Microsoft's Project Silica succeeds in storing Superman film on a piece of glass.

Image Source: The Verge

Cloud storage has now seamlessly entered into our digital lives to such an extent that we neither realize that we are utilizing it in many instances and nor do we comprehend the fact that all this data is being physically stored in hardware whose capacity in increasingly flattening. This problem is compounded by the fact that the amount of data that each of us generate is increasing exponentially.

Even if the infrastructure keeps up with this rising demand, the hardware such as disk drives itself have a lifespan of around five years. This means that to keep the data saved they have to be cyclically written on to newer hardware.

A unique solution thought of, was to use the same ultrashort optical pulses used in LASIK surgeries to store data in glass by permanently changing its structure. This can help keep the data saved for centuries. Quartz glass also doesn’t need energy-intensive air conditioning to keep material at a constant temperature or systems that remove moisture from the air – both of which could lower the environmental footprint of large-scale data storage.

The hard silica glass used by Microsoft can withstand being boiled in hot water, baked in an oven, microwaved, flooded, scoured, demagnetized and other environmental threats that can destroy priceless historic archives or cultural treasures if things go wrong.

The way the technology works is that a laser encodes data in glass by creating layers of three-dimensional nanoscale gratings and deformations at various depths and angles. The system uses machine learning algorithms to read the data back by decoding the images and patterns that are created as polarized light shines through the glass.

Image Source: The Verge

Project Silica’s infrared lasers encode data in “voxels,” the three-dimensional equivalent of the pixels that make up a flat image. Since the information is being stored within the glass itself rather than its surface like that of traditional storage medium, a 2-mm-thick piece of glass, for instance, can contain more than 100 layers of voxels. 

Warner Bros., which approached Microsoft after learning of the research, is always on the hunt for new technologies to safeguard its vast asset library: historic treasures like “Casablanca,” 1940s radio shows, animated shorts, digitally shot theatrical films, television sitcoms, dailies from film sets. For years, they had searched for a storage technology that could last hundreds of years, withstand floods or solar flares and that doesn’t require being kept at a certain temperature or need constant refreshing.

The result of the collaboration was that the 1978 iconic film "Superman", was successfully stored, as a proof of concept, in a piece of glass roughly the size of a drink coaster - 75mmx75mm and just 2mm thick.