Method and apparatus for detecting a track count in an optical disk apparatus for recording/reproducing data on/from an optical disk

Claim 1

A method of detecting a track count between a track at an initial position read at the beginning of access and a track at a current position read during access in an optical disk apparatus for recording/reproducing data on/from an optical disk, using a light beam, a plurality of track sets being formed in a radial direction on said optical disk, and each of said track sets having a predetermined number of tracks on which different access marks are formed every at least one track, said method comprising: a step of counting the tracks to obtain the number of cross tracks while detecting simultaneously a first portion of the access mark which changes every track and a second portion of the access mark which changes every plurality of tracks; a step of counting the track sets to obtain the number of track sets while detecting the second portion of the access mark which changes every plurality of tracks; a step of obtaining from the number of cross tracks a remainder track count which does not reach a positive integer multiple of the predetermined number of tracks and a cross track set count representing the number of track sets crossed by the light beam during access; and a step of adding the remainder track count to a value obtained by multiplying the predetermined number of tracks with the cross track set count to obtain the track count.

Claim 2

A method of detecting a track count between a track at an initial position read at the beginning of access and a track at a current position read during access in an optical disk apparatus for recording/reproducing data on/from an optical disk, using a light beam, a plurality of track sets being formed in a radial direction on said optical disk, and each of said track sets having a predetermined number of tracks on which different access marks are formed every at least one track, said method comprising: a step of counting the tracks to obtain the number of cross tracks while detecting simultaneously a first portion of the access mark which changes every track and a second portion of the access mark which changes every plurality of tracks; a step of counting the track sets to obtain the number of track sets while detecting the second portion of the access mark which changes every plurality of tracks; a step of obtaining from the number of cross tracks a remainder track count which does not reach a positive integer multiple of the predetermined number of tracks and a cross track set count representing the number of track sets crossed by the light beam during access; and a step of adding the remainder track count to a value obtained by multiplying the predetermined number of tracks with the cross track set count to obtain the track count.

Claim 4

A method of detecting a track count between a track at an initial position read at the beginning of access and a track at a current position read during access in an optical disk apparatus for recording/reproducing data on/from an optical disk, using a liquid beam, a plurality of track sets being formed in a radial direction on the optical disk, each of said track sets having a predetermined number of tracks on which different specific pit patterns are formed every at least one track, comprising: a step of obtaining from the number of tracks a remainder track count which does not reach a positive integer multiple of the predetermined number of tracks and a cross track set count representing the number of tracks sets crossed by the light beam during access; a step of adding the remainder track count to a value obtained by multiplying the predetermined number of tracks with the cross track set count to obtain a candidate of the track count; a step of discriminating the presence/absence of a read error of the pit pattern at each simple timing; a step of comparing the pit pattern which is discriminated to be free from a read error and read at each sample timing with the edit pattern read at an immediately preceding sample timing to detect and store a cross track count representing the number of tracks crossed by the light beam between the two sample timings; a step of augmenting the stored cross track count by the number of successively occurring read errors; and a step of outputting the candidate of the track count as the cross track count when the absence of a read error is discriminated, and outputting a result of adding the cross track count augmented by the number of successively occurring errors to the candidate of the track count when the presence of the read error is discriminated.

Claim 5

A method of detecting a track count between a track at an initial position read at the beginning of access and a track at a current position read during access in an optical disk apparatus for recording/reproducing data on/from an optical disk, using a liquid beam, a plurality of track sets being formed in a radial direction on the optical disk, each of said track sets having a predetermined number of tracks on which different specific pit patterns are formed every at least one track, comprising: a step of obtaining from the number of tracks a remainder track count which does not reach a positive integer multiple of the predetermined number of tracks and a cross track set count representing the number of tracks sets crossed by the light beam during access; a step of adding the remainder track count to a value obtained by multiplying the predetermined number of tracks with the cross track set count to obtain a candidate of the track count; a step of discriminating the presence/absence of a read error of the pit pattern at each simple timing; a step of comparing the pit pattern which is discriminated to be free from a read error and read at each sample timing with the edit pattern read at an immediately preceding sample timing to detect and store a cross track count representing the number of tracks crossed by the light beam between the two sample timings; a step of augmenting the stored cross track count by the number of successively occurring read errors; and a step of outputting the candidate of the track count as the cross track count when the absence of a read error is discriminated, and outputting a result of adding the cross track count augmented by the number of successively occurring errors to the candidate of the track count when the presence of the read error is discriminated.

Claim 12

An apparatus for detecting a track count between a track at an initial position read at the beginning of access and a track at a current position read during access in an optical disk apparatus for recording/reproducing data on/from an optical disk, using a light beam, a plurality of track sets being formed in a radial direction on the optical disk, each of said track sets having a predetermined number of tracks on which different access marks are formed every at least one track, said apparatus comprising: means for counting the tracks to obtain the number of cross tracks while detecting simultaneously a first portion of the access mark which changes every track and a second portion of the access mark which changes every plurality of tracks; means for counting the track sets to obtain the number of track sets while detecting the second portion of the access mark which change every plurality of tracks; means for obtaining a remainder track count which does not reach a positive integer multiple of the predetermined number of tracks and a cross track set count representing the number of track sets crossed by the light beam during access; means for adding the remainder track count to a value obtained by multiplying the predetermined number of tracks with the cross track set count to obtain a candidate of the track count; means for discriminating the presence/absence of a pit pattern read error at each sample timing; means for comparing a pit pattern which is discriminated to be free from a read error and read at each sample timing with the pit pattern read at an immediately preceding sample timing to detect and store a cross track count representing the number of tracks crossed by the light beam between the two sample timings; means for augmenting the stored cross track count by the number of successively occurring read errors; and means for outputting the candidate of the track count is the cross track count when the absence of a read error is discriminated, and outputting a result of adding a cross track count augmented by the number of successively occurring errors to the candidate of the track count when the presence of a read error is discriminated.

Claim 13

An apparatus for detecting a track count between a track at an initial position read at the beginning of access and a track at a current position read during access in an optical disk apparatus for recording/reproducing data on/from an optical disk, using a light beam, a plurality of track sets being formed in a radial direction on the optical disk, each of said track sets having a predetermined number of tracks on which different access marks are formed every at least one track, said apparatus comprising: means for counting the tracks to obtain the number of cross tracks while detecting simultaneously a first portion of the access mark which changes every track and a second portion of the access mark which changes every plurality of tracks; means for counting the track sets to obtain the number of track sets while detecting the second portion of the access mark which change every plurality of tracks; means for obtaining a remainder track count which does not reach a positive integer multiple of the predetermined number of tracks and a cross track set count representing the number of track sets crossed by the light beam during access; means for adding the remainder track count to a value obtained by multiplying the predetermined number of tracks with the cross track set count to obtain a candidate of the track count; means for discriminating the presence/absence of a pit pattern read error at each sample timing; means for comparing a pit pattern which is discriminated to be free from a read error and read at each sample timing with the pit pattern read at an immediately preceding sample timing to detect and store a cross track count representing the number of tracks crossed by the light beam between the two sample timings; means for augmenting the stored cross track count by the number of successively occurring read errors; and means for outputting the candidate of the track count is the cross track count when the absence of a read error is discriminated, and outputting a result of adding a cross track count augmented by the number of successively occurring errors to the candidate of the track count when the presence of a read error is discriminated.