R A I N B O W TECHN O L O GY

Rainbow Technology

1. ABSTRACT Rainbow Technology, a breakthrough in digital data storage enables us to store up to a massive 450 GB on just a piece of paper. Rainbow Storage is a group of techniques to store digital data in some colors, color combinations and some symbols known as rainbow format, and therefore a rainbow picture will be generated.

The technique is used to achieve high-density storage. With the help of Rainbow system we would be watching full-length high-definition videos from a piece of paper!

The main attraction is the cheap paper. The Rainbow technology is feasible because printed text, readable by the human eye is a very wasteful use of the potential capacity of paper to store data. By printing the data encoded in a denser way much higher capacities can be achieved. Paper is, of course, bio-degradable, unlike CDs or DVDs. And sheets of paper also cost a fraction of the cost of a CD or DVD.

Page 2

Rainbow Technology

2. INTRODUCTION

It uses geometric shapes such as squares and hexagons to represent data patterns, instead of the usual binary method that uses ones and zeros to represent data. Besides, color is also used in the Rainbow system, to represent other data elements. Files such as text, images, sounds and video clips are encoded in “Rainbow format” as colored circles, triangles, squares and so on, and printed as dense graphics on paper at a density of 2.7 G per square inch. An RVD therefore looks like a print-out of the modern art.

Fig 1: Data stored in rainbow format on an ordinary paper

The paper can them be read through a specially developed scanner and the contents decoded into their originals digital format and viewed or played. The Rainbow technology is feasible because printed text, readable by the human eye is a very wasteful use of the potential capacity of the paper to store data. By printing the data encoded in a denser way much higher capacities can be achieved. The retrieval of data is done by scanning the paper or the plastic sheet containing the data into a scanner and later reading it over monitor.

Page 3

Rainbow Technology

Instead of using 0s and 1s, we use color dots where each color dot can represent minimum 8 bits (1 byte).The rainbow picture will be highly compressed and can be represented in any color medium. For retrieving the contents from the medium, picture can be captured and data can be generated from the color combinations. ”Although environmental light differences and color shading is a problem, it can overcome up to a certain limit by using efficient mapping functions”.

3. HOW TO READ RAINBOW PRINTS?

In order to read the rainbow prints, all that is required is a scanner and specialized software. Smaller scanners could fit inside laptop computers or mobile phones, and read SIM card-sized RVD’s containing 5GB of data. The recording media could be either paper or plastic sheets. The piece of paper or even plastic sheet storing the data has just to be scanned in the scanner and read over the monitor. A scanning drive based on the rainbow software has simultaneously been developed which will come in smaller sizes to be initially carried with the laptops and later to fit into their bodies.The developer is simultaneously molding the technology into ’Rainbow cards’ which will be of SIM card size and store 5GB equivalent to three films of DVD quality. As ‘Rainbow Cards’ will become popular, rainbow card reader will replace CD drives of mobile phone and computer notebooks and will enable more data in portable forms for mini digital readers. Large scale manufacture of the rainbow card will bring down its cost to just 50 paisa.

Page 4

Rainbow Technology

Fig 2: Discs can now be developed from plastic paper to which will be able to hold 450 GB of data.

Page 5

Rainbow Technology

3.1 Principles Used

The technology is based on two principles:

3.1.1 Principle I“Every colour or colour combinations can be converted in to some values and from the values the colours or colour combinations can be regenerated”.

3.1.2 Principle II“Every different colour or colour combinations will produce different values”.

Page 6

Rainbow Technology

3.2 Process of storing data

Printing at 1,200 dots per inch (DPI) leads to a theoretical maximum of 1,440,000 colored dots per square inch. If a scanner can reliably distinguish between 256 unique colors (thus encoding one byte per dot), the maximum possible storage is approximately 140 mega bytes for a sheet of A4 paper-much lower when the necessary error correction is employed. If the scanner were able to accurately distinguish between 16,777,216 colors (24 bits, or 3 bytes per dot), the capacity would triple, but it still falls well below the media stories’ calms of several hundred gigabytes. Printing this quantity of unique colors would require specialized equipment to generate many spot colours. The process model used by most printers provides only 4 colours, with additional colours simulated by a halftone pattern.

At least one of three things must be true for the claim to be valid:

The paper must be printed and scanned at a much higher resolution than 1,200 DPI,

The printer and scanner must be able to accurately produce and distinguish between an extraordinary numbers of distinct colour values.

The compression scheme must be a revolutionary lossless compression algorithm.

