High density information system using multiple strips

Claim 2

A high density multiple spot information storage system in which information is stored on a strip medium in the form of patterns of closely spaced spots of recognizable character, different from that of said strip, and adapted to be recorded and read by transducing means, comprising: a. a plurality of strips in a plurality of strip-handling means for storing and traversing a plurality of strips from a pluralitY of first storage elements to a plurality of second storage elements; b. a plurality of strip traversing means intermediate said first and second storage elements for traversing said strips at constant speed with each of said strips positioned in the same predetermined strip plane within predetermined transducing gates; c. single rotating scanning transducing means adapted to successively scan each of said strips in a direction substantially perpendicular to the axes of said strips, in a scanning plane parallel to and precisely spaced from said strip plane, each of said strips positioned in a radial plane through the axis of rotation of said scanning transducer means, and said transducing gates at substantially the same radius from said axis of rotation; d. means to relatively transduce information between said transducing means and said strips; and wherein; each of said plurality of strips are substantially alike, and each have said patterns of spots representing stored information recorded thereon, said scanning transducer means adapted to read said recorded information, whereby as said transducing means sequentially scans across each of said strips, said transducer will sequentially read the information on each strip.

Claim 3

Apparatus as in claim 1 in which said transducing means is magnetic.

Claim 4

Apparatus as in claim 1 in which said transducing means is optical.

Claim 5

Apparatus as in claim 3 including means for detecting the light back scattered from said strip in the areas of said spots, whereby said spots can be read.

Claim 6

Apparatus as in claim 3 including means for detecting the light transmitted through said strip in the areas of said spots.

Claim 7

Apparatus as in claim 1 in which said scanning means comprises means to rotate at least one optical element so that its optical axis is parallel to and spaced from its axis of rotation, which axis of rotation is perpendicular to said strip plane.

Claim 8

Apparatus as in claim 6 including a plurality of said optical elements in the same plane and spaced at equal angles around said axis of rotation, whereby as said strip is traversed longitudinally in said strip plane, said plurality of elements will sweep out a plurality of parallel arc-like traces across said strip.

Claim 9

Apparatus as in claim 1 including a plurality of strips in a plurality of strip handling means, said handling means mounted in a rotating assembly adapted for rotation about an axis parallel to the axis of rotation of said scanning transducing means, whereby by rotating said rotating assembly, each of said plurality of strips will be sequentially presented to said scanning means.

Claim 10

Apparatus as in claim 8 including a single strip traversing means in fixed relation to said scanning transducer means and adapted to be placed sequentially into operating relation to each strip as said rotating assembly of strip handling means is rotated.

Claim 11

Apparatus as in claim 8 including a plurality of rotating assemblies symmetrically placed with respect to the axis of rotation of said scanning transducing means, each assembly including a plurality of strip handling means, at least one strip handling means in each rotating assembly in transducing relation to said rotating transducing means.

Claim 12

Apparatus as in claim 1 in which said strip means comprises a transparent base strip with a thin layer of opaque material deposited on one surface, and including laser radiation means and means to focus said laser radiation to a small spot substantially at the surface of said opaque material, thereby to modify said opaque material, over the area of said spot focus, and form a spot of different character in said opaque material.

Claim 13

Apparatus as in claim 11 in which said opaque material comprises a thin metallic film, and said modification comprises evaporation.

Claim 14

Apparatus as in claim 1 including means substantially simultaneously to record said spots on said strip and to read said spots substantially as they are recorded.

Claim 15

Apparatus as in claim 1 in which said strip record medium comprises a base layer of plastic plus a thin film of resin carrying a finely divided material sensitive to ultraviolet light, which on irradiation by ultraviolet light decomposes to produce minute quantities of a gas which is bound within the resin, such that when said resin is heated the gas is permitted to expand to form minute vesicles, which act to diffract and scatter light incident upon the medium in the area of said vesicles.

Claim 16

Apparatus as in claim 14 including means to record on said strip including means to flood a portion of the recording area with ultraviolet light, whereby said gas is released, and including means to heat the strip over the area of a spot including a focus beam of coherent light of high intensity, whereby said resin will be heated and said gas permitted to expand to form light scattering vesicles within said resin.

Claim 17

Apparatus as in claim 1 in which said patterns of spots comprise pluralities of spots each of the same character, arranged in a predetermined matrix of possible spot positions, each spot representing one bit of information.

Claim 18

Apparatus as in claim 16 in which said transducing means is adapted to transduce each of said spots individually and sequentially.

Claim 19

Apparatus as in claim 1 in which said information is recorded in the form of arrays of patterns of spots, each of which patterns comprise pluralities of spots arranged in said patterns.

Claim 20

Apparatus as in claim 18 in which said transducing means is adapted to transduce a plurality of spots in said patterns simultaneously.

Claim 21

Apparatus as in claim 19 in which said transducing means comprises camera means.

Claim 22

Apparatus as in claim 19 in which said transducing means includes coherent optical means.

