14 DAY TRIAL // Researchers at the University of Central Florida announced this week that they have produced a DVD-like storage device that can offer a capacity roughly equal to that of several hundred DVDs. The disk is said to have a shape and thickness similar to a DVD medium. The technique that can record the amazing amount of data onto the disk is called 3D multi-layered storage technology.
The technology somewhat resembles the one used to read and write holographic disks but the medium and layers are solid. There are several ultra-thin layers of data that can be read using lasers which have different wavelengths. The procedure is somewhat close to the reading and writing of dual-layer disks but it uses many layers in order to achieve such a high storage capacity. Regarding the project, the researchers stated:
"The challenge scientists faced for years was that light is also used to read the information. The light couldn't distinguish between reading and writing, so it would destroy the recorded information. Belfield's team developed a way to use light tuned to specific colors or wavelengths to allow information that a user wants to keep to stay intact."
Professor Kevin D. Belfield says that with the help of the Two-Photon 3-D Optical Data Storage system the researchers will be able to resolve the problem of crosstalk. The phenomenon appears because layers are so close and it's almost impossible to calibrate the laser to read one specific portion of the needed layer. Belfield also said. "The problem was that no one could figure out how to read out the data without destroying it. But we cracked it."
$270,000 has been granted for the research project by the National Science Foundation. Currently, the team works on reducing the size of the recording device but with all the efforts, no one knows when the final product will come out or what will be the price for the system.