Microsoft encodes the Superman movie onto Quartz glass

How does it work?

Adding data to a coaster-sized slab of quartz glass is, unsurprisingly, quite a complicated business.

A device called a femtosecond laser is used to carve miniscule three-dimensional etchings into the surface of the glass, which can then be read by unique algorithms that are trained to be able to understand patterns that appear when light is shone through. This data can then be replicate on a computer.

The data itself is stored in ‘voxels’, 3D units that exist as layers inside the glass. More than 100 layers of these voxels can be stored in one slab, which allows for large quantities of information to be held in a relatively small space.

It’s a similar premise to vinyl records, which use engraved patterns to recreate recorded music…though this is obviously a bit more high-tech. According to a blog post written by one of the researchers, Richard Black, the glass’ data can quickly be retrieved along an x, y, or z axis, adding a brand new three-dimensional element to storage.

How could this be used in the future?

This type of tech will be super useful for large-scale, long-term archiving. Smart glass such as this is extremely durable and can withstand being baked, microwaved, doused in water, and elemental weathering over large periods of time. I have no idea why you’d be sticking smart glass in the microwave, mind.

This increased durability and easy access to the data means that companies won’t need to constantly transfer their archived information onto different hardware. Currently, films and artefacts stored on film reels, floppy disks, tapes, etc, have to be digitally moved and continually reworked in order to be maintained. Smart glass removes this laborious process. It’s cheaper, too, and we’ll likely see this method adopted by many companies in the future.

There’s still some tweaking to do and work to be done before this can be adopted on a wide-scale level. ‘Superman’ being encoded onto glass is a big deal – it’s now a question of what else can be done and how quickly. Stay tuned on this one, you’ll definitely be hearing more about storage glass in the near future.