Claim 23

Apparatus as in claim 18 in which said patterns are swept frequency patterns.

Claim 24

Apparatus as in claim 18 in which said patterns are holograms.

Claim 25

Apparatus as in claim 18 in which said patterns are optical gratings.

Claim 26

Apparatus as in claim 1 including an equal number of transducing elements and strip handling means, arranged substantially equally spaced around the axis of rotation of said scanning transducer means, whereby a transducing element is in position to transduce information with each strip substantially simultaneously.

Claim 27

Apparatus as in claim 25 and including reading means to read the individual spots on each of a plurality of strips substantially simultaneously, and further including means to compare the readings of each of said plurality of reading means at each instant of time.

Claim 28

Apparatus as in claim 26 and including means to record on another strip substantially simultaneously, the result of said comparison.

Claim 29

Apparatus as in claim 1 in which said recording medium comprises a strip material with a thin layer of microcapsules of a chemical marking material, said capsules, when irradiated with a focussed beam of coherent light of high intensity are adapted to break, permitting the chemical material to mark said strip material.

Claim 30

The apparatus as in claim 1 including at least a second rotating scanning transducing means similar to and symmetrically placed with respect to said single rotating scanning means to simultaneously read information from said plurality of substantially similar strips by said corresponding plurality of rotating scanning transducing means.

Claim 31

In an information apparatus in which information is stored in the form of patterns of closely spaced spots arranged in two-dimensional arrays of possible spot positions on a plurality of strip record media and in which said spots are transduced by relatively moving said strips and a single rotating transducing means, in which said transducing means scans in sequence each possible spot position in said arrays, the method of producing records comprising the steps of; a. preparing a first and a second strip record medium and placing said first and second strips in first and second strip handling means, respectively, placing said first and second strip handling means in similar positions with respect to said rotating transducing means, such that said strips are in the same strip plane; b. traversing said first and second strips longitudinally in said strip plane at constant speed within similarly positioned transducing gates; c. sequentially scanning said strips by means of said transducing means rotating about an axis perpendicular to said strip plane, whereby said transducing means will scan in a transducing plane parallel to and precisely spaced from said strip plane, across said strips, within said transducing gates; and d. transducing said information between said rotary transducing means and said strips; and wherein each of said plurality of strips are substantially alike, and each are of such a structure as to be recorded upon by said transducer, to produce said patterns of spots representing information to be stored, said scanning transducer means adapted to record said patterns of spots, whereby as said transducing means sequentially scans across each of said plurality of strips, said transducer will sequentially record on each strip.

Claim 32

In an information apparatus in which information is stored in the form of patterns of closely spaced spots arranged in two-dimensional arrays of possible spot positions on a plurality of strip record media and in which said spots are transduced by relatively moving said strips and a single rotating transducing means, in which said transducing means scans in sequence each possible spot position in said arrays, the method of producing records comprising the steps of; a. preparing a first and a second strip record medium and placing said first and second strips in first and second strip handling means, respectively, placing said first and second strip handling means in similar positions with respect to said rotating transducing means, such that said strips are in the same strip plane; b. traversing said first and second strips longitudinally in said strip plane at constant speed within similarly positioned transducing gates; c. sequentially scanning said strips by means of said transducing means rotating about an axis perpendicular to said strip plane, whereby said transducing means will scan in a transducing plane parallel to and precisely spaced from said strip plane, across said strips, within said transducing gates; and d. transducing said information between said rotary transducing means and said strips; and wherein each of said plurality of strips are substantially alike, and each are of such a structure as to be recorded upon by said transducer, to produce said patterns of spots representing information to be stored, said scanning transducer means adapted to record said patterns of spots, whereby as said transducing means sequentially scans across each of said plurality of strips, said transducer will sequentially record on each strip.

Claim 33

The method as in claim 30 including the additional steps of: a. scanning a first track across said first strip and temporarily storing the information read from said first track, b. scanning a first track of said second strip, c. comparing the information read from said second strip with the stored information from said first strip, and d. utilizing the result of said comparison.

Claim 34

The method as in claim 31 including the additional steps of: a. preparing a third strip medium and placing it in position with respect to said transducing means similar to said first strip, such that said third strip is in the same plane as said first and second strips, b. traversing said third strip longitudinally at constant speed within said strip plane, and c. recording on said third strip the results of said comparison.

Claim 35

The method as in claim 30 including at least a second rotating scanning transducing means similar to and symmetrically placed with respect to said single rotating scanning means to simultaneously write information on a plurality of substantially similar strips by said corresponding plurality of rotating scanning transducing means.

