Sticky Tape – The Future of Data Storage

A German researcher has discovered a way of storing information on a roll of humble sticky tape.
Steffen Noethe of the European Media Lab in Heidelberg had the idea two years ago, one Friday the 13th, when he opened his desk drawer and saw a roll of tape.

A laser beam is used to engrave a digital hologram on a roll of the Tesa brand of adhesive tape. As the laser passes over the tape, the density changes, and it is these density changes that can be read by another laser.

At the moment, a single roll of tape can store up to 15 CD-ROMs worth of information and only one brand of tape seems to do the job, with the others not being able to deliver the same level of data storage.