http://www.engadget.com/2006/11/25/college-student-creates-paper-based-storage-system-no-not-that/ Engadget Comments for College student creates paper-based storage system (no, not that kind) http://www.engadget.com/media/feedlogo.gif http://www.engadget.com en-us Copyright 2012 Weblogs, Inc. The contents of this feed are available for non-commercial use only. Blogsmith http://www.blogsmith.com/http://www.engadget.com/2006/11/25/college-student-creates-paper-based-storage-system-no-not-that/http://www.engadget.com/2006/11/25/college-student-creates-paper-based-storage-system-no-not-that/
now the writing speed of a DVD? 30mins to max capacity
write speed of "Rainbow Shit" 30seconds to max capacity

but! read speed of a DVD? like 2 seconds
read speed of "Rainbow" 45 seconds

For data processing, its alright in someways but complete rubbish in others.

for reliability of paper? if we make the paper only 0's and 1's then be can print in black and white pixels. There for, we can have software to recognise creases as darker shades. in between black and white theres grey

now certain shades of gray could still be read as 0's and 1's but not accuratly. So? we laminate!

But can we laminate? a laser on a printer would refract on the plastic and f*** up your data. so that leaves one more option! compression chapers. a small box at 64 psi will force the paper not to crinkle whilst killing all the bugs that break it down.

but i still find my self strangly doubting this stuff. 0's and 1's were chosen to represent charecters in a sequence for a reason! now we just wanna change it to rainbows? good that will increase papers read/write time to:

90/30 seconds

where as DVD boasts a one time 30 min but max 2 second read after that. and extremely long data storage over what? 1 year? even with a compression box (whole new meaning for compressing your files)

this compression box will cost ~$80

so i need to buy a super printer-$1000 , compression box-$80 super scanner-$500 and for 1 gb of storage!!!??? FUCK YOU!]]>Jun 5th 2008 8:12AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2006/11/25/college-student-creates-paper-based-storage-system-no-not-that/http://www.engadget.com/2006/11/25/college-student-creates-paper-based-storage-system-no-not-that/Wow what a great selection of crafts you can do with paper shreds. I have been researching composting and paper shredding and you have given me more ideas on what to do with those shreds of paper. Thanks.
]]>Jun 10th 2009 6:21AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2006/11/25/college-student-creates-paper-based-storage-system-no-not-that/http://www.engadget.com/2006/11/25/college-student-creates-paper-based-storage-system-no-not-that/
but i was like okay use text and symbols to store data in a smaller form that can be recreated later but then i thought isnt that the same thing as digital anyway 010000 but this guy has it on paper so i can see how it is better but paper breaks down over tyme unless hes gonna elaminate it]]>Nov 25th 2006 10:57AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2006/11/25/college-student-creates-paper-based-storage-system-no-not-that/http://www.engadget.com/2006/11/25/college-student-creates-paper-based-storage-system-no-not-that/I don't know... I can get a blank DVD for less than a euro and software publishers must be getting them even cheaper.
]]>Nov 25th 2006 10:56AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2006/11/25/college-student-creates-paper-based-storage-system-no-not-that/http://www.engadget.com/2006/11/25/college-student-creates-paper-based-storage-system-no-not-that/Nov 25th 2006 3:11PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2006/11/25/college-student-creates-paper-based-storage-system-no-not-that/http://www.engadget.com/2006/11/25/college-student-creates-paper-based-storage-system-no-not-that/
"Ooops dear, I just needed some scrap paper. I hope you don't mind i used your doodles!"

On the other hand, this could be fantastic for pirating software, 5 cents a copy at the library!]]>Nov 25th 2006 11:03AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2006/11/25/college-student-creates-paper-based-storage-system-no-not-that/http://www.engadget.com/2006/11/25/college-student-creates-paper-based-storage-system-no-not-that/
Issues I see from the very beginning:

oops, the paper ripped, I just lost my entire 500 page story and the deadline is tomorrow.

ooops, there's a crease in the paper and now it can't be scanned in properly.

oops, the paper faded and now everything has color shifted towards yellow thereby corrupting my data completely.

ooops, my hands were greasy and it smudged my drawings, etc.

sorry, but in order to address any of these issues, you'll need a type of paper(not even mentioning the requirements of the printer and ink you'd need to be able to write any data) that will need aaaallll sorts of chemical treatments that will boost both your costs and totally invalidate the biodegradability issue.

