Hitachi and HLDS Assigned Patent

Hitachi Consumer Electronics Co., Ltd. and Hitachi-LG Data Storage, Inc., Tokyo, Japan , has been assigned a patent (8,913,474), developed by Taguchi Hirofumi, Fujita Kouji, Hoshizawa Taku and Ikeda Ukyo, Tokyo, Japan, for a “optical information recording/reproducing apparatus.”

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “An optical information recording/reproducing apparatus for recording information on a recording medium and/or reproducing information from the recording medium, includes: a laser light source for performing recording and/or reproducing information; a shielding part, using a liquid crystal, that can switch between transmission and interception of laser light emitted from the laser light source; a driving circuit for driving the switching between transmission and interception of the shielding part; a moving part for relatively moving the shielding part and the laser light; and a controlling circuit for controlling the moving part. The moving part relatively moves the shielding part and the laser light so as to switch a region to which the laser light is applied from a first region of the shielding part to a second region thereof different from the first region, in order to prevent the liquid crystal from deteriorating.“

The patent application was filed on April 2, 2014 (14/242,910).