purplemass.com

Interesting (and short) story, but i think i’ll place my bets on
holographic storage over rainbow technology anyday!:

According to a report from the Arab News, a university technology student
named Sainul Abideen has invented a method of storing massive amounts of
digital data on a plain piece of paper that he claims could store many
times the capacity of the best Blu-ray or HD-DVD discs. In fact, Abideen
says that his Rainbow technology can enable him to store from 90 to 450GB
on a piece of paper. As far as a real life demonstration of a 450GB paper
goes, the technology still needs development.

Abideen, who hails from the Kerala, India, claims that that his Rainbow
system is better than a binary storage because instead of using ones and
zeros to represent data, Abideen uses geometric shapes such as squares and
hexagons to represent data patterns. Color is also used in the system to
represent other data elements. According to Abideen, all that’s required
to read the Rainbow prints is a scanner and specialized software.

The reporter at Arab News claims to have seen 450 pages of fully printed
foolscap being stored on a 4-square inch piece of Rainbow paper. The
reporter also claimed that he was shown a 45-second video clip that was
stored using the Rainbow system on a plain piece of paper. Interestingly,
45-seconds of video isn’t a lot, and if the Rainbow system can store up to
450GB, then we need to be watching full length high-definition videos from
a piece of paper.

One of the major advantages of the Rainbow system is the fact that it
should cost a lot less to produce than typical polycarbonate DVD and CD
discs. Abideen claims that huge databanks can be constructed out of
Rainbow-based storage mediums. Although the main attraction is cheap paper
right now, other media can use the Rainbow system too.

As of right now, Abideen’s system is still under research at the Muslim
Educational Society Engineering College and although no major companies
have expressed interest, Abideen is confident of the system’s future.
According to the report, Aibdeen is hard at work at developing a Rainbow
scanner that would be small enough for integration into notebook
computers. If developed, a Rainbow printer will likely be next up.