Disc management system

An optical storage media management system and process for storing and organizing a relatively large collection of optical discs in the form of a display binder with a plurality of display sheets including associated indicia matching a positional identifier indicating the location of the disc. In one embodiment, the binder is used in conjunction with a table of contents indicating the position of individual optical discs in relation to the binder contents and a centralized database for storing optical disc information in a categorized format in cooperation with a computerized table of contents generator for generating the table of contents for the binder.

 

What is claimed is:

1. An online method of organizing a large collection of retrievable compact disc related materials comprising:

selecting a display binder including a plurality of loose leaf sheets, including respective pockets having transparent viewing panels and respective identifying indicia uniquely associated therewith;

providing an online database structured to store a master listing of compact disc titles including the titles of said compact disc related materials;

inserting the respective compact disc related materials into said pockets having said identifying indicia;

selecting from said database the title of said compact disc titles to provide a collection of titles;

assigning positional identifiers correlating the respective said identifying indicia to the respective titles of said collection of titles;

generating a table of contents printout by selecting said collection of titles and their respective said positional identifiers; and

attaching said table of contents to said binder whereby a user may view said table of contents, select a desired title and, note the positional identifier associated with said desired title, flip said sheets to select a pocket bearing identifying indicia corresponding with the positional identifier associated with said selected title.

2. The method as set forth in claim 1 further comprising:

searching said master listing in said database to determine if a selected compact disk title is listed therein;

inserting said compact disc related material associated with said selected new compact disc title in an individual pocket having said identifying indicia;

adding said selected compact disk title to said master listing;

assigning said selected compact disc title a positional identifier matching said identifying indicia;

generating an updated table of contents listing including said new compact disc title and its associated positional identifier; and

inserting said updated table of contents in one of said pockets visible through said viewing panel.

3. The method as set forth in claim 1 wherein:

said database further includes a track listing associated with said compact disc title.

4. The method as set forth in claim 1 wherein:

said looseleaf sheets are subdivided on their respective front and back sides in a 2×2 matrix of said pockets.

5. The method as set forth in claim 1 further comprising:

searching a remote database for a resulting said compact disc title; and

adding said resulting compact disc title to said master listing.

6. The method as set forth in claim 1 wherein:

said compact disc related material is a liner note.

7. The method as set forth in claim 1 wherein:

said compact disc related material is a compact disc.

8. The method as set forth in claim 1 further comprising:

adding a music category to said online database for each compact disc title.

9. The method as set forth in claim 1 further comprising:

adding a compact disc classification to said database for each compact disc title.

10. The method as set forth in claim 1 further comprising:

adding an artist category associated with each said compact disc title in said database.

11. The method as set forth in claim 2 further comprising:

automatically updating a counter to generate a next positional indicator for a new compact disc title.

12. The method as set forth in claim 3 further comprising:

generating a track listing for at least one compact disc title and inserting said track listing in a pocket corresponding to said positional indicator.

13. The method as set forth in claim 8 wherein:

said disc category is music, CD, DVD, data, or software.

14. The method as set forth in claim 9 wherein:

said compact disc classification is Alt/Indie, Big Band, Blues, Celtic, Christian, Classical, Comedy, Country, Grunge, Heavy Metal, Hip Hop, House, Industrial, Jazz, Kids/Family, Latin, Mood Music, New Age, New Wave, Opera, Pop, Punk, R&B, Rap, Reggae, Rock, Singles, Ska, Soundtracks, Southern Rock, Spoken Word, Swing, Techno, Unplugged/Acoustic, Vocal/Nostalgia, or Unplugged.

15. A method for organizing a substantial number of collectible materials comprising:

providing a display album including a selected number of loose leaf pages having respective storage sleeves forming pockets with an opening along one side and having a viewing window, said pockets including respective indicia;

selecting a plurality of said collectible materials to be organized in said album;

placing selected said collectible materials in respective said pockets such that said collectible materials may be viewed through respective said viewing windows;

generating a table of contents including a listing of material descriptors describing respective said collectible materials and assigning a selected positional identifier to respective said material descriptors corresponding to said respective indicia of respective said pockets wherein respective said collectible materials are placed; and

attaching said table of contents to said display album so that a user may determine the location of collectible materials in said pockets by referring to said positional identifier associated with a selected collectible material descriptor in said table of contents and flip to a page having a pocket with indicia matching said referred to positional identifier.