Page 7

Rainbow Technology

If Rainbow’s “geometric” algorithm is to be encoded and decoded by a computer, it would equally viable to store the compressed data on a conventional disk rather than printing it to paper or other non-digital medium.Printing something as dots on a page rather than bits on disks will not change the underlying compression ratio, so a losses compression algorithm that could store 250 gigabytes within a few hundred megabytes of data would be revolutionary indeed. Likewise, data can be compresses with any algorithm and subsequently printed to a paper as coloured dots. The amount of data that a can be reliably stored on this way is limited by the printer and scanner, as described above.

Page 8

Rainbow Technology

Fig 3: Picture of a wall post containing hidden data in its eyes

Page 9

Rainbow Technology

Page 10

Rainbow Technology

Fig 4: Zoomed view of above figure

Page 11

Rainbow Technology

4. RELATED WORK

4.1 WORKING

It uses geometric shapes such as squares and hexagons to represent data patterns, instead of the usual binary method that uses ones and zeros to represent data. Besides, colour is also used in the Rainbow system, to represent other data elements. Files such as text, images, sounds and video clips are encoded in rainbow format as coloured circles, triangles, squares and so on, and printed as dense graphics on paper at a density of 2.7 GB per square inch.

Rainbow storage targets high availability and survivability of data and performance in the presence of faults and attacks referred as OceanStore. The recording media could be either paper or plastic sheets. The piece of paper or even plastic sheet storing the data has just to be scanned and read over the monitor.

Page 12

Rainbow Technology

Fig 5: working

Page 13

Rainbow Technology

4.2 Conversion ProceduresThe following steps are used to convert the original data to be data detected by the rainbow devices.

4.2.1 Level-1 Data to Data PicturesData to Data picture conversion takes place in four steps. A chuck of data bits are taken from data source (Normally Binary Files), which is known as a word. The size of the word can vary according to the nature of writers, readers and storage mediums. The word can be converted into a value that will be unique for each different combination of bits. Thus a picture will be generated by representing values as colors. The value then passes through some error checking mechanisms. After producing some error correction bits, it will attach to the data picture. Header, Picture Bounder Mapper (PBM) (for keeping track of the boundary of data picture), universal Picture Dot (a static value that is used for mapping errors that occurred due to colour fading), etc will be attached to the picture. Thus the final output (Data picture) will be generated. Now the original data is encoded into Data Picture and it can be now printed in any printable media.

Page 14

Rainbow Technology

4.2.2 Level-2 Data Picture to DataData Picture to data conversion uses just the reverse process. Data Picture is taken as an input and the parameters like UPD, PBM, etc are read from the header. The actual data is generated by picture to value conversion. Some image processing methods are used for this stage. Value mapping functions are used for mapping the arrangements done on actual data. Some errors that occur due to colour fading can also be handled at this stage. The values are passed through some error correction mechanisms. Fault tolerance and automatic repair is also performed at this stage. Then the value to word conversion takes place. The encoded data picture is hence decoded into results data which will be the original. The paper can then be read through a specially developed scanner and the contents decoded into their original digital format and viewed or played. The Rainbow technology is feasible because printed text that can be read by the human. Eye does not make optimal use of the potential capacity of paper to store data. By printing the data encoded in a denser way higher capacities can be achieved. The retrieval of data is done by scanning the paper or the plastic sheet containing. The data into a scanner and later reading it over the monitor. Instead of using 0s and 1s, we use colour dots where each colour dot can represent minimum 8 bits (1 byte). The rainbow picture will be highly compressed and can be represented in any colour medium. For retrieving the contents from the medium, picture can be captured and data can be generated from the colour combinations.”Although environment light differences and colour shading is a problem, they can be overcome up to a certain limit by using efficient mapping functions.”

Page 15

Rainbow Technology

In order to read the rainbow prints, all that is required is a scanner and specialized software. Smaller scanner could fit inside laptop computers or mobile phones, and read SIM card sized RVDs containing 5GB of data. The recording media could be either paper or plastic sheets. The piece of paper or even plastic sheet storing the data has just to be scanned in the scanner and read over the monitor. A scanning drive based on the Rainbow software has simultaneously been developed which will come in smaller sizes to be initially carried with the laptops and later to fit into their bodies. The technology has used geometric shapes like circles, squares and triangles for computing which combine with various colours and preserve the data in images. An RVD therefore looks like a print out of the modern art. All kinds of data have to be first converted into a common format called ‘Rainbow Format’.