Besides, even if you could get this to work, how the heck would you be able to make it rewritable? thanks, but I'll stick with my 80gb drive that I can take stuff off and put something new on. I don't need 500GB of space that I can never get rid of anything I put on.]]>Nov 26th 2006 1:48AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2006/11/25/college-student-creates-paper-based-storage-system-no-not-that/http://www.engadget.com/2006/11/25/college-student-creates-paper-based-storage-system-no-not-that/Nov 27th 2006 6:22AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2006/11/25/college-student-creates-paper-based-storage-system-no-not-that/http://www.engadget.com/2006/11/25/college-student-creates-paper-based-storage-system-no-not-that/Nov 25th 2006 11:18AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2006/11/25/college-student-creates-paper-based-storage-system-no-not-that/http://www.engadget.com/2006/11/25/college-student-creates-paper-based-storage-system-no-not-that/
Also, where did "foolscrap" come from?]]>Nov 25th 2006 11:20AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2006/11/25/college-student-creates-paper-based-storage-system-no-not-that/http://www.engadget.com/2006/11/25/college-student-creates-paper-based-storage-system-no-not-that/http://slam.canoe.ca/Slam/Wrestling/2005/08/03/rvd.jpg]]>Nov 25th 2006 11:31AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2006/11/25/college-student-creates-paper-based-storage-system-no-not-that/http://www.engadget.com/2006/11/25/college-student-creates-paper-based-storage-system-no-not-that/Nov 25th 2006 1:07PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2006/11/25/college-student-creates-paper-based-storage-system-no-not-that/http://www.engadget.com/2006/11/25/college-student-creates-paper-based-storage-system-no-not-that/Nov 25th 2006 11:34AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2006/11/25/college-student-creates-paper-based-storage-system-no-not-that/http://www.engadget.com/2006/11/25/college-student-creates-paper-based-storage-system-no-not-that/
Cheap and hundreds of times more dense than the DVD format.... yeah right. All you need to do is first convert all your data to "Rainbow Format". This is a scam to encourage environmentalists and technologists to invest money in research. I will basically guarantee that this will not hold up to peer review.
]]>Nov 25th 2006 11:40AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2006/11/25/college-student-creates-paper-based-storage-system-no-not-that/http://www.engadget.com/2006/11/25/college-student-creates-paper-based-storage-system-no-not-that/Nov 25th 2006 12:01PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2006/11/25/college-student-creates-paper-based-storage-system-no-not-that/http://www.engadget.com/2006/11/25/college-student-creates-paper-based-storage-system-no-not-that/
Now, say that I'm wack and that I'm off by a factor of 10. It's still only .1 Gbyte total per page... and I'm pretty sure that the system would have horrbile error rates.

Comments?]]>Nov 25th 2006 12:04PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2006/11/25/college-student-creates-paper-based-storage-system-no-not-that/http://www.engadget.com/2006/11/25/college-student-creates-paper-based-storage-system-no-not-that/Furthermore, why didn't anybody mention read/write speed? It's no use to store hundreds of gigs on a piece of paper if it can be read only as fast as a floppy...]]>Nov 25th 2006 12:28PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2006/11/25/college-student-creates-paper-based-storage-system-no-not-that/http://www.engadget.com/2006/11/25/college-student-creates-paper-based-storage-system-no-not-that/
If it ain't bogus, that is.]]>Nov 25th 2006 1:41PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2006/11/25/college-student-creates-paper-based-storage-system-no-not-that/http://www.engadget.com/2006/11/25/college-student-creates-paper-based-storage-system-no-not-that/Nov 25th 2006 12:48PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2006/11/25/college-student-creates-paper-based-storage-system-no-not-that/http://www.engadget.com/2006/11/25/college-student-creates-paper-based-storage-system-no-not-that/Nov 25th 2006 1:04PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2006/11/25/college-student-creates-paper-based-storage-system-no-not-that/http://www.engadget.com/2006/11/25/college-student-creates-paper-based-storage-system-no-not-that/
Your idea is against the Shannon entropy. It won't work]]>Nov 25th 2006 12:58PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2006/11/25/college-student-creates-paper-based-storage-system-no-not-that/http://www.engadget.com/2006/11/25/college-student-creates-paper-based-storage-system-no-not-that/
Wait a minute...]]>Nov 25th 2006 1:26PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2006/11/25/college-student-creates-paper-based-storage-system-no-not-that/http://www.engadget.com/2006/11/25/college-student-creates-paper-based-storage-system-no-not-that/Nov 25th 2006 3:37PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2006/11/25/college-student-creates-paper-based-storage-system-no-not-that/http://www.engadget.com/2006/11/25/college-student-creates-paper-based-storage-system-no-not-that/Nov 27th 2006 10:19AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2006/11/25/college-student-creates-paper-based-storage-system-no-not-that/http://www.engadget.com/2006/11/25/college-student-creates-paper-based-storage-system-no-not-that/Scanning it would only take a few seconds.
I you think barcode, then add a few colors and instead of just lines use different symbols. it works. and It makes sense.
Look at the ups barcode thing, with all the dots.

