3,997,716

43.88.Ne DISC RECORD LOCKED GROOVE ESCAPE

APPARATUS

Byron Kent Taylor, assignor to RCA Corporation 14 December 1976 (Class 178/6.6 DD); filed 21

November 1975

The extremely fine grooves of a video disc (groove convolution spacing is around 3.5 thousandths of a millimeter) are occasionally malformed or eccentric, preventing advancement of the pickup, which is instead restricted to retracing the same groove. Described here are different ways that means disclosed in earlier Patents 3,963,860 and 3,963,861 may be adapted to overcome this. In- cluded is a good thumbnail review of the assignee's patents in the field of video disc recording.-DSG

4,202,549

43.88.Ne DEVICE FOR MANUALLY CONTROLLING

MOVEMENT OF PICKUP ARM IN AUTOMATIC

RECORD PLAYER

Atsushi Takeuchi, assignor to Nippon Gakki 13 May 1980 (Class 274/9RA);filed 18 September 1978

A manually operated electrical position control system for a radial pickup is described. Whether designed from scratch, because of a lack of awareness of the myriad off-the-shelf position control components and complete systems available, or because these had been evaluated and found inappropriate or too costly to adapt, is not explained. The present application does call for considerable miniaturization. In general, control systems engineers should always participate in position control research and development projects.- DSG

4,202,551

43.88.Ne ACOUSTIC DAMPENING ASSEMBLY FOR

RECORD PLAYER TURNTABLE

Tom A. Darnall, Jr, Buckhannon, West Virginia 26 201 13 May 1980 (Class 274/39R); filed 11 May 1978

An elaborate system is described for the absorption of vibra- tion that "... prevents pick-up and generation of either mechanical or acoustical feedback by a component of the turntable; prevents travel of such frequencies through the component and between ad- joining components, or absorbs them during such travel; and, above all, prevents synergistic or compounded combinations of such fre- quencies, i.e., collision course vibrations, at points where they meet during such travel."-DSG

,

4,209,174

43.88. Ne SHOCK STARTING TYPE SIMPLIFIED

PHONOGRAPH

Yutaka Shiseki, Kanagawa-ken, Japan 24 June 1980 (Class 274/1 A); filed in Japan 28 February

1979

A small lever arm with a weighted free end is displaced to initiate start of play when jolted. Shown in conjunction with a miniature acoustical phonograph for incorporation in a toy, the mechanism is so small that it fits within a case of the usual size.-DSG

4,212,471

43.88.Ne DEVICE FOR cu'n'ING A SOUND GROOVE

ON A DISC RECORDING MEDIUM

Yoshiro Nishiwaki and Tetsuro Izumi, assignors to Victor Company of Japan

15 July 1980 (Class 274/38); filed in Japan 31 March 1978

A very hard carbonaceous material, diamond, is at the same time desirable for use in a cutting stylus on the basis of service life, but undesirable due to the relatively greater static charge it generates in cutting the "lacquer" master. The static cling to the stylus and mas- ter surface of the material removed by cutting interferes with con- tinued cutting. Accordingly diamond, while the preferred material for a reproducer stylus, is not recommended for use as a cutting stylus. To draw off the static charge to ground (and thus permit use of long-lived diamond) the assignee had already attempted applica- tion of an initially separate conductive plate to the diamond stylus' mirror surface (as described in Patent 4,105,213), only to discover that this plate was subject to wear rather quickly. This patent teaches direct application, to the mirror surface of the diamond, of the electro-conductive shunt-to-ground surface. Deposited by ion implantation to a controllable depth, such a conductive surface can- not become detached or deteriorate much sooner than the diamond

to which it is applied. With the static charge removed, the debris (chip) is readily vacuumed away through a suction nozzle close to the stylus. This results in convenience for the record maker, who is spared the need to change sapphire styli about 20 times as often.- DSG

4,070,553

43.88.Si PERSONAL AUDIO LISTENING SYSTEM

William J. Haas, Chicago, Illinois 60618 24 January 1978 (Class 179/157); filed 10 February 1977

Sold under the proprietary (and humorous) name of the "Bone Fone," this is a sound reproduction system for individual use con- sisting of an absorbent-Filled collar that contains small loudspeakers at positions corresponding to the base of the neck on either side. The combination of direct and bone-conducted signal components produces a sound enhancement effect. Bone conduction has been used often, but not generally in ways adaptable for use in a comfort- able entertainment form. Apart from the common bone conduction hearing aid, there are tooth-contact transducers, mostly intended for use in noisy environments such as the inside of jet fighters and bat- tle tanks. Several other parts of the body, such as the spinal column

342 J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 69(1 ), Jan. 1981; 0001•t966/81/010342-02500.80; ¸ 1981 Acoust. Soc. Am.; Patent Reviews 342

Redistribution subject to ASA license or copyright; see http://acousticalsociety.org/content/terms. Download to IP: 130.216.129.208 On: Fri, 05 Dec 2014 13:37:34

and breast bone (sternum) have had signals applied to them. Used in conjunction with a remote sound source and sometimes with a delay of the signaJ from the proximal reproducer, interesting spatial effects are possible. While the present device is capable of reproduc- ing sound with charm (and is an interesting alternative to "open-ai•" earphones) the "Bone Forte" does so, from a purist standpoint, by distortion of the signal recorded. The "Bone Forte" costs more than several earphone-type reproducing systems on the market, even though it is incapable of true binaural reproduction. All detractions considered, the device is quite original, offers certain unique advan- tages, and provides entertaining sound with comfort to all con- cerned.-DSG

4,211,898

43.88.Si HEADPHONE WITH TWO RESONANT PEAKS

FOR SIMULATING LOUDSPEAKER REPRODUCTION

Nobuhisa Atoji, Takashi Matsumoto, Shoichi Kusumoto, Kazue Sato, and Mitsuhiro Hasegawa, assignors to Matsushita Electric Industrial Company

8 July 1980 (Class 179/156 R); filed Japan 11 July 1977

A resonant cavity 12 in the figure is coupled to the rear of a moving conductor diaphragm. The purpose is to produce two peaks in the response to simulate freefield loudspeaker response as deter-

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14 II

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mined by the eardrum SPL produced by a flat loudspeaker at a 30 ø angle of incidence. A phase advance is introduced in the vicinity of 1. kHz by an electrical network, or by the second cavity 16 in the figure.-SFL

4,196,314

43.88. Vk SOUND DISTRIBUTING SYSTEM IMPROVEMENTS

Henry Guillory, San Francisco, California 94131 1 April 1980 (Class 179/1 G); filed 8 August 1978

The improvements in •this patent pertain to a four-channel sound system in which the four loudspeakers S,-S4 surround listener P as shown. Sound distributor 10 distributes the two output signals from stereo amplifier 12 to the loudspeakers in cyclic sequence with

•$4 one stereo channel chasing the other one around the room. The im- provements to the same inventor's earlier Patent 4,105,865 [J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 65, 877 (1979)] involve either a rotary cam switching system or "a digital counter operably coupled to a num- ber of transistor switches that are selectively caused to conduct."- DWM

343 J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 69(1 ), Jan. 1981' 0001-4966/81/010343•1500.80; ¸ 1981 Acoust. Soc; Am ß Patent Revie_w•__ 343

Redistribution subject to ASA license or copyright; see http://acousticalsociety.org/content/terms. Download to IP: 130.216.129.208 On: Fri, 05 Dec 2014 13:37:34