This document describes the Rainbow storage technology which uses colored geometric shapes and dots printed on paper or plastic sheets to store digital data at very high densities. It can store files like text, images, audio and video clips in this "rainbow format". A specially developed scanner then decodes this back into the original digital formats. Key points: 1. It uses colors and shapes instead of binary 1s and 0s to store data on paper up to 2.7GB per square inch. 2. A scanner along with specialized software is used to read these prints and decode the data back into its original form. 3. The technology achieves much higher storage capacities than conventional printing by encoding data in a

1. 1. 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 2.7GB
per square inch. An RVD therefore looks like a print-out of the modern art.
Fig: 2.1 Data stored in rainbow format on an ordinary paper
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, 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. 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. 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".
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2. 2. TOPIC
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 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 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 paise
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3. Fig: 2. Discs can now be developed from plastic paper too which will be able to hold
450 GB of data.
2.1. Principles Used
This technology is based on two principles:
2.1.1. Principle I
“Every colour or colour combination can be converted in to some values and from
the values the colours or colour combinations can be regenerated”.
2.1.2. Principle II
“Every different colour or colour combinations will produce different values”.
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4. 2.2. 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 megabytes 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' claims of several hundred gigabytes.
Printing this quantity of unique colors would require specialized equipment to
generate many spot colors. The process color model used by most printers provides only
four colors, with additional colors 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 number of distinct color values

The compression scheme must be a revolutionary lossless compression algorithm.
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 a disk will not change the underlying compression ratio, so a lossless
compression algorithm that could store 250 gigabytes within a few hundred megabytes of
data would be revolutionary indeed. Likewise, data can be compressed with any
algorithm and subsequently printed to paper as colored dots. The amount of data that can
be reliably stored in this way is limited by the printer and scanner, as described above.
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5. Fig: 2.2 Picture of a wall post containing hidden data in its eyes
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6. Fig: 2.2 Zoomed view of above figure
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7. 3. RELATED WORK
3.1. 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 2.7GB
per square inch. Rainbow storage targets high availability and survivability of data and
performance in the presence of faults and attacks reffered 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 in the scanner and read over the monitor.
Fig: 3.1.1 Working
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8. 3.2. Conversion procedures
The following steps are used to convert the original data to the data detected by the
rainbow devices.
3.2.1. Level-1 Data to Data Picture:
Data to Data Picture conversion takes place in four steps. A chunk of data bits are
taken from data source (Normally Binary file), 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 colours. The value then passes
through some error checking mechanisms. After producing some error correction bits, it
will attach to the data picture. Header, Picture Boundary 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.
3.2.2. Level-2 Data Picture to Data:
Data 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 the result data which will be
the original data
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9. 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 environmental light differences and
colour shading is a problem, they can be overcome up to a certain limit by using efficient
mapping functions".
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 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'.
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10. Fig: 3.2.Representation of data from a file to Rainbow format
A chunk 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
3.3. 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.
3.3.1. Encoding from audio signal in to gray scale image
We will initially read ‘audio’ file to get sampled values of audio file which
will be between -1 and 1. Now convert this value between 0 to 1. To overcome
limitations of normal printer and scanner we replicated each sampled value two
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11. times, this will control error till some extent. To obtain proper image we will
convert this array into matrix with aspect 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.
Scanned gray scale image.bmp
3.3.2. Decoding from gray scale image to audio signal
In decoding part scanned gray scale image is converted back in to audio file. We
will select desired area of paper and read content of selected area. These values are
between 0 to 255 we will convert this to values between 0 to1. This matrix of aspect ratio
4:3 is converted in to array. Now take average of two successive pixels to get actual value
of pixel. Convert this value between -1 to 1. This is the reconstructed audio file now play
this audio file.
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12. 4. DEMONSTRATION
The reporter of Arab News claims to have seen 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. 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 demonstration 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 highdefinition 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.
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.