Page 16

Rainbow Technology

Fig 6: Representation of data from a file to Rainbow format

A chuck of data bits are taken from a data source (Normally Binary File), which is known as a word. The word can be converted into a value that will be unique for each different combination of bits. Thus a picture will be generated by representing values as colours. The value will then pass through some error checking mechanisms. After producing some error correction bits, it will be attached to the data picture. Thus the final output (Data Picture) will be generated. Now the data picture can be printed in any printable media.

Page 17

Rainbow Technology

4.3 Software Implementation

Storing an audio file and text file on paper in a form of image. We will take print out of this paper and by scanning it we can retrieve the data stored on paper back. Representing data in the form of black and white image is basic step, but here we have discussed conversion in to gray scale image directly as it leads to smaller image size and more compression.

4.3.1 Encoding from audio signal into gray scale image

We will initially read ‘audio’ file to get sampled values of audio files which will be between -1 and 1. Now converted this value between 0 to 1. To overcome limitations of normal printer and scanner we replicated each sampled value two times, this will control error till some extent. To obtain proper image we will convert this array into matrix with aspects ratio 4:3. Like this we have successfully created image whose pixel values are between 0 to 255 which corresponds to range 0 to 1. After that print out of this image is taken. The first image shown below represents image obtained after conversion of audio file and second image represents scanned image which can be used to reconstruct audio file.

Page 18

Rainbow Technology

Fig 7: Scanned gray scale image.bmp

In decoding part scanned gray scale image is converted back into audio file. We will select desired area of paper and read content of selected area. This matrix of aspect ratio 4:3 is converted into array. Now take average of two successive pixels to get actual value of pixel. Converted this value -1 to 1. This is the reconstructed audio file now play this audio file.

Page 19

Rainbow Technology

5. DEMONSTRATION

The reporter of Arab news claims to have been 450 pages of fully printed foolscap being stored on a 4-square inch piece of Rainbow paper. The reporter also claimed that he was shown a 45-second video clip that was stored using the rainbow system on a plain piece of paper. Sainul Abideen has demonstrated a 45-second video clip being encoded on paper, termed by him, a rainbow video disk - RVD- and then played back through a computer with an RVD scanner attached. In another demonstrated he has shown 432 A4 pages of paper rainbow format-encoded and stored on a two-inch by two-inch square of paper. Once the rainbow technology is in, soon we would be watching full-length high definition videos from a piece of paper! With the popularity of the rainbow technology, computer or fashion magazines in future need not carry CDs in a pack.

Fig 8: Sainul Abideen, the developer, explaining feature of his brainchild–Rainbow Technology.

Page 20

Rainbow Technology

5.1 Why to use paper?

Biodegradable-The biggest advantage of this technology would be the biodegradable nature of this storage device which would do away the e-waste pollution.

Cost- This is also one of the big advantages since cost paper is very low compared to current data storage devices.

Duplication- It is not quite as easy to copy an optical disk. This drawback can be resolved by paper storage which can easily duplicate data using Xeroxes etc.

Data transfer-Data stored on paper can be send to remote places easily via fax.

Speed-These devices are faster than current storage devices. Size-size is smaller than that of actual data. Security-security of signal can be increased.

Page 21

Rainbow Technology

6. ANALYSIS

By using Rainbow storage, we can develop many kinds of products. They include:

6.1 Disposable storage6.2 RVD6.3 Rainbow cards

6.4 Data centers

6.1 Disposable storage Rainbow storage can be used to achieve Disposable storage. We can store any kind of data in any kind of media that can represent colour. It can be used as one time storage. We can use bio-degradable materials here (because it is not intended for long time). This category of products can be used for distribution of files, documents, etc. Here we can use even printers, scanners, cameras and so-on as input and output devices.

6.2 RVDRVD (Rainbow Versatile Disk) is another product that can be developed by using Rainbow storage. We need to develop specific drives for reading and writing. It can hold huge amount of data and it will be very cheap enough to reduce storage price dramatically. The technique vertical lining is used in RVD to ensure high density. Storage capacity will vary according to the nature of the mediums used.

Page 22

Rainbow Technology

Fig 9: RVD

6.3 Rainbow cardsRainbow cards can be constructed as a cheap secondary storage medium for PDAs (Personal Digital Assistant) and other small digital devices. They can be constructed in many standards and sizes. The size can vary from visiting card size to the size of a SIM card. Specific readers need to be attached with such devices.