16. The method for organizing as set forth in claim 15 further comprising:

providing a first and second set of duplicate stickers matching said respective indicia;

placing respective said stickers from said first set on respective said pockets; and

placing respective said stickers from said second set on said collectible material corresponding with said first set such that said collectible material may be replaced in a preselected pocket having a sticker from said first set after said collectible material has been removed from said preselected pocket by referring to said sticker from said second set on said collectible and locating said preselected pocket having a duplicate sticker from said first set.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

The invention relates generally to data management and more specifically, to indexing systems for optical disk storage media.

2. Description of the Prior Art

When purchased, musical compact discs (CDs) are generally packaged in jewel boxes which are typically rigid, thick plastic cases having a pivoting front cover and an internal mounting platform for receipt of the compact disc itself. Liner notes including information about the disc contents such as song titles and lyrics along with credits and cover artwork are then slid into the front cover with the artwork facing outward. A second liner is placed behind the mounting platform with its ends folded up to place one folded end along the spine of the jewel box indicating the title of the music CD. The compact disc itself is about four and three-quarters inches in diameter, thin, circular, and typically includes a printed side and an opposing optical data storage surface.

Due to their longevity and cost, compact disc owners tend to allow their CD collections to build up and thus storage and organization becomes an ever present problem. A frequent approach to organizing a large number of compact discs is to store them in a storage tower or rotating carousel. CDs are inserted into individual shelves and stacked on top of one another exposing only the spine portion of their respective jewel boxes to display the title of the CD. A CD may thus be identified by reading through the spines to select a desired CD. The jewel case may be removed and opened to remove the CD for playing in a conventional compact disc player or personal computer having a compact disc readable drive. Often the jewel case is left out of the tower until the user elects to replace the CD within the case and place the case and CD back into a tower slot. This method has proven unsatisfactory as the towers required to house a large collection of CDs must be of considerable size thus occupying a significant amount of space. Further, since there is no indexing system the user must undertake the tedious task of examining each individual CD case until the desired one is located. In effort to overcome this deficiency, often a user will organize the CD collection within the tower in some fashion such as alphabetical or even further using musical categories. This does not remove the problem of tower space and as the collection grows, a significant amount of shifting must take place as new CDs are introduced into the collection and must be stored according to the previously determined order.

While the introduction of thin-spine jewel boxes reduces the need for overall space, these thin-spine jewel boxes introduce a new problem because the spines are often narrow leaving little room for display of the title of the CD thus presenting a challenge to selecting the title desired, particularly in subdued lighting. Thus, the user is often forced to withdraw a number of CDs to expose their respective front covers for review until the CD is located.

Since jewel cases are not particularly useful after purchase and take up significant space, they are often discarded leaving only the liner notes and CD. Thus, other attempts have been made to provide a satisfactory storage means for the CDs and their associated liner notes. Two such proposed solutions may be found in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,620,271 and 5,713,683, both to Bergh et al. These patents describe a three ring binder page for holding compact discs in two by two matrices forming rectangular sleeves defining individual pages and having a transparent front face and an opening along one edge. The sleeves are sized to receive a compact disc or its associated notes. Often a thumb notch is disposed along the open edge to facilitate retrieval of the disc. Along one edge of the binder sheet is a set of holes spaced apart to receive the rings of a binder. A user can flip the pages to locate and remove the desired CD to be inserted into a conventional CD player. While these two patents address an alternative storage scheme allowing a CD collector to do away with the jewel cases, they do not provide any particular organizational means and thus the collector is left with the tedium of leafing through individual pages to visually scan through the transparent front faces of the sleeves to locate the desired CD.