If you put it in terms of binary, but instead of just 1 and 0, you can use short cuts, a red 6 would be the equivalent of 20 different 1s and 0s... This make sense, i don't understand why any of you are that skeptical. throw in 10 colors and and the alphabet and numbers, you could make a lot of WORDS.

Think about it, its like writing "apple" and the computer sees "apple"
instead of 010110010100101001010010101001010100101010 for the computer to see apple.
Its not that big of a deal.]]>Nov 25th 2006 2:04PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2006/11/25/college-student-creates-paper-based-storage-system-no-not-that/http://www.engadget.com/2006/11/25/college-student-creates-paper-based-storage-system-no-not-that/Nov 25th 2006 2:22PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2006/11/25/college-student-creates-paper-based-storage-system-no-not-that/http://www.engadget.com/2006/11/25/college-student-creates-paper-based-storage-system-no-not-that/
Firstly, the use of "symbols" in communications is nothing new - for example, instead of transmitting one signal for 0 and other for 1, you could define four signals for 00,01,10,11 and transmit them instead. You've doubled the number of signals you need to be able to distinguish (so reduced accuracy) but doubled the amount of data you can send at a given symbol rate.

DVDs are just binary, so use two symbols for 0 and 1. To get "131 times" the capacity on a disc the same size with such a symbolic techinque, you could either use lots of different symbols of the same size, or alternatively use just a few symbols and also make them smaller.

Think about that for a second. DVDs use pits of the order of a few microns in size, which are read by reflecting a laser off them. Do you honestly believe for a second that you could replace each of these TINY pits with a coloured, shaped symbol, replace the pressed plastic disc with a printed piece of paper, and replace the laser reading system with an optical scanner with dozens of possible values per bit and still have a feasible system? Ridiculous.]]>Nov 25th 2006 2:32PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2006/11/25/college-student-creates-paper-based-storage-system-no-not-that/http://www.engadget.com/2006/11/25/college-student-creates-paper-based-storage-system-no-not-that/
"OH NO"
lol]]>Nov 25th 2006 3:17PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2006/11/25/college-student-creates-paper-based-storage-system-no-not-that/http://www.engadget.com/2006/11/25/college-student-creates-paper-based-storage-system-no-not-that/Nov 26th 2006 12:06AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2006/11/25/college-student-creates-paper-based-storage-system-no-not-that/http://www.engadget.com/2006/11/25/college-student-creates-paper-based-storage-system-no-not-that/
I think it may be the wave of the future. Heh. Heh. Bad, very bad pun. Infact, don't look for the pun. Its not there. heh. heh. *run*]]>Dec 7th 2006 8:08AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2006/11/25/college-student-creates-paper-based-storage-system-no-not-that/http://www.engadget.com/2006/11/25/college-student-creates-paper-based-storage-system-no-not-that/Nov 25th 2006 7:21PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2006/11/25/college-student-creates-paper-based-storage-system-no-not-that/http://www.engadget.com/2006/11/25/college-student-creates-paper-based-storage-system-no-not-that/Nov 25th 2006 10:42PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2006/11/25/college-student-creates-paper-based-storage-system-no-not-that/http://www.engadget.com/2006/11/25/college-student-creates-paper-based-storage-system-no-not-that/
You could be using disposable paper card storage in 10 years using special printers that print and seal the cards. The disposability may be its greatest asset

What makes you think the *mature* version of the technology would be any less reliable than optical disks? - every single one of us has had scratched disks.]]>Nov 25th 2006 8:01PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2006/11/25/college-student-creates-paper-based-storage-system-no-not-that/http://www.engadget.com/2006/11/25/college-student-creates-paper-based-storage-system-no-not-that/Nov 25th 2006 8:24PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2006/11/25/college-student-creates-paper-based-storage-system-no-not-that/http://www.engadget.com/2006/11/25/college-student-creates-paper-based-storage-system-no-not-that/
never got around to finishing the product though]]>Nov 25th 2006 8:40PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2006/11/25/college-student-creates-paper-based-storage-system-no-not-that/http://www.engadget.com/2006/11/25/college-student-creates-paper-based-storage-system-no-not-that/Nov 25th 2006 9:28PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2006/11/25/college-student-creates-paper-based-storage-system-no-not-that/http://www.engadget.com/2006/11/25/college-student-creates-paper-based-storage-system-no-not-that/
Its not random access, so it would probably only be practical for archival purposes.

