Information recording and/or reproducing apparatus for timing switching of a jumping pulse from an intermittently detected tracking signal

Claim 1

An apparatus for recording and/or reproducing information on and/or from a recording medium having a plurality of tracks parallelly arranged thereon, comprising: means for recording and/or reproducing information on and/or from one of the tracks; means for moving said recording and/or reproducing means across the tracks; means for alternately applying a jumping signal and a braking signal having the opposite polarity to that of the jumping signal to said moving means to position said recording and/or reproducing means to a desired track; means for intermittently sampling a tracking error signal varying with the movement of said recording and/or reproducing means across the tracks; the tracking error signal varying between a positive value and a negative value at a period corresponding to a track pitch; means for storing signals sampled by said sampling means; and switching timing detection means for multiplying or adding the sampled signal and the previously sampled signal stored in said storing means for each sampling and causing said signal application means to switch from the jumping signal to the braking signal when the product or sum is zero or negative.

Claim 2

An apparatus for recording and/or reproducing information on and/or from a recording medium having a plurality of tracks parallelly arranged thereon, comprising: means for recording and/or reproducing information on and/or from one of the tracks; means for moving said recording and/or reproducing means across the tracks; means for alternately applying a jumping signal and a braking signal having the opposite polarity to that of the jumping signal to said moving means to position said recording and/or reproducing means to a desired track; means for intermittently sampling a tracking error signal varying with the movement of said recording and/or reproducing means across the tracks; the tracking error signal varying between a positive value and a negative value at a period corresponding to a track pitch; means for storing signals sampled by said sampling means; and switching timing detection means for multiplying or adding the sampled signal and the previously sampled signal stored in said storing means for each sampling and causing said signal application means to switch from the jumping signal to the braking signal when the product or sum is zero or negative.

Claim 6

An apparatus for recording and/or reproducing information by irradiating a light beam to a recording medium having a plurality of tracks parallelly arranged thereon, comprising: an optical system for irradiating a focused light beam onto one of the tracks; an acturator for moving said optical system across the tracks; a circuit for alternately applying a jumping signal and a braking signal having the opposite polarity to that of the jumping signal to direct the light beam to a desired track; a tracking signal detector for intermittently sampling a tracking error signal varying with the movement of said optical system across the tracks; the tracking signal varying between a positive value and a negative value at a period corresponding to a track pitch; a memory for storing the sampled signals; and a switching timing detector for multiplying or adding the sampled signal and the previously sampled signal stored in said memory for each sampling and causing said signal application circuit to switch from the jumping signal to said braking signal when the product or sum is zero or negative.

Claim 7

An apparatus for recording and/or reproducing information by irradiating a light beam to a recording medium having a plurality of tracks parallelly arranged thereon, comprising: an optical system for irradiating a focused light beam onto one of the tracks; an acturator for moving said optical system across the tracks; a circuit for alternately applying a jumping signal and a braking signal having the opposite polarity to that of the jumping signal to direct the light beam to a desired track; a tracking signal detector for intermittently sampling a tracking error signal varying with the movement of said optical system across the tracks; the tracking signal varying between a positive value and a negative value at a period corresponding to a track pitch; a memory for storing the sampled signals; and a switching timing detector for multiplying or adding the sampled signal and the previously sampled signal stored in said memory for each sampling and causing said signal application circuit to switch from the jumping signal to said braking signal when the product or sum is zero or negative.

Claim 11

An apparatus for recording and/or reproducing information on and/or from a recording medium having a plurality of tracks parallelly arranged thereon, comprising: means for recording and/or reproducing information on and/or from one of the tracks; means for moving said recording and/or reproducing means across the tracks; means for alternately applying a jumping signal and a braking signal having the opposite polarity to that of the jumping signal to said moving means to position said recording and/or reproducing means to a desired track; means for intermittently sampling a tracking error signal varying with the movement of said recording and/or reproducing means across the tracks; the tracking error signal varying between a positive value and a negative value at a period corresponding to a track pitch; means for storing signals sampled by said sampling means; and switching timing detection means for estimating a signal to be sampled next based on the sampled signal and the previously sampled signal stored in said storing means, multiplying or adding the estimated signal and the signal sampled this times and causing said signal application means to switch from the jumping signal to the braking signal when the product or sum is zero or negative.

