JPH03189980A - Optical disk cartridge - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To obtain an optical disk cartridge which can quickly read out a directory and quickly retrieve or record desired information recorded on an optical disk by providing a readable and writable semiconductor memory where the directory of the recorded content of the incorporated optical disk is recorded into a cartridge housing. CONSTITUTION:Since a RAM 13, a battery 14, a charge and discharge circuit 15 and a connector 16 are convetionally miniaturized and there is excess space at the four-coner parts of the cartridge housing 11 on the other hand, parts can be housed there. Then, the semiconductor memory RAM 13 executes a read-write action at a high speed and the directory can be quickly read out by executing the read-write to the RAM 13 through a proper read-write means provided in a driving device. Thus, the optical disk cartridge which can quickly retrieve or record a desired data file from a data file such as an image recorded on the optical disk 12 is obtained.

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] [Industrial Application Field] The present invention is applicable to digitized X-ray film images, CT, MR
The present invention relates to an optical disk cartridge for recording digital images generated from an I-device or the like.

[Conventional technology]

In recent years, digitized X-ray film images and CT.

An image storage and retrieval device is capable of recording digital images generated from an MRI device or the like on an optical disk cartridge, and searching for one or more arbitrary recorded images from the optical disk cartridge and interpreting the images on an image display device. has been developed.

According to this, especially for returning patients, the doctor compares and interprets the patient's past recorded images (past images) and the latest recorded images (latest images) on the screen of the image display device. Convenience will be provided.

Incidentally, the above-mentioned optical disk cartridges are available in sizes such as 3.5 inches, 5 inches, 12 inches, and 14 inches, and the capacity is about 100 MB for 3.5 inches and 6000 MB for 14 inches.

Conventionally, when recording and reproducing images using such an optical disk cartridge, a directory (-list) of the recorded contents of the optical disk cartridge has been written on the optical disk itself.

[Problem to be solved by the invention]

In the above-mentioned conventional technology, the above-mentioned directory was written on the optical disk itself, which caused the following problems. In other words, the writing/printing speed of the optical disk cartridge in the image storage and retrieval device is slow, and when checking the directory of recorded contents of the optical disk cartridge in the storage shelf, first, the optical disk cartridge is transferred to the optical disk of the image storage and retrieval device. It took some time after loading the drive device until the data was ready to be read. Secondly,
Even in such a state, it took a long time to read the directory. For this reason, there is a problem in that the time ultimately required for image retrieval becomes extremely long.

Therefore, in order to shorten this time, a large number (several 10
A device called an optical disk library has been commercialized, which is a combination of an autochanger and an optical disk drive device for managing optical disk cartridges (from 100 disks to 100 disks or more). However, such an apparatus is not only expensive, but also has a discoloration limit of about 100 sheets that can be managed. Therefore, when managing a large number of optical disk cartridges,
A database of all optical disk cartridges must be created on a high-speed, large-capacity magnetic disk, and if a large number of optical disk cartridges are on a storage shelf, creating this database takes a lot of time and is not practical.

Therefore, the type of image recorded on the built-in optical disk,
If there was a way to quickly read a directory representing a patient's TD from an optical disk cartridge, it would be possible to do so simply by loading the optical disk cartridge into the drive device.
This type of improvement has been desired in the past because it allows users to quickly read directories and quickly search for desired images.

An object of the present invention is to provide an optical disc cartridge that can quickly read a directory and quickly search for or record desired information recorded on an optical disc.

[Means to solve the problem]

The object of the present invention is achieved by providing a cartridge housing with a readable/writable semiconductor memory for recording a directory of recorded contents of a built-in optical disk.

[Effect]

The semiconductor memory is located within the cartridge housing and is capable of reading and writing a directory 3 of recorded contents of the built-in optical disk.

Semiconductor memory has high-speed read/write operations. Therefore, by reading/writing from/to this semiconductor memory via an appropriate read/write means provided in the drive device, the directory can be quickly read out, and the directory recorded on the optical disc can be read out quickly. A desired data file can be quickly searched for or recorded from data files such as images.

In this case, the optical disk of the optical disk cartridge is disk-shaped, while the cartridge housing that houses it is rectangular, and the semiconductor memory is small, so it is not possible to place the semiconductor memory in the four corners of the cartridge housing. It is quite possible. Furthermore, the increased storage capacity of semiconductor memories makes it possible to sufficiently store directories of contents recorded on large-capacity optical discs. Therefore, the present invention is easily achieved.

〔Example〕

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

- FIG. 1 is a plan view showing an example of a 5-inch optical disc cartridge to which the present invention is applied, and FIG. 2 is a plan view showing an example of a 12-inch optical disc cartridge. In both figures, 11 is a cartridge housing, and 12 is an optical disc housed within this housing 11, and these are not particularly different from conventional optical disc cartridges.

