Even in your wildest imagination, you would never have thought that you can store data on ordinary paper or even plastic paper. Well, Sainul Abideen, a final year MCA student of MES college of Engineering, Kuttipuram in Malapuram district of Kerala has done just that.
Yes, ordinary or plastic paper can be used to store data, says Sainul who has named his invention Rainbow technology, “My friend Neena Varghese suggested the name,” It is distinct for its large storage capacity and cost-effectiveness. “High speed data storage and data reading is possible, files in any format can be stored using this technology.” says Sainul.
While the CD has low storage capacity, the DVD with its high storage capacity, about 4.7 GB or more, is quite expensive.
Discs developed using the rainbow technology are called RVD, (Rainbow Versatile Disc.) data from 90 GB to 450GB can be stored in an RVD, which is almost 131 times the capacity of a normal CD, UP to 65 films can be stored in a single RVD, RVD supports the data in any format like movie files, MP3 files, picture files, data files, etc. Special drives need to be developed in order to support RVDs.
The cost of making an RVD is only 50 ps or Re.1. CDs are made using Poly Carbonate which costs about Rs. 400 to Rs. 450 per kg. And 16 Grams of Poly Carbonate is needed to make a CD. But the RVD which offers 131 times storage capacity than the CD can be made from paper. A method called “Vertical Lining” is applied in RVD.
In Rainbow technology, the data in any format termed ‘rainbow format’ has been designed in such a way that it can be printed out in the form of images. Trigonometric forms like circle or square, certain colour combinations and certain other forms are being used. Each trigonometric form and colour combination represents a complete pattern. Most modern technologies like image processing, pattern matching, etc. are used for the purpose. The data which gets converted into an image form is then printed on paper or any other thing. This is low the data storage is made possible. When the steps are reversed, the rainbow picture is converted into data. Although environmental light differences and colour shading is a problem, it can be overcome up to a certain extent by using efficient mapping function. Each rainbow format contains a header, body, footer, parity, Rainbow boundary mapper, etc. Header contains the measurement of the rainbow picture, the algorithm that is being used, etc. It also contains an efficiently-designed error checking system.
The four main storage devices made using this technology are RVD, Disposable storage, Data Banks, Rainbow cards, and answer to the storage problems faced by the computer world.
With the help of disposable storage, a high density data storage is made possible even on paper or plastic sheets, Any type of computer files can be stored and distributed this way, so instead of giving CDs with the computer magazines, it’s content can be printed in a page, video albums, software etc. can be distributed at a very low cost with the help of Disposable storage.
Rainbow cards can be used in mobile devices in place of DVDs & VCDs. In a square inch sized Rainbow card, (equivalent to the size of a SIM card) more than 5 GB data can be stored. A major crisis faced in the design of the small digital devices is the huge size of the CD/DVD drives. The Rainbow cards can solve this problem. Un-authorized copies of the films can be controlled to a certain limit using these cards. A UK-based company has already evinced interest in making Rainbow cards.
Another theme put forward by rainbow technology is the data banks; it is huge server with a high storage capacity. As per a research project done in US in 2003 to store the available static data (films, songs, tutorials, presentations etc) the server required will cost $ 500 crore. (Rs 23,000 crore). But by using data banks, a similar server can be made with Rs 35 lakhs. All; the available films and other static data can be used by paying cash through the Internet. Almost 125.603 PB data storage is possible in a data bank.
Sainul is busy with project Xpre3ssa now. It’s a software package for regional languages. By using this, newspapers, stories, novels etc can be made audible in its own style. So online newspapers and novels can be enjoyed through a mobile phone with a GPRS connection. Sainul Abideen, a native of Karingappara, is a freelance software developer.
Monday, December 11, 2006
Nanocomputers
Nanoelectronics, electronics made of tiny components, took a leap forward this week with the announcements of the first molecule-sized transistors and logic gates.
These basic devices are an important step towards developing tiny computers that will be faster, cheaper and more powerful than anything available with today's technology.
Ever since Nobel Prize winner Richard Feynman suggested that people could build machines the size of atoms, nanotechnology has been on the minds of scientists and sci-fi fans alike.
Nanophiles envision a futuristic world filled with teeny robots that can build diamonds out of the carbon atoms in a sheet of paper, or fly through your body scraping cholesterol off of your artery walls.
These and other spectacular promises have yet to materialize, but two articles published in this week's issue of Science magazine report significant advances in the sub-field of nanoelectronics.
First, a group at Lucent's Bell Labs built a Field-Effect Transistor (FET) from a single molecule.