Claim 12

An apparatus for recording and/or reproducing information on and/or from a recording medium having a plurality of tracks parallelly arranged thereon, comprising: means for recording and/or reproducing information on and/or from one of the tracks; means for moving said recording and/or reproducing means across the tracks; means for alternately applying a jumping signal and a braking signal having the opposite polarity to that of the jumping signal to said moving means to position said recording and/or reproducing means to a desired track; means for intermittently sampling a tracking error signal varying with the movement of said recording and/or reproducing means across the tracks; the tracking error signal varying between a positive value and a negative value at a period corresponding to a track pitch; means for storing signals sampled by said sampling means; and switching timing detection means for estimating a signal to be sampled next based on the sampled signal and the previously sampled signal stored in said storing means, multiplying or adding the estimated signal and the signal sampled this times and causing said signal application means to switch from the jumping signal to the braking signal when the product or sum is zero or negative.

Claim 16

An apparatus for recording and/or reproducing information by irradiating a light beam to a recording medium having a plurality of tracks parallelly arranged thereon, comprising: an optical system for irradiating a focused light beam onto one of the tracks; an actuator for moving said optical system across the tracks; a circuit for alternately applying a jumping signal and a braking signal having the opposite polarity to that of the jumping signal to direct the light beam to a desired track; a tracking signal detector for intermittently sampling a tracking error signal varying with the movement of said optical system across the tracks; the tracking signal varying between a positive value and a negative value at a period corresponding to a track pitch; a memory for storing the sampled signals; and a switching timing detector for estimating a signal to be sampled next based on the sampled signal and the previously sampled signal stored in said memory, multiplying or adding the estimated signal and the signal sampled this time, and causing said signal application circuit to switch from the jumping signal to the braking signal when the product or sum is zero or negative.

Claim 17

An apparatus for recording and/or reproducing information by irradiating a light beam to a recording medium having a plurality of tracks parallelly arranged thereon, comprising: an optical system for irradiating a focused light beam onto one of the tracks; an actuator for moving said optical system across the tracks; a circuit for alternately applying a jumping signal and a braking signal having the opposite polarity to that of the jumping signal to direct the light beam to a desired track; a tracking signal detector for intermittently sampling a tracking error signal varying with the movement of said optical system across the tracks; the tracking signal varying between a positive value and a negative value at a period corresponding to a track pitch; a memory for storing the sampled signals; and a switching timing detector for estimating a signal to be sampled next based on the sampled signal and the previously sampled signal stored in said memory, multiplying or adding the estimated signal and the signal sampled this time, and causing said signal application circuit to switch from the jumping signal to the braking signal when the product or sum is zero or negative.

Claim 21

A method or apparatus for moving a recording and/or reproducing location of a recording and/or reproducing means across a track of a record medium, in which track position error signal samples are obtained, and a first signal sample is processed with a preceding signal sample or an estimate of a subsequent signal sample to detect that a zero crossing has occurred or is estimated to be going to occur in the pattern of the track position error signal samples, and in response to the detection of the zero crossing a signal instructing movement of the said location across a said track or a signal instructing braking of said movement is begun or ended.

Claim 22

A method or apparatus for moving a recording and/or reproducing location of a recording and/or reproducing means across a track of a record medium, in which track position error signal samples are obtained, and a first signal sample is processed with a preceding signal sample or an estimate of a subsequent signal sample to detect that a zero crossing has occurred or is estimated to be going to occur in the pattern of the track position error signal samples, and in response to the detection of the zero crossing a signal instructing movement of the said location across a said track or a signal instructing braking of said movement is begun or ended.