Invented by : David Paul Gregg
Invented in year : 1958
An Optical Disc or Laser Disc is a plastic-coated flat, generally circular in shape that stores digital data. Tiny pits are etched into the disk surface that are read with a laser scanning the surface. The optical disk is an analog video optical disk format. The original format provided full bandwidth composite video and two analog audio tracks (digital audio tracks were added later). The data is stored on the disc with a laser or stamping machine, and can be accessed when the data path is illuminated with a laser diode in an optical disc drive which spins the disc. The reverse side of an optical disc usually has a printed label, generally made of paper but sometimes printed or stamped onto the disc itself. This (non-encoded) side of the disc is typically coated with a transparent material, usually lacquer. Optical discs are most commonly used for storing music (e.g. for use in a CD player), video (e.g. for use in a DVD player), or data and programs for personal computers
Optical Disc was first invented by David Paul Gregg in 1958. He named it Videodisk and patented the technology in 1961 and 1969. Gregg's company Gauss Electrophysics was acquired by MCA in the early 1960s. MCA also bought the patent rights for the optical disk which included a the process for making a video record disc and other optical disk technology. In 1978, MCA Discovision released the first consumer Optical disk player in Atlanta, Georgia.
Development in the Invention of Optical Disc
In 1965, four years later, Gregg and Keith Johnson co-founded Gauss Electrophysics for the purpose of manufacturing high-speed audiotape duplication equipment. (Johnson would team up with Pflash Pflaumer in the 1980s to develop the patented HDCD [High Definition Compatible Digital] technology.) Meanwhile, the pair continued working on Gregg's optical disc and caught the attention of MCA. That company had thousands of films stored in a warehouse and an interest in finding a way to convert them to home videos. In 1968, MCA purchased Gauss Electrophysics and Gregg's patents (he received another in 1969) and a year later launched MCA Laboratories in Torrance, Calif., a research arm created to develop the videodisc system.
By 1972, the research arm at MCA had been renamed MCA DiscoVision, and in December of that year, DiscoVision held a press conference at Universal Studios to show off its videodisc system and demonstrate the world's first replicated video disc. At the same time, Philips Electronics in the Netherlands, which had been approached by Gauss Electrophysics back in 1967 about its videodisc system but passed on it, had begun to develop a system similar to DiscoVision's. The two companies began working together, and in the summer of 1976, they published worldwide standards for the optical videodisc system.
A year later, MCA DiscoVision hooked up with Pioneer Electronics to form UPC (Universal Pioneer Corp.). In the fall of 1978, UPC began mass producing PR-7820, an industrial optical disc player. IBM bought a 50% interest in MCA DiscoVision in 1979 and formed DVA (Discovision Associates), which Pioneer Electronics then acquired 10 years later. Several updated Gregg patents stemming from his 1969 patent became the basis on which Pioneer (for its DVD LaserDisc), Sony (for its MiniDisc), and Philips Electronics (for its Compact Disc) received licenses to manufacture their discs. Today, DVA manages about 1,300 patents that grew from Gregg's original invention and the subsequent application of his optical disc.
The third generation optical disc was developed in 2000-2006, and the first movies on Blu-ray discs were released in June 2006. Blu-ray eventually prevailed in a high definition optical disc format war over a competing format, the HD DVD. A standard Blu-ray disc can hold about 25 GB of data, a DVD about 4.7 GB, and a CD about 700 MB.
Role of in the Improvement Of Human Life
- Mass storage of data on a small disc was now possible
- It was an improvement over the existing technology as the new medium had a long life.
- It was also more reliable and stable.
- It revolutionised the entertainment and business industry by providing a medium which occupied less space and saved paper costs.
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- The technology behind the optical disk laid the foundation for more advanced and similiar formats including CDs, DVDs and Blu-ray