Figure 10: Rainbow card

Page 23

Rainbow Technology

6.4 Data Centers

Datacenters are the static storage servers that can hold Peta-Bytes of data. It will be a sequential access storage system that can be used for secondary storage of data. We can construct a data centre with a cost of around 35 lakhs.

Fig 11: Data Center

Page 24

Rainbow Technology

7. COMPARSION WITH OTHER STORAGE DEVICES

Fig 12: CD, DVDs a thing of past

Currently, of the several options available for data storage, DVDs are the best mode, but are yet expensive. Sianul Abideen has said that a CD or DVD consumes 16 gms of polycarbonate, which is a petroleum by-product. While a CD costs of Rs 15/-,his paper or plastic-made RVD will cost just Rs 1.50 and will even have 131 times more storage capacity. Using this technology an A4 sheet of paper could store 256 GB of data. In comparison, a DVD can store 4.7 GB of data. Paper is, of course, bio-degradable, unlike CDs or DVDs, and sheets of paper also cost a fraction of the cost of a CD or DVDs.

Page 25

Rainbow Technology

8. APPLICATIONS

It can be used for faster audio transfer over the internet with much less interference.

Morphing can be implementing to modify vocal information. It can be used in identification systems. As it is said earlier that we are going to implementing it for audio

and text file, it can also be developed for storing video files, images and any other data.

It can be used for faster audio transfer over the internet with much less interference.

It is more confidential than any other storage device. It can be used in identification systems.

Page 26

Rainbow Technology

9. ADVANTAGES

Files in any format like movie files, songs, images, text can be stored using this technology.

Its bio-degradable nature of the storage devices would do away with the e-waste pollution.

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, its content can be printed in a page, video albums, software etc and can be distributed at a very low cost with the help of disposable storage.

Rainbow card can be used in mobile devices in place of DVDs and VCDs. In a square inch sized rainbow cards, (equivalent to the size of 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 DVD/CD drives. The rainbow cards can solve this problem. Un-authorized copies of the films can be controlled to a certain limits using these cards. A UK based company has already evinced interest in making rainbow card.

Page 27

Rainbow Technology

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 crores (23,000 crores). But by using data banks, a similar server can be made with 35 Lakhs. All the available films and other static data can be used by paying cash with the internet. Almost 125.603 PB data storage is possible in a Data Bank.

Sainul Abideen is busy with project Xpre3ssa now. It is a software package for regional languages. By using this Newspaper, stories and novels can be enjoyed through mobile phone with a GPRS connection. Sainul Abideen, a native of Karingappara, is a Freelance software developer.

Un-authorized copies of the films can be controlled to a certain limit using these cards.

Page 28

Rainbow Technology

10. DISADVANTAGES The paper has the tendency to fade away hence the data loss

may occur.

With the extremely low cost of using this technology we can always afford to have multiple copies.

Page 29

Rainbow Technology

11. FUTURE SCOPE

The developer is simultaneously moulding the technology into 'Rainbow Cards' which will be of SIM card size and store 5 GB of data equivalent to three films of DVD quality.

As 'Rainbow Cards' will become Popular, Rainbow Card Readers will replace CD drives of mobile phone and computer notebooks.

Large scale manufacture of the Rainbow card will bring down its cost to just 50 paise.

Page 30

Rainbow Technology

12. CONCLUSION Once the Rainbow technology is in, soon we could be watching

full-length high definition videos from a piece of paper! With the popularity of the Rainbow Technology, computer or fashion magazines in future need not carry CDs in pack.

One of the major advantages of the rainbow system is the fact that it should cost a lot less to produce than the typical polycarbonate DVDs, CDs and now Blu-rays. Huge data banks can be constructed out of Rainbow-Based storage medium.

Page 31

Rainbow Technology

13. REFERENCES

Rainbow Technology Decidedly Nurtures Storage TrendsInternational Journal of Technology and Engineering System(IJTES) c gopalax-Publisher of International Journals.

Color Coded Cryptography International Journal of Scientificand Engineering Research, Volume 3, Issue 7, July-2012 1ISSN 2229-5518 IJSER c 2012.

"Data Can Now Be Stored on Paper" by M. A. Siraj, ArabNews (published November 18, 2006; accessed November 29,2006)

Sadik C. Esener, Mark H. Kryder, William D. Doyle, Marvin Keshner, Masud Mansuripur, David A Thompson, International Technology Research Intitute, “WTEC Panel on the future of Data Storage Technologies.” Uman

Page 32