Reference numeral 13 designates a readable/writable IC memory, here a RAM, disposed at the four corners of the housing 11, here one side of the rear corner of the housing 11. 14 and 15 are the housing 1
A battery and its charging/discharging circuit are disposed on the other side of the rear corner of the battery.

Reference numeral 16 denotes a connector for reading and writing the directory to and from the RAMI 8 and for charging the battery 14, and is disposed on the front side of the cartridge housing 11.

In this case, the battery 14 supplies power to the RAM 13 via the charging/discharging circuit 15 for storing data.

Further, the charging/discharging circuit 15 causes the battery 13 to supply power to the RAM 13 for holding the memory when the optical disk drive of the present invention is stored on a shelf (not shown) or the like. Further, when the optical disc drive device (not shown) is loaded, power for storing the data and charging the battery 11 is supplied from the drive device side.

FIG. 3 is a circuit diagram showing an embodiment of the optical disk cartridge shown in FIGS. 1 and 2. In FIG.
The same reference numerals as in FIGS. 1 and 2 indicate the same parts. In this case, the data line between the RAM 13 and the connector 16 for reading and writing the directory from and to the RAM 13 may be provided using conventionally known means and is not shown.

Here, the RAM 13, the battery 14, the charging/discharging circuit 15, and the connector 16 have been conventionally miniaturized, and on the other hand, since there is surplus space in the four corners of the cartridge housing 11, the above-mentioned components can be accommodated in these parts. .

Next, the directory read/write operations of the above-mentioned cartridge of the present invention will be explained.

First, when the above cartridge is loaded into the drive device, images (data) can be transferred between them. At this time, the cartridge side connector 16 is connected to a drive device side connector (not shown), and directory data can be transferred between the cartridge and the drive device. Normally, at the same time that an image is written from the drive device to the cartridge, the director is transferred to the cartridge through both of the connectors. This directory data is written to RAM13 within the cartridge housing 11.

Here, the capacity is 6. OOOMB (3.OOMB on one side)
A specific example of the number of directory writes in the case of an optical disk cartridge will be described below. At present, one chip of 4 Mbit of RAM 18 is available, and by using a plurality of them, the storage capacity can be increased to several MB. Currently, the memory capacity of RAM13 is 4MB (4,194,
304B), one data file in the optical disk, here the length of the directory for image data is 32B)
Then, 4,194,304÷32=131°07
There are 2 cases. That is, it is possible to manage a directory of approximately 131,000 data items.

When searching for images, the process is as follows.

That is, optical disk cartridges are normally stored on a shelf (not shown), but when searching for a desired image among them, the optical disk cartridge is first loaded into the drive device.

As a result, the cartridge side connector 16 and the drive device side connector are connected, and the RAM 13 of the cartridge is connected.
The directory data written in is immediately read by a host device (not shown) (here, a search device section of the image storage and search device) via the drive device. Therefore, the host device can know the directory of the recorded contents of this cartridge. During this time, the optical disc 12 of the cartridge begins to rotate, and the data reading section of the drive device operates, making it possible to read the image from the optical disc 12.

As described above, while the cartridge is loaded into the optical disk drive device, power for storing directory data and charging the battery 11 is supplied from the drive device to the cartridge.

In the above-described embodiment, a volatile IC memory such as a RAM is used as the semiconductor memory, but a non-volatile IC memory such as an EPROM or an EEPROM may also be used. According to this, the power supply system for storing directory data (in the examples of FIGS. 2 and 3, the battery 14,
The charging/discharging circuit 15 and the power supply system in the connector 16) are no longer necessary, and the configuration is simplified.

Furthermore, it goes without saying that the present invention can be applied not only to optical disk cartridges for recording images but also to optical disk cartridges for recording other data.

〔Effect of the invention〕

According to the present invention, since the cartridge housing is provided with a semiconductor memory capable of reading and writing the directory of recorded contents of the built-in optical disk, the following effects are achieved. In other words, semiconductor memory has high-speed read/write operations. Therefore, by reading/writing from/to this semiconductor memory via an appropriate read/write means provided in the drive device, the directory can be read quickly and written to an optical disc. This has the advantage that a desired data file can be quickly searched for or recorded from data files such as recorded images.

In particular, load the necessary optical disk cartridge into the drive device, wait for the rotation of the optical disk to reach a steady state,
The read head then moves, resulting in a significant time savings compared to conventional methods of reading directory data from an optical disc.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a plan view showing an example of a 5-inch optical disc cartridge to which the present invention is applied, FIG. 2 is a plan view showing an example of a 12-inch optical disc cartridge, and FIG. FIG. 2 is a diagram showing an example of a circuit configuration in an optical disk cartridge. 11... Cartridge housing, 12... Optical disc,
13...RAM (IC memory), 14...battery, 15...charging/discharging circuit, 16...connector.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. An optical disc cartridge characterized in that the cartridge housing is equipped with a readable and writable semiconductor memory for recording a directory of recorded contents of a built-in optical disc.