If you're worried about printing with a printer that smears: A) buy a new printer, i got mine for $5 at a yard sale, and it prints beautifully; or B) print with larger dot sizes: you'll use more paper but gain error correction.

The data you could put on a piece of paper is limited by the resolution of the printer, and there are some *very* high-resolution printers out there. a 2400 DPI printer that can print full color on any of those dots can print 16.48 megabytes in one square inch with no encoding-level error correction. Multiply that by the printable area of a piece of A0 paper, and you get 24 gigabytes on each side. roll that up, stuff it in a tube, and put it in a fireproof safe. that, my friends, is longevity. Technology's ability to read that paper in the future will only improve.

Its not the most practical way to store data, but it is a valid storage mechanism.]]>Nov 25th 2006 10:00PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2006/11/25/college-student-creates-paper-based-storage-system-no-not-that/http://www.engadget.com/2006/11/25/college-student-creates-paper-based-storage-system-no-not-that/Nov 26th 2006 12:17PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2006/11/25/college-student-creates-paper-based-storage-system-no-not-that/http://www.engadget.com/2006/11/25/college-student-creates-paper-based-storage-system-no-not-that/
Digital media reads as 1'2 and 0's. One bit per character. In digital media, everything must be either a 1 or a 0.
This "rainbow" technology is completly different. Instead of just defining everything by two characters, you can now define by (number of colors x number of symbols)

Lets say, 10 colors and 100 symbols)
1000 characters to choose from, instead of just 2.

So one red square could hold 1000 bits of info or 125 bytes. Combine this with location of each character and the capacity amplifies.


Think of this like compression. Take any text file and compress it. You loose no data as all the information lost is regained through the uncompression process. Compressers simply remove redundent information and combines frequent bits of information into one. I'm not going to explain this in complicated details, but hers a good idea: Each letter is 8 bits or 1 byte. A compresser can simply see each letter as 1 bit of information by simply adding a-z to its library. Instead of 1 and 0, the decompresser will see (0-9 + a-z + etc)]]>Nov 26th 2006 2:25AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2006/11/25/college-student-creates-paper-based-storage-system-no-not-that/http://www.engadget.com/2006/11/25/college-student-creates-paper-based-storage-system-no-not-that/
Imagine this: I create four symbols, called 00, 01, 10, and 11. Clearly the choice of one of these symbols carries only two bits of information. But wait I have FOUR symbols and so now each carries FOUR bits of information! Come on. If that were true you would have revolutionized information theory.

This story is completely bogus, by the way.

Oh, and responding to another comment above: if you have a printer with 2^24 = 16777216 ink cartridges, then perhaps you can make a decent claim that your printer can print in 24-bit "full color." In fact, printers typically print dots in one of four colors (CYMK). So each dot can represent at most two bits of information, not the three bytes you claim. (Not to mention the fact that even if your printer DID print in 24-bit color, my scanner would have a pretty hard time correctly identifying each of your sixteen million colors).]]>Nov 28th 2006 11:13AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2006/11/25/college-student-creates-paper-based-storage-system-no-not-that/http://www.engadget.com/2006/11/25/college-student-creates-paper-based-storage-system-no-not-that/Nov 26th 2006 2:46AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2006/11/25/college-student-creates-paper-based-storage-system-no-not-that/http://www.engadget.com/2006/11/25/college-student-creates-paper-based-storage-system-no-not-that/
REF:
Xiete @ Nov 25th 2006 11:30AM

Here's the new spokesman for the product.
http://slam.canoe.ca/Slam/Wrestling/2005/08/03/rvd.jpg]]>Nov 26th 2006 3:15AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2006/11/25/college-student-creates-paper-based-storage-system-no-not-that/http://www.engadget.com/2006/11/25/college-student-creates-paper-based-storage-system-no-not-that/
I think the problem you guys are having is that it seems quite feasible to imagine a piece of paper, printed at say 12pt, with a bunch of coloured characters on it. You might even be able to squeeze whole megabytes out of it, at least till the ink faded, it got smudged, or you spilt something on it. Given that all he's apparently demonstrated is the storage of "400 pages of type" (plain text is NOT a big file) or "a 45 second video clip" (of unspecified size/quality) both of which could easily be stored on a floppy disc this is probably what he's done. This is nothing you couldn't conceivably do yourself with an ordinary printer, scanner, and a bit of programming knowledge.