Thus, in addition to storing concerns created by a large number of CDs, the number of compact discs in one's collection may provide a daunting task in managing its organization for quick reference and retrieval. What is needed and heretofore unavailable is a disc management system for indexing and storing indices and other information relating to disc position within a storage medium as well as a method for generating such indices.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

In accordance with a preferred embodiment of the present invention, a process for organizing a large number of CDs is disclosed herein and includes the steps of selecting a number of CDs to be organized and providing a binder trapping the respective edges of sheets formed with respective viewing pockets for insertion of respective CD related materials having graphics associated with the respective CDs to be viewed through the windows of respective viewing pockets.

Indicia is provided on the respective pockets to correlate them with respective CD storage slots which also include associated positional identifiers so that a user can store CDs and the associated material and can select the desired CD by referring to such associated material and the corresponding identifying indicia.

One embodiment of the present invention includes a table of contents generated using a centralized database including a number of CD titles and associated positional identifiers to create a CD index for insertion into viewing pockets of the binder for quick reference of the CD location.

Yet another embodiment of the present invention uses a disc management system incorporating a CD changer wherein the CDs are placed in unique slots in the CD changer and the positional identifier indicates the position of the CD within the changer.

In another embodiment, keyless entry is provided by providing a detector routine to read the contents of a CD and store the contents in the database.

Still yet another embodiment incorporates a search engine for searching an entire database catalog or a database library tailored to a particular user.

Other features which may be incorporated into the disc management system include the use of various viewing pocket configurations in a display binder for holding CD related materials.

Other features and advantages of the present invention will become more apparent from the following detailed description of the invention, when taken in conjunction with the accompanying exemplary drawings.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a front perspective view a display binder in a closed configuration and incorporated into the preferred embodiment of the present disc management system;

FIG. 2 is a view as in FIG. 1 with the display binder in a open configuration;

FIG. 3 is a cross sectional view, in enlarged scale, taken along lines 3—3 of FIG. 1;

FIG. 4 is a cross sectional view taken along lines 4—4 of FIG. 3;

FIG. 5 is a cross sectional view, in enlarged scale, taken along lines 5—5 of FIG. 4;

FIG. 6 is a cross sectional view, in enlarged scale, taken along lines 6—6 of FIG. 4;

FIG. 7 is a cross sectional view, in enlarged scale, taken along lines 7—7 of FIG. 1;

FIG. 8 is a cross sectional view, in enlarged scale, taken along lines 8—8 of FIG. 1;

FIG. 9 is a top elevational view of a display page incorporated into the display binder of the preferred embodiment of the present disc management system;

FIG. 10 is an expanded view taken from circle 10 in FIG. 9;

FIG. 11 is a cross sectional view, in enlarged scale, taken along lines 11—11 of FIG. 10;

FIG. 12 is a cross sectional view, in enlarged scale, taken along lines 12—12 of FIG. 9;

FIG. 13 is a cross sectional view, in enlarged scale, taken along lines 13—13 of FIG. 9;

FIG. 14 is a expanded view of circle 14—14 taken from FIG. 15 illustrating an exemplary CD index of the present disc management system;

FIG. 15 is a schematic view of a preferred embodiment of the present disc management system invention;

FIG. 16 is an exemplary sign in web page of the present disc management system;

FIG. 17 is an exemplary main disc management tools web page of the present disc management system;

FIG. 18 is an exemplary CD listing web page of the present disc management system;

FIG. 19 is an exemplary interactive web page for adding a category to the present disc management system;

FIG. 20 is an exemplary track listing pop up window of the present disc management system;

FIGS. 21-22 are exemplary interactive web pages for listing track information associated with CD titles maintained in the database of the present disc management system;

FIG. 23 is an exemplary interactive web page for adding CD information to the present disc management system;

FIG. 24 is an exemplary interactive web page for adding track information to the present disc management system;

FIG. 25 is an exemplary interactive web page for updating CD information maintained in the database provided in the present disc management system;

FIG. 26 is an exemplary interactive web page for updating track information maintained in the database provided in the present disc management system;

FIG. 27 in an exemplary menu for generating a CD index illustrated in FIG. 14;

