US 7,116,620 B2Granted

System and method for controlling recording state transitions in an information recording apparatus

AssigneeHitachi, Ltd.

InventorsKouji Minabe, Hideo Nishijima, Hiroaki Ono, Kazunori Uemura, Masahiro Fujimoto

Life of this patent

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Abstract

An information recording apparatus such as an optical disc that can avoid an unrecordable condition between a power-on operation and an available state for recording thereby to solve a problem that an image taking chance is missed in a recording step, wherein its constitution is such that: receiving a command to turn on the apparatus after switching, a system controller drives a power-supply circuit to activate a drive controller and a memory controller; if the optical disc is not replaced while in power-off operation by a sub-battery, the system controller issues a request for high-speed activation, based on information stored in an EEPROM, to the drive controller, and drives plural drive control units one after another thereby to establish an activation period confirmedly, allowing the memory controller to accept a request for a recording start from the system controller without waiting for a report of activation completion to be issued by the drive controller.

Claims6

Dependent claims

An information recording/reproducing apparatus, comprising:

a means for recording information onto a recording medium;
a buffer memory which stores the information to be recorded onto the recording means;
a controller which controls a transition of the information recording means to be able to record information onto the recording medium, wherein the controller is able to conduct a first step and a second step during a period from a time when the power supply is turned on up to a time when the information recording means enters to be in a condition of able to record the information onto the information recording medium;
and
a power supply which supplies electric power to the information recording means, the buffer memory, and the controller, wherein:
when the information recording means is in the recordable state through conduction of the first step, an operation of storing the information to be recorded onto the recording medium into the buffer memory is started after the first step is completed, and thereafter when the information stored in the buffer means reaches up to a predetermined quantity, the information recording means starts an operation of recording the information from the buffer memory onto the information recording means;
and
when the information recording means is in the recordable state through conduction of the second step, on the other hand, an operation of storing the information to be recorded onto the recording medium into the buffer memory is started without waiting for the second step to be started or completed, and when the information recording means enters the recordable state and the information stored in the buffer memory reaches up to a predetermined quantity, the information recording means starts an operation to record the information from the buffer means onto the information recording means;
and further comprising
a switching circuit which monitors possibility of mounting and dismounting of the recording medium onto or from the information recording/reproducing apparatus, wherein the controller controls the transition of the information recording means to be able to record information onto the recording, depending upon the possibility of mounting and dismounting of the recording medium, which is monitored by the switching circuit;
and
when the monitoring circuit monitors the possibility that the recording medium is mounted at first, the information recording means enters into the recordable state through the first step, on the other hand, when the monitoring circuit monitors the possibility that no mounting or dismounting of the recording medium is monitored, then the information recording means enters into the recordable state thorough the second step.

9 more elements

An information recording/reproducing apparatus, comprising:

a means for recording information onto a recording medium;
a buffer memory which stores the information to be recorded onto the recording means;
a controller which controls a transition of the information recording means to be able to record information onto the recording medium, wherein the controller is able to conduct a first step and a second step during a period from a time when the power supply is turned on up to a time when the information recording means enters to be in a condition of able to record the information onto the information recording medium;
and
a power supply which supplies electric power to the information recording means, the buffer memory, and the controller, wherein:
when the information recording means is in the recordable state through conduction of the first step, an operation of storing the information to be recorded onto the recording medium into the buffer memory is started after the first step is completed, and thereafter when the information stored in the buffer means reaches up to a predetermined quantity, the information recording means starts an operation of recording the information from the buffer memory onto the information recording means;
and
when the information recording means is in the recordable state through conduction of the second step, on the other hand, an operation of storing the information to be recorded onto the recording medium into the buffer memory is started without waiting for the second step to be started or completed, and when the information recording means enters the recordable state and the information stored in the buffer memory reaches up to a predetermined quantity, the information recording means starts an operation to record the information from the buffer means onto the information recording means;
and further comprising
a switching circuit which monitors possibility of mounting and dismounting of the recording medium onto or from the information recording/reproducing apparatus, wherein the controller controls the transition of the information recording means to be able to record information onto the recording, depending upon the possibility of mounting and dismounting of the recording medium, which is monitored by the switching circuit;
and further comprising
an image sensing means for sensing an image signal, a display means for displaying the image signal and an image-signal encoding means for encoding the image signal wherein the information to be recorded onto the recording medium is a signal output by the image-signal encoding means of the image signal
wherein the apparatus is constituted such that:
if the second step is carried out to cause a transition of the information recording means to a recordable state after the power-supply means is turned off while the power-supply means is furnishing power to the image taking means and the display means, a message indicating that an operation to store information to be recorded onto the recording medium into the buffer means is allowed is displayed on the display means at a point of time the display means starts to operate.

11 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Facts

Application: 10/424,456Filed 25 Apr 2003
Priority: JP 2002-12338625 Apr 2002
Published: US 2003/0227847 A111 Dec 2003
Granted: 3 Oct 2006
Term ends: Not estimatedThe source records don’t support an estimate.

Classification11 codes

G11B 7/0045
Recording, reproducing or erasing methods; Read, write or erase circuits therefor: recording
G11B 19/02
Driving, starting, stopping record carriers not specifically of filamentary or web form, or of supports therefor; Control thereof; Control of…:…
G11B 19/10
Control of operating function, e.g. switching from recording to reproducing: by sensing presence or absence of record in accessible stored…
G11B 19/12
Control of operating function, e.g. switching from recording to reproducing: by sensing distinguishing features of or on records, e.g. diameter…