What if there was one optical drive that could read and write both Blu-ray, HD DVD, CD and DVD? Ricoh, yes the copy and fax machine people, is showing off a lens this month at the Optoelectronics Exhibition '06 near Tokyo that promises just that. The device is a 3.5 mm diameter 1 mm think diffraction plate that when placed between lasers and Objective lens allows the laser to focus on the proper position for each media type.

The problem with different disk formats is that the data lies at different depths inside the disk. For instance data on Blu-ray is 0.1 mm from the surface, HD DVD is 0.6 mm from the surface and CDs have data 1.1 mm from the disk surface. Thanks to Ricoh even if manufacturers weren't able to settle on one next generation HD format, our optical drives will at least be able to read them all.

Via EETimes