No touch record turntables

I had one of those cascading thoughts streams yesterday, It would be great to have a record turntable that did not have a stylus. The music grove would be read optically and translated into the music stream on the fly. There would be much less wear on the record and the signal could be manipulated to remove any distortions.

After about 30 min I had some ideas sketched out. First the name would be C&P audio using the initials of me and best audiophile friend :-)  The cartridge could be linear tracked like my fav B&O deck hovering just above the plane of the record surface.  The detector signal could be fed to a small processor below the play deck for interpretation. A few of ideas rapidly followed ..

• Speed of track optical processing is well within the scope of modern processors (like self driving cars)
• Lighting and video capture via optical link to head (like an endoscope)
• Track detection and linier tracking across record - controlled by feedback from the cartridge (like a 3D printer)
• Surface hight tracking possible over warped records
• Scratch detection and skipping, long view, short view
• Digital or analog output
• A dust removal system would be needed to replace the stylus pushing debris out the way either by blower or electrostatic.

Then of course I had to Google the idea to find what else is out there .... Looks like only one vendor ELP Laser in Japan has the pure light/laser version I was thinking about. Two other vendors offer cartridges with optical movement interpretation. The Minot has a full deck with optical tracking and arm movement, with DS Audio offering a cartridge than can be deployed on a tradional deck with replaced signal electronics.

Key Technologies for Optical Playback

• ELP Laser Turntable: The most prominent, and essentially only, commercially available option is the ELP Laser Turntable. It uses lasers to read the groove modulation and converts the reflected light directly into an analog signal. It is fully contact-free, meaning no damage is caused to the record, allowing for high-fidelity sound from worn vinyl. Being a made to order unit the cost is high. 
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Miniot Wheel 3: This modern, minimalist, and versatile player also features an optical pickup system rather than traditional magnetic coils. It uses a stylus to scan the groove but has optical transducers to create the signal. Claiming to be gentler on records while providing a "perfect" analog sound from 0 Hz.
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• DS Audio Optical Cartridges: A different approach, DS Audio produces optical cartridges that can be installed on traditional high-end turntables. They use an LED light and a photo-sensor to detect the movements of the stylus, rather than magnets, which they claim reduces noise and improves tracking.

Given the available technology of arm tracking control from 3d printers and improved speed of processing available in a Pi 5 there could be room for a cheaper all optical turntable. The development costs and effort would however be substantial. Probably stick with the B&O deck for now.

Down this internet rathole technolgy based search came across this interesting items about dust repelling surfaces research at NASA.