"FETs are the powerhouse of modern electronics," said team member Jan Hendrik Schön. Creating a molecular-sized FET is the first step in building a nanocomputer.
The team's transistor is an organic molecule about 50,000 times smaller than the width of a human hair. It has the added benefit of bonding to plastics and other synthetic materials, something present-day silicon technologies cannot do.
Schön said this special ability might allow computer circuits to become integrated into credit cards and clothing. The fact that the molecule can be stored easily in a liquid solution also opens up the possibility of using ink-jet type technology to "print" processors on sheets of plastic.
The second paper describes how researchers based at Harvard University made semiconducting nanowires that assembled themselves into simple circuits.
"Self assembly is a concept that's been present in biology for billions of years," says Charles Lieber, the leader of the Harvard team.
To apply the self-assembly concept to their DNA-sized nanowires, the researchers grew the wires in a liquid and then squirted it over an array of electrical contacts. The wires attach to specialized glues on the contacts, arranging themselves into complex grids whose intersections behave like miniature FETs. By depositing layers of glues, liquids, and wires, the team was able to create a nanocircuit that could perform basic addition operations.
"I think that eventually you will be able create structures that are so integrated that they go right off the existing roadmap (of existing technology)," Leiber says. But Leiber also sees some long-term potential in quantum computing --computers based on the bizarre laws of quantum mechanics.
"When you make things very small," he explained, "the quantum mechanical features show up."
The nanowires used by the Harvard team are small enough to have quantum mechanical properties. "We don't know how to manipulate those properties very well, but they're there," he said. And with extensive research they might be able to use the wires in a future quantum computer.
"These are impressive achievements," says Ralph Merkle, a principal fellow at Zyvex, the world's first molecular nanotechnology company. Merkle believes that the compact size and enormous processing potential of these technologies might change the way we interact with computers.
"One of the things that's quite remarkable is the extent to which computers have become a vital part of our everyday lives when essentially they are just a box, a screen, and a keyboard," he said.
Molecular processors, he explained, could allow computers to see, hear and interact with humans much more directly. "Rather than us sitting down in front of a shrine, called a monitor, computers will do things in our world," he said.
But do we really need to develop technology so powerful that it can cram all present-day computer power into a space no larger than a sugar cube?
Merkle seems to think so. "Every time people say 'Gosh, what do we need more computer power for?' somebody comes up with a new application. Just take a look at Windows: we're going to need these molecular computers to run Windows 2015."
These basic devices are an important step towards developing tiny computers that will be faster, cheaper and more powerful than anything available with today's technology.
Ever since Nobel Prize winner Richard Feynman suggested that people could build machines the size of atoms, nanotechnology has been on the minds of scientists and sci-fi fans alike.
Nanophiles envision a futuristic world filled with teeny robots that can build diamonds out of the carbon atoms in a sheet of paper, or fly through your body scraping cholesterol off of your artery walls.
These and other spectacular promises have yet to materialize, but two articles published in this week's issue of Science magazine report significant advances in the sub-field of nanoelectronics.
First, a group at Lucent's Bell Labs built a Field-Effect Transistor (FET) from a single molecule.
"FETs are the powerhouse of modern electronics," said team member Jan Hendrik Schön. Creating a molecular-sized FET is the first step in building a nanocomputer.
The team's transistor is an organic molecule about 50,000 times smaller than the width of a human hair. It has the added benefit of bonding to plastics and other synthetic materials, something present-day silicon technologies cannot do.
Schön said this special ability might allow computer circuits to become integrated into credit cards and clothing. The fact that the molecule can be stored easily in a liquid solution also opens up the possibility of using ink-jet type technology to "print" processors on sheets of plastic.
The second paper describes how researchers based at Harvard University made semiconducting nanowires that assembled themselves into simple circuits.
"Self assembly is a concept that's been present in biology for billions of years," says Charles Lieber, the leader of the Harvard team.
To apply the self-assembly concept to their DNA-sized nanowires, the researchers grew the wires in a liquid and then squirted it over an array of electrical contacts. The wires attach to specialized glues on the contacts, arranging themselves into complex grids whose intersections behave like miniature FETs. By depositing layers of glues, liquids, and wires, the team was able to create a nanocircuit that could perform basic addition operations.
"I think that eventually you will be able create structures that are so integrated that they go right off the existing roadmap (of existing technology)," Leiber says. But Leiber also sees some long-term potential in quantum computing --computers based on the bizarre laws of quantum mechanics.
"When you make things very small," he explained, "the quantum mechanical features show up."
