Most CD-Rs that people burn have quite a bit of extra space after the data that they actually want to have recorded. This space could be used for a human readable label.

One can usually clearly see where the burned area ends and the unburned area begins, suggesting that if you burn the outer ring just so, you could make a clearly readable label.

A mathematical genius might be able to do it without explicit support from the CD-R drive, but to the extent that I've looked into it, it looks pretty near impossible (what with 8 to 14 modulation and Reed-Solomon and what not).
-- frankus, Apr 02 2002

This one can. http://www.pcmag.co...,4149,545050,00.asp
[Amos Kito, Oct 04 2004]

New HP variation called LightScribe http://www.pcworld....tk,wb030804x,00.asp
Mar 09 2004: HP to introduce a drive that uses the laser to etch a label in the normal location. After you burning the disc, you flip it and the drive burns a label too. [krelnik, Oct 04 2004]

simply produce a template that looks something like a thin ring ( preferably a transparent sticky acetate ). you would have to write a program to print text in a semi spherical field. but it would look great. the thiner lable would be would also promote a constant that would ultimatly not interfer with the burned section of the cd.
-- fusionist, Nov 17 2002


Didn't Rods post an idea similar/exactly the same as this?
-- yamahito, Nov 17 2002


[yamahito]: Current Yamaha drives do exactly as described. While this idea WAS suitable for Halfbakery the first time it was posted [by Rods or whomever] it is by now quite baked.
-- supercat, Nov 17 2002


They have the Yamaha ones locally at a couple different electronics stores. Easy to tell, they're the one's that have my drool all over them. It'd be an absolutely unnecessary purchase, yet totally cool.
Seems to me you could even have a hand-held laser and draw on the unused area, free-hand or over a stencil.
You can do graphics with that CD-Burner, and make it so you could only see it using [Rods]' shiny tube.
-- Amos Kito, Nov 17 2002


It appears that the earlier idea which proposed this (a year or so before the public introduction of Disk T@2 technology) has been deleted. Too bad. While I understand Jutta's desire to avoid cluttering up this site with things that are baked, I think it's nice to keep ideas which are proposed before they become baked (to show that someone here also thought of it); additionally, removing an idea increases the likelihood of someone else posting the same basic idea again.)
-- supercat, Nov 18 2002



random, halfbakery