Patent ID: 7095700

Claim:
An optical disk reading apparatus for reading digital information recorded on a concentric or spiral track formed on an optical disk medium, said optical disk reading apparatus comprising: a laser beam generating means for generating a laser beam; optical means for condensing said laser beam received from said laser beam generating means to form a reading light spot on said track of said optical disk medium; a detector means for detecting different parts of said reading light spot being reflected or diffracted from said track, with one of said different parts being reflected or diffracted in a forward direction and another one of said parts being reflected or diffracted in a rearward direction with respect to a traveling direction of said track; first decoding means for decoding a part of said digital information from the one of said different parts reflected or diffracted forward with respect to the traveling direction of said track; and second decoding means for decoding another part of said digital information from the another one of said different part reflected or diffracted backward with respect to the traveling direction of said track.