beam.

An optical disk apparatus for recording information by irradiating a laser beam onto an optical disk, comprising:

• a pickup that is provided for irradiating the laser beam on the optical disk having an optically recordable side and a thermally sensitive side opposite to the optically recordable side;
• an encoding section that is provided for encoding the information to be recorded;
• a recording control section operative when the optical disk is set to expose the optically recordable side for controlling the pickup to irradiate the laser beam according to the information encoded by the encoding section to thereby effect recording of the information in an encoded form on the optically recordable side;
• a drawing control section operative when the optical disk is set to expose the thermally sensitive side for controlling the pickup to irradiate the laser beam according to image information so as to effect drawing of a visible image on the thermally sensitive side;
• and
• a blocking section operative during the drawing of the visible image for blocking the encoding section from encoding the image information such that the visible image is drawn according to a non-encoded form of the image information.

An optical disk apparatus for recording information by irradiating a laser beam onto an optical disk, comprising:

• a pickup that is provided for irradiating the laser beam on the optical disk having an optically recordable side and a thermally sensitive side opposite to the optically recordable side;
• a recording control section operative when the optical disk is set to expose the optically recordable side for controlling the pickup to irradiate the laser beam according to the information to thereby effect recording of the information;
• and
• a drawing control section operative when the optical disk is set to expose the thermally sensitive side for controlling the pickup to irradiate the laser beam according to image information so as to effect drawing of a visible image on the thermally sensitive side, such that the laser beam is controlled according to gradation indicated by the image information so as to gradate the visible image drawn on the thermally sensitive side of the optical disk.

An image forming method employing an optical disk recording apparatus having an optical pickup which irradiates a laser beam onto a recordable face of an optical disk to record information, and forming a visual image according to image data on a thermo sensitive face of said optical disk which is opposite to said recordable face, the method comprising the steps of:

• controlling said laser beam emitted by said optical pickup, so that a visual image corresponding to the image data is formed by said optical pickup on said thermo sensitive face of said optical disk, while an irradiation position of said laser beam emitted by said optical pickup is moved along a predetermined spiral or concentric path on said thermo sensitive face;
• defining unit areas by radially dividing the thermo sensitive face such that each unit area has a sector shape containing a predetermined number of segments of the spiral or concentric path;
• and
• controlling an irradiation timing of said laser beam onto the respective segments of the spiral or concentric path that belong to each unit area, so that an optical density of each unit area is controlled to express gradation of said visual image.