Yamaha CD-RW Drive Writes Images In Substrate

johnny5 writes: "Yamaha has recently demonstrated a new CD-RW drive that can write images into the unused space on a CD-R disc after the data track is written. The technology, called DiscT@2(TM), is due out in Japan in July. The images print on to the CD at approximately 250dpi, making graphics as well as text possible. More info can be found at Yamaha's CD-RW site (in English) as well as at Akiba PC Hotline (in Japanese, with better pictures. Babelfish for suitably akward translation). No word on a timeframe for U.S. availability"

Comments

The names got weirder every Year

[Kong the Medium]

So its

the revolutionary DiscT@2TM Laser Labeling System,

pronounced as Disctatoo trademark LLS

How do normal people know how to pronouce this or non-english speaking people like me. In German it would be "DiskTatzwei" trademark LLS. So Marketing only focuses on the english speaking clientel or what ?

Re:This can be done now...

[Bamyazi]

Why ?? if you made the last (outer) track on your cd your image track, then you simply need to correctly encode the data in that track to produce an image. You would need to know the total amount of data in previous tracks and the data density to be able to calculate your starting radius. But as the first poster says from that point it's a matter of maths and a correctly formatted file to burn to disk

Re:This can be done now...

[arivanov]

Assuming it is as you say it is not so easy. You need to insure that the writer will not barf. After all you feeding it with some data which according to the red book is garbage or pretty close to garbage. So the writer should allow turning off all error and sanity checks.

Alternatively it is very good software that merges an image on top of data that is acceptable to a normal CD writer.

In either case it is not just PI, elementary calculations and a bitmap.

Re:This can be done now...

[Merlin42]

Actually no. When real data is written to disk there are 3 layers (iirc) of error correcting/detecting that would disrupt the pattern. In fact if I understand the format correctly data is written in such a way that it can be recovered from multiple physical locations on the disc (to prevent a single scratch from ruining things). So writting long strings of 1's and 0's wouldn't quite do it. You need to be able to tell the laser when to turn on and off. This is something that normal drives don't allow. For the conspiracy theorists out there this is in compliance with the wishes of companies like Macrovision ;). Hmmm could this be used to create perfect 'backups' ;) of games?

Re:Neat but

[tswinzig]

So it will only "draw" on unused parts of the disk, basically taking up space... crap.

Don't they mean literally the unused part -- the space in between the pits that the laser writes?

Look at this picture here:

http://www.watch.impress.co.jp/akiba/hotline/20020 622/image/nya2.html

Re:Finally!!

[NickV]

You can't do this on mass produced CDs for two reasons:

1) Mass produced CDs are pressed, not burned. So I don't even know if this process will work for a pressed CD which uses a different authoring process.

2) Even if this was possibile in that regard. Having a unique CD key pressed onto each CD would result in creating n templates (where n=number of cds pressed) which is too expensive to be useful. This is sorta the same reason as to why we see CD Keys on cd cases, but never printed onto the front label side of the cd.

Re:Double Sided?

[White Shade]

double sided cdr disk would have to be twice the thickness (and consequently twice the mass...) of a regular disk, because the data is actually recorded on the 'upper' side of the disk; the plastic actually helps focus the laser onto the grooves. This is why it's far easier to destroy a CD-R (and a regular cd too) by scratching the label side than scratching the 'data' side.

A double sided CDR would have to be exactly like two CD's stuck on top of each other, or they'd have to do some extremely fancy tricks to get the laser to focus properly through a data layer.

You're wrong

[af_robot]

"Customers can put graphics, such as signatures, logos, memorandums, and photo images onto CD-R's unused area after data writing."

Look closely: there is a very small data area (inner circle) on the picture, all other space is unused.

Re:Why Hardware?

[gmarceau]

Cd drives have a very mild notion of their absolute position along the disk. I bet this drive has an extra sensor for angular position on the spindle.