Optical Storage Method Using Color
for very high capacity mass storage

Data storage on optical media has one primary limiting factor: the practical number of distinguishable data signifiers that can be placed in a track. Current technology on DVDs places 320 x 400 nanometer signifiers, spaced 400 nanometers apart, and the individual tracks are around 740 nanometers apart. Using two layers, this can be nearly doubled, and holographic technology increases the density even more. The limiting factor remains: practical density. If a laser can't distinguish one bump from another, then that density is the limit. Slimmer laser beams may help some.

On/off is probably the most efficient pattern recognition method available for storage density for a plane in two dimensions. But what if you could use other dimensions? Magnetic tape, before digital methods became popular, stored in analog. But analog is a bit difficult to decipher accurately, and can change (fade in strength). With digital, the data signifier either is or is not. With analog, errors would be very likely. Currently better CDs have a shelf life in excess of 50 years before loss of data is likely.

Another dimension is color. Color for use in mass storage optical media has several advantages. First, lasers create light (colors) in very specific wavelengths. On the media, intensity might fade, but the wavelength will remain the same. Laser light can easily be identified by glass Interference or bandpass filters (commonly used in chemistry applications - see Edmunds Optics). Current laser devices are available in multiple colors. (See the nine wavelength device at Hearst Electronic Products.

Using color, data can be much more compactly represented in storage media. (Current recording media is not made for color, however this should not present a gigantic leap for manufacturers.) Current computer code is 8, 16, 32, or 64 bit. For large numbers, 32 bit is actually a reasonably efficient system. But for small numbers, it isn't. (For processing, programmers typically identify integers as small or long.) Eight bit, while smaller, is actually less efficient. Unicode, which is the character set used to represent information (letters, punctuation....) on your computer, is 16 bit, and has 64,000 possible combinations. Two-thirds of Unicode is currently claimed (42,666). (For reference, the US dictionary has around 38,000 entries.) Using nine colors for representation (or more), there are 362,880 (or more) different combinations (permutations). So nine bits (in color) can represent a rather large amount of data.

By divorcing the storage media representation from the computer 1/0 representation, the media would no longer be a slave to the computer architecture. (Actually MPEG has always used a different architecture.) So various efficiencies can be gained through various storage techniques. If you add one additional color to the nine colors, you can have two bit control codes that identify numbers, text, character sets, signs, and operations. You can also have variable bit sizes (short, long) so that it doesn't take nine bumps to represent every number.

With data on the storage media no longer in the same 1/0 architecture as the computer, it would require an encoder/decoder module. But this would allow for interpretive dictionaries to be on the media. (This is counter to current IEEE standards and industry conventions.) This would allow for extensible storage languages, and the computer could specify the best dictionary for representing the data. It would also allow for external dictionaries for encrypting the data and a hardware key so that only the key holder could read or use the data. Data compression algorithms could still be used to further compress the data, but they would be part of the media drive architecture, relieving the load on the computer.

- Scott

The methods described in this paper are the intellectual property of the copyright holder, and are protected by copyright law and may be protected by patent application. A minimal patent search has been done, but any existing patents and copyrights on this technology belong to their holders.

Distribution restrictions: All rights are reserved. No part of this document may be photocopied, reproduced, translated, or distributed in any electronic, print, storage, or other media, without prior written consent of Dorian Scott Cole.

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