Claim 36

A high density multiple spot information storage system in which information is stored on a strip medium in the form of patterns of closely spaced spots of recognizable character, different from that of said strip, and adapted to be recorded and read by transducing means, comprising: a. a plurality of strips in a plurality of strip-handling means for storing and traversing a plurality of strips from a plurality of first storage elements to a plurality of second storage elements; b. a plurality of strip traversing means intermediate said first and second storage elements for traversing said strips at constant speed with each of said strips positioned in the same predetermined strip plane within predetermined transducing gates; c. Single rotating scanning transducing means adapted to successively scan each of said strips in a direction substantially perpendicular to the axes of said strips, in a scanning plane parallel to and precisely spaced from said strip plane, each of said strips positioned in a radial plane through the axis of rotation of said scanning transducer means, and said transducing gates at substantially the same radius from said axis of rotation; d. means to relatively transduce information between said transducing means and said strips; and wherein; each of said plurality of strips are substantially alike and each are of such a structure as to be recorded upon by said transducer, to produce said patterns of spots representing information to be stored, said scanning transducer means adapted to record said patterns of spots, whereby as said transducing means sequentially scans across each oF said plurality of strips, said transducer will sequentially record on each strip.

Claim 37

A high density multiple spot information storage system in which information is stored on a strip medium in the form of patterns of closely spaced spots of recognizable character, different from that of said strip, and adapted to be recorded and read by transducing means, comprising: a. a plurality of strips in a plurality of strip-handling means for storing and traversing a plurality of strips from a plurality of first storage elements to a plurality of second storage elements; b. a plurality of strip traversing means intermediate said first and second storage elements for traversing said strips at constant speed with each of said strips positioned in the same predetermined strip plane within predetermined transducing gates; c. Single rotating scanning transducing means adapted to successively scan each of said strips in a direction substantially perpendicular to the axes of said strips, in a scanning plane parallel to and precisely spaced from said strip plane, each of said strips positioned in a radial plane through the axis of rotation of said scanning transducer means, and said transducing gates at substantially the same radius from said axis of rotation; d. means to relatively transduce information between said transducing means and said strips; and wherein; each of said plurality of strips are substantially alike and each are of such a structure as to be recorded upon by said transducer, to produce said patterns of spots representing information to be stored, said scanning transducer means adapted to record said patterns of spots, whereby as said transducing means sequentially scans across each oF said plurality of strips, said transducer will sequentially record on each strip.

Claim 38

The apparatus as in claim 34 including at least a second rotating scanning transducing means similar to and symmetrically placed with respect to said single rotating scanning means to simultaneously record information on said plurality of substantially similar strips by said corresponding plurality of rotating scanning transducing means.

Claim 39

In an information apparatus in which information is stored in the form of patterns of closely spaced spots arranged in two-dimensional arrays of possible spot positions on a plurality of strip record media and in which said spots are transduced by relatively moving said strips and a single rotating transducing means, in which said transducing means scans in sequence each possible spot position in said arrays, the method of producing records comprising the steps of; a. preparing a first and a second strip record medium and placing said first and second strips in first and secons strip handling means, respectively, placing said first and second strip handling means in similar positions with respect to said rotating transducing means, such that said strips are in the same strip plane; b. traversing said first and second strips longitudinally in said strip plane at a constant speed within similarly positioned transducing gates; c. sequentially scanning said strips by means of said transducing means rotating about an axis perpendicular to said strip plane, whereby said transducing means will scan in a transducing plane parallel to and precisely spaced from said strip plane, across said strips, within said transducing gates; and d. transducing said information between said rotaty transducing means and said strips; and wherein; each of said plurality of strips are substantially alike and each have said patterns of spots representing stored information recorded thereon, said scanning transducer means adapted to read said recorded information, whereby as said transducing means sequentially scans across each of said strips, said transducer will sequentially read the information on each strip.

Claim 40

In an information apparatus in which information is stored in the form of patterns of closely spaced spots arranged in two-dimensional arrays of possible spot positions on a plurality of strip record media and in which said spots are transduced by relatively moving said strips and a single rotating transducing means, in which said transducing means scans in sequence each possible spot position in said arrays, the method of producing records comprising the steps of; a. preparing a first and a second strip record medium and placing said first and second strips in first and secons strip handling means, respectively, placing said first and second strip handling means in similar positions with respect to said rotating transducing means, such that said strips are in the same strip plane; b. traversing said first and second strips longitudinally in said strip plane at a constant speed within similarly positioned transducing gates; c. sequentially scanning said strips by means of said transducing means rotating about an axis perpendicular to said strip plane, whereby said transducing means will scan in a transducing plane parallel to and precisely spaced from said strip plane, across said strips, within said transducing gates; and d. transducing said information between said rotaty transducing means and said strips; and wherein; each of said plurality of strips are substantially alike and each have said patterns of spots representing stored information recorded thereon, said scanning transducer means adapted to read said recorded information, whereby as said transducing means sequentially scans across each of said strips, said transducer will sequentially read the information on each strip.

Claim 41

The method as in claim 36 including at least a second rotating scanning transducing means similar to and symmetrically placed with respect to said single rotating scanning means to simultaneously read information from said plurality of substantially similar strips by said corresponding plurality of rotating scanning transducing means.