The problem lies in the translation of this into useful technology. furatail- the guy himself compares his "technology" to DVDs. You're also wrong about the definition of digital- BINARY data is only 1/0, DIGITAL just means represented by (discrete) digits. A system with 1000 different possible states is still digital because each one is discrete - there's no "in-between" as with an analogue system.

As I said in my earlier post there is absolutely no conceivable way one could scale down this technology to DVD scale and expect it to work. A laser is fine to distinguish between two possible states a few microns across, but 10 different states? 100? 1000? Simple not possible. We're talking about a laser with wavelength in the nanometres being reflected by pits of a few microns. The difference between pit and no pit is already inconceivably small. You want 1000 different values of shapes and colours of pits instead? Good luck with that!]]>Nov 26th 2006 5:59AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2006/11/25/college-student-creates-paper-based-storage-system-no-not-that/http://www.engadget.com/2006/11/25/college-student-creates-paper-based-storage-system-no-not-that/
Fade Resistance: Pigmented Archival Inks lasting 100-200 years.
Water Resistance: Pigmented Inks are inherently water resistant and smear/smudge resistant.
Scratch Resistance: Far better than CD/DVD's that for sure. Pigmented Inks can be glossed over, or Die Inks are naturally scratch resistant.

A user burned CD/DVD is rated to last, what, less than 10 years? I don't think Epson makes any printers these days that have fade resistance of less than 90 years. And even HP is getting up there if you use some of their special (non-water resistant unfortunately) paper.

Professional Photographers already know how good some of the archival technology out there is getting. ]]>Nov 26th 2006 7:02AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2006/11/25/college-student-creates-paper-based-storage-system-no-not-that/http://www.engadget.com/2006/11/25/college-student-creates-paper-based-storage-system-no-not-that/
But anyway, you've missed the point. To obtain the sort of "131 times DVD" capacities claimed we're talking about MICRON SIZED coloured symbols. As far as I'm aware there's simply no way to: A-print that accurately, B-store that accurately (paper isn't THAT smooth or stable), or C-retrive that accurately (scanning?). ]]>Nov 26th 2006 7:30AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2006/11/25/college-student-creates-paper-based-storage-system-no-not-that/http://www.engadget.com/2006/11/25/college-student-creates-paper-based-storage-system-no-not-that/
Does it not make the most sense to compress your data independently from the storage medium?

So why not just use a super software compression algorithm and store the output in the most discrete and simple manner possible (i.e. a sequence of TRUEs and FALSEs)... then come up with a means to reduce the physical realization of that sequence using technologies that operate on a nano scale... like a laser (e.g. DVDs) or magnets (e.g. hard-drives/flash memory).

Surely at some point in the scaling down of paper as a data storage mechanism, the non-crystaline compisition of it would become a major problem...

I could accept that this technology has some relavance/benefit to already existing solutions... like barcodes, or maybe some fancy data attachment to a mortgage document, or blueprint or something... but as a replacement for long term mass data storage... no frecking way.]]>Nov 26th 2006 8:54AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2006/11/25/college-student-creates-paper-based-storage-system-no-not-that/http://www.engadget.com/2006/11/25/college-student-creates-paper-based-storage-system-no-not-that/
This came out in the late 80's or early 90's if I remember correctly. The paper was on a spool, like a cash register receipt and was printed via a special printer and spooled back up. To read it you ran it through a special reader and your data was restored! Amazing! Of course what do you do now with all those spools of useless paper, no reader, no driver and you'll have to dig hard through your treasure chest to find that old copy of Dr. DOS.]]>Nov 26th 2006 7:48AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2006/11/25/college-student-creates-paper-based-storage-system-no-not-that/http://www.engadget.com/2006/11/25/college-student-creates-paper-based-storage-system-no-not-that/http://semacode.org/

A similar idea has already been done but on a smaller scale. It uses a barcode-like image that contains data, and when scanned by a camera phone or whatever it can be decrypted. Never seen one on an 8.5 x 11 sheet of paper but I would assume one that large could hold a sizable amount of data.]]>Nov 27th 2006 8:37AM