Patent ID: 7706227

Claim:
An optical information recording/reproduction apparatus for recording information by leading light flux from a light source to an objective lens and condensing the light flux through a transparent substrate to a recording face of an optical recording medium with the objective lens, or reproducing the information based on light returned from the optical recording medium, the apparatus comprising: a correction device for correcting aberration, due to a change in thicknesses of the transparent substrate and spherical aberration generated by inserting an optical attenuation device into an optical path or retreating the optical attenuation device from the optical path, by changing intervals between a plurality of lenses, wherein (i) the correction device is disposed between the objective lens and the light source, (ii) the correction device also functions as a collimator lens, and (iii) the optical attenuation device is provided in an optical path of diverging light flux from the light source to the correction device, for attenuating an optical output from the light source; a driving mechanism for inserting the optical attenuation device into the optical path or retreating the optical attenuation device from the optical path; a discrimination circuit for discriminating (i) a kind of the optical recording medium and (ii) an insertion of the optical attenuation device into the optical path or a retreating of the optical attenuation device from the optical path, and for producing a discrimination result; a learning circuit for performing a learning process by searching for a correction amount, while the correction device changes the intervals between the plurality of lenses; and a circuit for changing initial positions of the intervals between the plurality of lenses at a start of the learning process performed by the learning circuit, in accordance with the discrimination result produced by the discrimination circuit.