Posted on 11/12/2003 1:02:12 PM PST by Perseverando
CDs 'could be history in five years'
Compact discs could be history within five years, superseded by a new generation of fingertip-sized memory tabs with no moving parts.
Scientists say each paper-thin device could store more than a gigabyte of information - equivalent to 1,000 high quality images - in one cubic centimetre of space.
Experts have developed the technology by melding together organic and inorganic materials in a unique way.
They say it could be used to produce a single-use memory card that permanently stores data and is faster and easier to operate than a CD.
It's claimed that turning the invention into a commercially viable product might take as little as five years.
The card would not involve any moving parts, such as the laser and motor drive required by compact discs. Its secret is the discovery of a previously unknown property of a commonly-used conductive plastic coating.
US scientists at Princeton University, New Jersey, and computer giants Hewlett-Packard combined the polymer with very thin-film, silicon-based electronics.
The device would be like a standard CD-R (CD-recordable) disc in that writing data onto it makes permanent changes and can only be done once. But it would also resemble a computer memory chip, because it would plug directly into an electronic circuit and have no moving parts.
A report in the journal Nature described how the researchers identified a new property of a polymer called PEDOT.
PEDOT, which is clear and conducts electricity, has been used for years as an anti-static coating on photographic film. Researchers looked at ways of using PEDOT to store digital information. In the new memory card, data in the form of ones and zeroes would be represented by polymer pixels.
When information is recorded, higher voltages at certain points in the circuit grid would "blow" the PEDOT fuses at those points. As a result, data is permanently etched into the device. A blown fuse would from then on be read as a zero, while an unblown one that lets current pass through is read as a one.
Story filed: 18:07 Wednesday 12th November 2003
Recommendation: Rosalia de Souza - hot Brazilian samba. What's the new term for music that you can't get out of your head? That's what this music is - Brazilian samba that you'll be singing all day!
Surely you are aware of the incredible advances in memory over the last few years.
By 2008, that 128MB module will be a joke. Like a 386 processor. Memory will be down to a few pennies per gigabyte. We will be talking memory only in terms of gigabytes and terrabytes.
Your entire record collection on a $20 memory module holding hundreds of gigabytes.
Do the math.
"Addressable" cable boxes work two-way and the expected path is that in the future, Nielsen won't be the only entity offering audience estimates of programming for TV just as Arbitron won't have a perpetual lock on providing Radio ratings. As things stand now, you have Nielsen and Arbitron providing ESTIMATES for audience based upon a scientifically/statistically chosen enpaneled sample projected out to the total population. Everyone in the industryexcept for those who benefit from the Estimates wants more accountability and the only way to get TRUE accountability is to have every user monitored. It WILL happen but maybe not in our lifetime.
One thing that has been explored to bypass the need for every reciever be a transciever is to embed inaudible audio into every bit of signal - each with a unique identifier. In fact, this is already happening with commercials. In order to verify what commercial aired where, spots are encoded at the post-production level and monitoring stations collect the data in real time. Arbitron has tested such a system in Wilmington Delaware and Philadelphia but hasn't rolled it out further as of yet. They recriuted people to wear beeper-sized devices which picked up any encoded audio they came in contact with. No speculation here - I work in the business. Now THIS is speculation based upon experience: In the future, those beeper-sized devices will be embedded in recievers and some way will be found for them to report back - totally passive. Through statistical modelling married with geographic data, "they" will not need to know your name but they will be able to tell what demographic you are and fairly accurately determine other personal characteristics. Nielsen currently does this through analysis of viewing pattern data and when it was checked against actual collected data, it was judged to be VERY accurate.
As for XM an Sirius, you'll probably see Sirius either fold or be bought by XM. Both companies are on the edge financially (Sirius with low subscribers and XM with two satellites not operating at their design parameters) and if both fold, someone else will do resurrect the tech.
Wasn't Volkswagon running adds that offered a free iPod with a new Beetle? It appeared in those ads that there was already some kind of dock made for the car, although I suppose it is possible that it could have been a special kind of thing.
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