MICROFORM CARD INCLUDING SURFACE LOCATING STRUCTURE FOR ELIMINATION OF NEWTON RING COLOR BANDING AND CARD UTILIZATION APPARATUS THEREFOR

摘要

1468583 Microform structure NCR CORP 10 Sept 1974 [24 Sept 1973] 39375/74 Heading G2X [Also in Divisions G4 and G5] A microform, i.e. a micro-image containing card known as a micro-fiche, super-fiche or ultrafiche, including those produced on photochromic film material has on at least one major surface thereof a plurality of spacer elements arranged in a predetermined pattern so as to separate, in use, the said surface from an adjacent optical element of a microform utilization apparatus by a distance sufficient to prevent the formation of Newton rings. The spacer elements may take the form of a grid network of spacer elements 108, 110 surrounding the images 102 and may be made of plastics or metal foils. In other embodiments the spacing elements take the form of ridges, raised points, a matrix of depressions or dimples, e.g. in a protective film or covering a plurality of symbol members having visually interpretable meaning, e.g. letters or machine-readable codes, raised members. In some cases the spacer elements may occupy areas normally occupied by photographic images. Together with the apparatus for collecting optical information from the microform there may be provided a mechanical or optical sensor for information provided by the spacer elements. When secondary information is contained in a magnetic recording medium on or forming part of the spacer elements, e.g. of iron oxide or nickel, a magnetic read head 1113 Fig. 11 is provided to effect scanning of the magnetic material of the spacer elements 1108. Grooves provided in the surface of the microform may also be used to record supplementary information, e.g. in binary or analogue format, and be recovered by a stylus engaging the grooves. The spacers can also incorporate optical transmission variations to operate a transducer in locating a particular photographic image. With silver halide type photographic material optically distinguishable patterns can be applied mechanically during the attachment of the spacer cards.