FIG. 28 is an exemplary menu for printing spine labels for the present disc management system;

FIG. 29 is an exemplary pop up menu illustrating spine labels ready for printing;

FIG. 30 is an exemplary search user library menu provided in the present disc management system;

FIG. 31 is an exemplary search user library results listing;

FIG. 32 is an exemplary search catalog library menu provided in the present disc management system;

FIG. 33 is an exemplary search catalog results listing; and

FIG. 34 is an exemplary disk detector interface provided in the present disc management system.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT

Referring now to FIGS. 1-15, a disc management system, generally designated 40, is illustrated and provides a convenient tool for organizing large numbers of optical surface media such as compact discs (CD) and digital video discs (DVD) which contain music, software, or other data on their respective optical surfaces which will collectively be referred to as compact discs (CDs) throughout this application. Such disc management system 40 is especially useful when used in conjunction with a CD changer or other compact disc player wherein large numbers of CDs are stored within a number of positional slots in the changer and may be played as in a conventional CD player. However, it will be appreciated that the use of a changer is not a necessary component of the disc management system.

In general terms, the disc management system 40 includes a display binder, generally designated 42, for enclosing a plurality of looseleaf optical data disc storage pages 44 having at least one viewing pocket 46 for storing the contents retrieved from a discarded jewel case including the liner notes 48 and CD 50. Each viewing pocket includes an associated indicia 52 associated with a positional identifier 54 stored in a centralized database 58 listing the titles 60 of each CD and any associated track information 62 such as track title, length, and artist. A subset of the available titles 60 is selected and assigned a positional identifier 54 to generate a table of contents listing 64 from the database contents and positioned in at least one of the viewing pockets 46 to provide a quick reference guide to the location and contents of any CD incorporated into the system.

Referring now to FIGS. 1-2, and 6, the display binder 42 includes a channel shaped spine 70 having a planar backing member 71 separating an upper flange 72 and a lower flange 74. Hingedly anchored to such upper flange 72 is a planar front cover 76 having four discrete top opening display transparent window pockets 78 recessed into a reinforced margin 80 and including a hook 82 at its innermost extremity. More specifically, as illustrated in FIG. 6, the upper flange 72 projects generally forwardly of the backing member and then doubles back on itself to form an upper retention recess 84 for receipt of the free end of the front cover hook 82. Positioned between the hook and the planar front cover is a flexible hinged portion 86 such that the front cover may be rotated up and away from the interior contents of the binder.

Using a similar construction, a planar back cover 88 having a hook 90 at its innermost extremity is hingedly attached to the lower flange 74. The lower flange also includes a flap projecting forwardly of the backing member 71 which double back onto itself to form a lower retention recess 92 for receipt of the free end of the back cover hook 90. As in the front cover, the back cover includes a flexible hinge 94 positioned between the back cover hook 90 and planar region of the back cover 88 facilitating relative rotation between the back cover and the backing member about the hinge. The back cover 88 may also include transparent window pockets (not shown) if desired. The front cover 76, spine 70, and back cover 88 are secured by a trio of removably attached posts 96 and cooperate to enclose the plurality of flexible compact disc content pages 44 which are suspended from the posts.

In the preferred embodiment, each looseleaf page or sheet 44 is divided into a viewing window section 100 and a hinge section 102 having an anchor strip 104 and adjacent gutter section 106 facilitating both the mounting and turning of the individual pages 44. The viewing window section 100 is divided into transparent quarter panels formed form a plastic material and openable along the top edge forming four top opening viewing pockets 46. Each pocket includes a frontal transparent viewing window 104 and is bordered on three of its sides by weld lines 106 where the plastic front surface is secured to a back lining 108. The back lining 108 of each pocket is preferably a non-woven material suitable for placement against the optical surface of the disc when inserted into the pocket to prevent scratching the optical surface.

Each viewing pocket 46 includes an associated indicia 52 such as a numerical identifier or suitable code and which are selectively positioned in an ascending order throughout the respective pages in the binder. While the first page is typically left a table of contents section, the next sheets 34 may start at "1, 2, 3, . . . etc" until allow viewing pockets are labeled in a similar manner. The purpose of such associated indicia 52 will be further explained below.