The nanowires used by the Harvard team are small enough to have quantum mechanical properties. "We don't know how to manipulate those properties very well, but they're there," he said. And with extensive research they might be able to use the wires in a future quantum computer.
"These are impressive achievements," says Ralph Merkle, a principal fellow at Zyvex, the world's first molecular nanotechnology company. Merkle believes that the compact size and enormous processing potential of these technologies might change the way we interact with computers.
"One of the things that's quite remarkable is the extent to which computers have become a vital part of our everyday lives when essentially they are just a box, a screen, and a keyboard," he said.
Molecular processors, he explained, could allow computers to see, hear and interact with humans much more directly. "Rather than us sitting down in front of a shrine, called a monitor, computers will do things in our world," he said.
But do we really need to develop technology so powerful that it can cram all present-day computer power into a space no larger than a sugar cube?
Merkle seems to think so. "Every time people say 'Gosh, what do we need more computer power for?' somebody comes up with a new application. Just take a look at Windows: we're going to need these molecular computers to run Windows 2015."
Quantum computer works best switched off
Even for the crazy world of quantum mechanics, this one is twisted. A quantum computer program has produced an answer without actually running.
The idea behind the feat, first proposed in 1998, is to put a quantum computer into a “superposition”, a state in which it is both running and not running. It is as if you asked Schrödinger's cat to hit "Run".
With the right set-up, the theory suggested, the computer would sometimes get an answer out of the computer even though the program did not run. And now researchers from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign have improved on the original design and built a non-running quantum computer that really works.
They send a photon into a system of mirrors and other optical devices, which included a set of components that run a simple database search by changing the properties of the photon.
The new design includes a quantum trick called the Zeno effect. Repeated measurements stop the photon from entering the actual program, but allow its quantum nature to flirt with the program's components - so it can become gradually altered even though it never actually passes through.
"It is very bizarre that you know your computer has not run but you also know what the answer is," says team member Onur Hosten.
This scheme could have an advantage over straightforward quantum computing. "A non-running computer produces fewer errors," says Hosten. That sentiment should have technophobes nodding enthusiastically.
The idea behind the feat, first proposed in 1998, is to put a quantum computer into a “superposition”, a state in which it is both running and not running. It is as if you asked Schrödinger's cat to hit "Run".
With the right set-up, the theory suggested, the computer would sometimes get an answer out of the computer even though the program did not run. And now researchers from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign have improved on the original design and built a non-running quantum computer that really works.
They send a photon into a system of mirrors and other optical devices, which included a set of components that run a simple database search by changing the properties of the photon.
The new design includes a quantum trick called the Zeno effect. Repeated measurements stop the photon from entering the actual program, but allow its quantum nature to flirt with the program's components - so it can become gradually altered even though it never actually passes through.
"It is very bizarre that you know your computer has not run but you also know what the answer is," says team member Onur Hosten.
This scheme could have an advantage over straightforward quantum computing. "A non-running computer produces fewer errors," says Hosten. That sentiment should have technophobes nodding enthusiastically.
Hackers Fool Vista into Activating!
One of the ways to activate Windows Vista available to Microsoft volume licensing customers is Key Management Service or KMS that requires a centralized server that clients can activate against every 180 days. As such, it's the server that hosts the product keys; and not the client machines. Thus, with KMS, a company can run a Microsoft-supplied authorization server on its own network, and activate Vista without contacting Microsoft for each copy. Although KMS is meant to benefit system administrators with many on-site clients, reports are already doing the rounds that some hackers have used a VMWare image and a VBS script to simulate a local KMS that can generate valid Vista product keys. This workaround, dubbed "Microsoft.Windows.Vista.Local.Activation.Server-MelindaGates," can activate both Enterprise and Business editions of Vista. However, the Home and Ultimate editions of Vista cannot work with a KMS, so they cannot be easily activated with the MelindaGates Hack. Reportedly, the hacked download is available online on sites such as 'The Pirate Bay' and other file sharing sites. The MelindaGates Hack or download is a VMWare image. The idea is to download and install VMWare Player (a legal free download); boot the image; and use some VBS script (supplied with the activation server download) to have the client Vista machine get its activation from the local server. And, there is no communication back to Microsoft. Microsoft has refused to comment on the hack. Actually, Microsoft designed Vista as its first Windows OS requiring volume users to activate each product, and this was integrated mainly as an anti piracy measure. Of the latest reports, several security experts are not at all surprised that hackers have come up with a workaround for Vista's product activation; however, there are others who feel that Microsoft should be happy that it took none less than the acquisition of a KMS server to fool Vista into activating...
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