Holographic%20Laser%20Cubes

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Holographic Laser Cubes

• The method of storage for the future!!
• By Eric Unterhoffer

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Introduction

• A revolutionary new system of storage that is
  still in the experimental stages of development.
• Has been an ideology for almost 25 years by
  leading scientists.
• First prototype developed by Stanford University.
• Major companies in the industry such as IBM,
  Rockwell, Lucent Technologies and Bayer
  Corporation. Working in some cases as part of
  research consortia organized and co-funded by the
  U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency
  (DARPA).

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Current Capabilities

• Similar to the constant stream of photographs
  from LANDSAT (Land Remote Sensing Satellite
  System) satellites.(1)
• Capable of storing hundreds of billions of bytes
  of data and downloading at a rate of hundreds of
  billions of bytes per second with a very high
  degree of accuracy.(1)
• Essentially a hundred times faster then any
  storage device available today.(1)
• Capable of storing video, sound and data.(1)

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Current Capabilities

• Can retrieve images at real time rates with an
  accuracy of 1 error in 1 million bytes of
  data.(1)
• Lab results verified the capability to store 1
  hour of video imagery in a single centimeter of
  cubic space or the size of a sugar cube.(1)

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Testing

• Digital encoding techniques had to be invented
  with in the crystal in order to avoid
  difficulties with noise and imperfections of the
  crystal. (1)
• Because components that happened to be available
  in the laboratory were used on the project, the
  one-part-per-million error rate was worse than
  can be attained with current techniques. (1)

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Testing

• Holograms were gradually erased after many scans
  by the readout laser. However, previous research
  has shown that an efficient hologram "fixing"
  method exists so holograms can be permanently
  stored in lithium niobate. (1)
• Recording time also was slow, taking one hour to
  store just over 160 kilobytes of data due to
  experimental materials. Testing of many different
  materials will be the only result in advancement
  of project. (1)

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Functionality

• Holographic laser cubes currently use a material
  known as lithium niobate which is looks like a
  clear crystal block. (1)
• Holographic storage uses laser beams to record
  information in the form of two-dimensional
  holograms, one "page" at a time inside special
  optical materials. The image of the data can be
  read by shining a laser into the same volume of
  material. By changing the angles of the writing
  and reading laser beam, many pages of information
  can be stacked in and retrieved from the same
  space with a minimal amount of time. (1)

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Functionality

• The general idea of the way the first
  demonstration works is two slim laser beams
  converge in the interior of the device. The
  crystal glows green which is invisible to the
  viewer. The patterns of electrons inside the
  clear block are rearranged and a series of images
  are stored. Next, one beam searches the cube
  alone. It reflects the pattern of those
  rearranged electrons and relays them to a video
  camera, which is then relayed to a computer. (2)

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Actual Functionality (12)

• Works by converting video images into compressed
  digital data or Pages.
• It is then applied with designed software to
  apply error correction codes and then beamed from
  a laser through a device called a spatial light
  modulator to focus that data onto the lithium
  niobate crystal.
• A special mount moves the crystal three one-
  thousandths of a degree as each "page" is
  recorded in a clear pattern of opaque squares
  similar to a crossword puzzle.

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Actual Functionality (12)

• The hologram is created when the object beam
  meets the second beam or reference beam and the
  two beams interfere inside the photosensitive
  material. Physical or chemical changes occur
  inside the cube to create the cross word like
  pattern.
• The pages are read back through a second laser or
  reference beam that reflects the recorded data
  to a charge-coupled device (CCD), similar to a
  camera.

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Actual Functionality (12)

• The pattern is illuminated with one of the
  original beams and then diffracts the light to
  reconstruct the other beam thus recreating the
  original pattern.
• Finally The data is relayed to a computer,
  decompressed, and checked for errors using the
  error correction code.

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Actual Functionality
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Actual Functionality
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Issues

• Finding the right storage material is presently
  the main issue in the development of holographic
  laser cubes. Materials such as photorefractive,
  photochromic and photochemical polymers have been
  tested so far.
• Finding the right material is important because
  it will determine life span of data, speed and
  space for the device.
• Present materials only allow for a maximum of 6
  months for data life.
• Other issues is the data uploading rate is
  extremely slow.

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Predicted Capabilities (2)

• There a predictions that holographic laser cubes
  will be capable of storing 1 terabyte or 1
  trillion bytes of data in a single centimeter
  cubed or the equivalent size of a sugar cube.
• Will be able to read out information at a rate of
  1 gigabyte or 1 billion bytes per second.
• Holographic storage devices are predicted to
  completely eliminate the days of magnetic storage
  devices.

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Future Applications

• Imagine the capability of 6,840 raw uncompressed
  high quality Video/TV hours, or 2,100,000 chest
  x-rays, or nearly 10,000,000 high-resolution
  images, or 30,000 four-drawer filing cabinets of
  documents, or , or 20,000 DVD'S Worm's , or 4,000
  BLU-Ray Worm disk's on ONE 10 Terabyte 3.5 in.
  removable disc.

www.colossalstorage.net/
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Future Applications

• Another predicted possible application could also
  be with companies who wish to sell multimedia
  products such as music or movies over the
  internet. Because of the laser cubes large
  capacity and fast readout rate, huge movies could
  be watched with out a problem from huge
  archives.(1)

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Final Thoughts

• Holographic laser cubes are the wave of the
  future, think about it in this context.
• With current technology a 1cm3 laser cube is
  equal to
• - 694444 1.44MB floppy discs
• - 1429 700MB CD-ROMs
• - 250 4GB DVDs
• - 4 250GB hard drives

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Final Thoughts

• With predicted technology a 1cm3 laser cube is
  equal to
• - 694 444 1.44MB floppy discs
• - 14286 700MB CD-ROMs
• - 2500 4GB DVDs
• - 40 250GB hard drives

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Bibliography

• 1) www.stanford.edu/dept/news/relaged/940804Arc417
  1.html
• 2) www.rsc.rockwell.com/html/pr_holographicstorage
  .html
• 3) www.nature.com/nsu/010315/010315-7.html
• Other cites
• www.colossalstorage.net/colossal5j.htm
• www.colossalstorage.net/
• www.byte.com/art/9604/sec7/art2.htm
• www.spie.org/app/Publications/magazines/oerarchive
  /july/jul99/optstor.html
• www.thic.org/pdf/Jan01/NASAJPL.t-schao.010116.pdf

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Thank you for listening to my presentation!

• The future is here!