To attach each of the looseleaf pages 44 to the binder 42, the anchor strip 104 includes three post receiving apertures 110 positioned respectively near the top edge of the sheet, the bottom edge of the sheet, and the midpoint of the sheet along its innermost edge. Each aperture 110 is dimensioned for receipt of one of the posts 96 to removably anchor the sheet to the binder. Positioned between the anchor strip 104 and window section 100 is a gutter section measuring about one inch in width facilitating flexion of the sheet 44 in relation to the spine when the pages are flipped. If desired, a thumb notch (not shown) extending from the top edge of each viewing panel 46 to its respective center point may be added the front panel of each quarter panel 46 to facilitate removal of a CD or liner within the quarter panel pocket 46.

Referring to FIG. 6, the posts 96 are constructed to include a top portion 112 separable from a bottom portion 114. As the binder size increases, additional intermediate posts 116 may be added to increase the number of sheets 44 that may be accommodated between the top flange 72 and bottom flange 74 which are relatively flexible in relation to the backing member 71 and may be expanded outwardly therefrom. The respective ends of the posts 112, 114 terminate in flattened heads 118, 120 which are positioned against the outer edges of the respective upper and lower hooks of the front and back covers thereby secured from the front cover 76 and back cover 88 to the spine 70 when fastened together. The posts 96 are preferably in the form of a threaded member having a head and threaded shank. The head portions 118, 120 are constructed with a tool receiving slot for turning.

The viewing pockets 46 are dimensioned to accommodate the material to be inserted therein such as a conventional compact disc 50 or DVD which by present standards is about 4-¾ inches in diameter or their associated liner notes 48. In the preferred embodiment for compact disc sized materials, the pockets are five inches along each edge. If mini-discs are being used, which typically have a diameter of 64 mm or around 2.5 inches, the pocket sizes are typically 2.5 inches to 3.0 inches square. Other suitable dimensions will occur to one of ordinary skill in the art. Conventional compact discs 50 have an aperture 122, a peripheral edge 124, a printed surface 126, and an opposing optical surface 128.

The voluminous quantities of CDs 50 residing in the collections of various collectors renders the task of composing a custom index extremely tedious. I have discovered this task can be achieved by the convenience and expedience of accessing any one of a number of different web sites maintaining comprehensive lists of popular titles in a centralized database 58 of available compact disc titles and tracks. Such a database may be employed to generate a table of contents 64 for placement in the display binder 42.

In practice, the present invention is embodied in an online web site (FIGS. 16-34) for use in conjunction with the display binder 42. In the preferred embodiment of the present disc management system 40, the database is accessible using conventional communication hardware and software such as a personal computer 130 having access to an Internet Service Provider (ISP) 132 or online service providing a communication path to the Internet 134. The personal computer is connected to a display monitor 136 and printer 138 for outputting the table of contents 64 and interacting with the online disc management system 40.

The web site is maintained by a web host computer 134 which is in communication with the database 58 and runs a resident disc management software application 136 using conventional programming techniques for controlling the interaction between the user while accessing and retrieving the contents of the database 58. The database 58 is primarily structured to store information in the fields including disc titles 60, track titles 62, along with a associated unique indicia 54.

When generated, the table of contents 64 or CD index includes such positional indicia 54 positioned adjacent a CD title 60 in numerical or other suitable order. Such table of contents 64 provides the pocket 46 position of the CD within the display binder 42 for quick referencing.

In practice, the interactivity between the user and the database is provided using a web site having active server pages as generally illustrated in FIGS. 16-34. In general terms, conventional browsing techniques are used to select hyperlinks to submit a request from the user's computer 130 to the web host computer 140 which maintains the web site and contains the web page information. The web host processor determines which active server web page to transmit back to the user's computer for display on the user's terminal 136 over the Internet 134. Using an iterative process the user stores retrievable information such as CD titles 60 and their associated positional identifiers 54 in the centralized database 58 and uses the menus provided by the web pages to create a CD index 64 for the binder 42 to organized the user's CD collection.