Fig: 4.Sainul Abideen, the developer, explaining feature of his brainchild
-Rainbow Technology
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13. 4.1. Why to use paper?
 Biodegradable-The biggest advantage of this technology would be the
biodegradable nature of this storage device which would do away with the e-waste
pollution.
 Cost-This is also one of the big advantages since cost of paper is very low
compared to current data storage devices.
 Duplication-It is not quite as easy to copy an optical disk. This draw back 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.
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14. 5. ANALYSIS
By using Rainbow Storage, we can develop many kinds of products. They include
1) Disposable storage
2) RVD
3) Rainbow cards
4) Data centres
5.1. 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.
5.2. RVD:
RVD (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.
Fig: 5.2. RVD
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15. 5.3. Rainbow Cards:
Rainbow 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.
Fig: 5.3.Rainbow cards
5.4. Data Centres:
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.
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16. Fig: 5.4 Data center
5.5. COMPARISON WITH OTHER STORAGE DEVICES
Fig: 5.5.CD, DVD’s a thing of past.
Currently, of the several options available for data storage, DVDs are the best
mode, but are yet expensive. Sianul has said that a CD or DVD consumes 16gms of
polycarbonate, which is a petroleum by-product. While a CD costs Rs. 15, his paper or
plastic-made RVD will cost just about Rs. 1.50 and will even have 131 times more
storage capacity. Using this technology an A4 sheet of paper could store 256GB of data.
In comparison, a DVD can store 4.7GB 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.
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17. 5.6. Application:
 It can be used for faster audio transfer over the internet with much less
interference.
 Morphing can be implemented to modify vocal information.
 It can be used in identification systems.
 As it is said earlier that we are going to implement 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 then any other storage device.
 It can be used in identification systems.
ADVANTAGES:
 Files in any format like movie files, songs, images, text can be stored using
this technology.
 His biodegradable nature of the storage devices would do away with the ewaste 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 cd’s with the computer
magazines, its content can be printed in a page, video albums, software
etc.Can be distributed at a very low cost with the help disposable storage
 Rainbow cards can be used in mobile devices in place of DVDs &VCDs.In a
square inch sized rainbow cards, (equivalent to the size of sim card) more than
5GB 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
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18. limits using these cards. A UK-based company has already evinced interest in
making rainbow card.
 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(23000 crores).But by using data
banks ,a similar server can be made with Rs.35 lacks.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 is busy with project Xpre3ssa now. It’s a software package for regional
languages. By using this, News papers, stories, novels etc can be made audible in
its own style. So online news papers 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.
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
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19. 6. CONCLUSION
Once the Rainbow technology is in, soon we would be watching full-length highdefinition 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.
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.
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20. REFERENCES
[1]. “Data Can Now Be Stored on Paper" by M. A. Siraj
[2]. Paper storage man misunderstood — The Inquirer article, 12 December 2006.
[3]. "Store 256GB on an A4 sheet" by Chris Mellor, Techworld (published November 24,
2006; accessed November 29, 2006)
[4]. "R. Mariappan, B. Parthasarathy, “An analysis of data storage and retrieval of file
format system”. Indian Journal of Science and Technology, Vol.2 No. 9, ISSN: 09746846.
[5]. Peter N.Yianilos, Sumeet Sobti, “The Evolving Field of Distributed Storage”, IEEE
INTERNET COMPUTING, 1089-7801/01/$10.00 © 2001IEEE.
[6]. Sean Rhea, Chris Wells, Patrick Eaton, Dennis Geels, Ben Zhao, Hakim
Weatherspoon, and John Kubiatowicz, University of California, Berkeley,” MaintenanceFree Global Data Storage”, IEEE INTERNET COMPUTING, 1089-7801/01/$10.00
©2001 IEEE.
[7]. Sadik C. Esener, Mark H. Kryder, William D. Doyle, Marvin Keshner, Masud
Mansuripur, David A Thompson., International Technology Research Institute, “WTEC
Panel on the Future Of Data Storage Technologies”.
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