One such exemplary web site is illustrated in FIGS. 16-34. The exemplary web site includes a main disk management tools web page 200 as exemplified in FIG. 17. The main tool page 200 includes a number of disc management system tool links, generally designated 204 (FIG. 17) for accessing routines programmed into the disk management application 142 and the related web pages for maintaining compact disc and track information for the purpose of creating indices therefrom. However, the disc management system tools 204 are inactive until a successful login has been completed. Selection of any of the tool links 204 prior to a valid login results in a sign in menu 206 (FIG. 16) being transmitted to the user's display terminal 136 for display.

With continued reference to FIG. 16, the sign in menu 206 includes a username text entry field 208, a password text entry field 210, and a sign in submission button 212. The unique userid or user name input into the username field 208 on the sign in menu 206 is assigned to each user and stored within the database 58 in a unique user library whereby select database contents are linked to the unique userid to tailor the database to an individual. A successful sign in again presents the user with the disk management tools page 200 (FIG. 17) with the now active links 204 including a List my CDs link 214, an Add a CD link 216, an Add a Track link 218, Add a Category link 219, a List Tracks on a CD link 220, a Print the Contents of a CD link 222, a Print Index Cards link 224, a Search Artist/Title Catalog link 225, a Print Spine Label(s) link 226, and a Search My Collection link 228. Selection of any one of these individual links presents the user with at least one web page formatted to guide the user through the requested process as will be explained in detail below.

For example, selection of the "List my CDs" link 214 presents the user with a CD table listing web page 229 (FIG. 18) including a categorical listing of those CD titles 60 that have been saved under the user's identification in the user's library stored in the database 58. The CD table 229 is arranged in a columnar format with several headings aligned across the top of the web page such as CD Number 230, CD type 232, CD Category 234, CD Artist 236, CD Name 237, CD length 238, and a Print CD heading 240 positioned above a number of print icons 239 positioned across from each CD title 60.

With continued reference to FIG. 18, information corresponding to each heading on the CD listing 229 is placed in rows beneath the applicable heading. Data entered under the CD # 230 heading provides the positional identifier 54 corresponding to the location of a CD 50 in the binder 42 or a CD changer 292 (FIG. 15) or may merely provide a numeric identifier for otherwise organizing the CD collection. The CD type field 232 includes music, data, software, CD ROM, or DVD. The CD category 234 includes the type of information stored on the compact disc. Exemplary categories are selected from Alt/Indie, Big Band, Blues, Celtic, Christian, Classical, Comedy, Country, Grunge, Heavy Metal, Hip Hop, House, Industrial, Jazz, Kids/Family, Latin, Mood Music, New Age, New Wave, Opera, Pop, Punk, R&B, Rap, Reggae, Rock, Singles, Ska, Soundtracks, Southern Rock, Spoken Word, Swing, Techno, Unplugged/Acoustic, Vocal/Nostalgia, and Unplugged. The CD length 238 refers to sum of the length of all the tracks on the associated CD 50. The CD Artist 236 and CD Name 237 categories are those taken from the CD itself or created by the user if desired. The print icon 241 provides a link to a pop up print window 242, as exemplified in FIG. 20, displaying the selected CD title 60 and its associated tracks 62 for printing in a format for placement in any one of the looseleaf CD pages pockets 46.

Several other options are provided via web pages as illustrated in FIGS. 17-34 for displaying or printing the contents of a compact disc 50 such as the corresponding track information 62. A user selection of the link "List Tracks on a CD" 220 from the Disc Management Tool page 213 (FIG. 17) presents the user with an exemplary CD title listing web page 241 as illustrated in FIG. 21. Such web page lists all the compact disc titles 60 stored in the disc management database 58 for the individual user according to the CD titles linked to the unique userid entered in the username field 208. Each of the CD titles 60 is selectable and linked in the database 58 to its respective tracks 62. A related track listing web page 243 (FIG. 22) is displayed whenever a title link 60 is selected. The t