HOLODISCS FIGHT PIRACY
Printing holograms on the data side of CDs and DVDs promises to make them not only snazzier but also more difficult to copy. Martin Richardson, a physicist at De Montfort University in Leicester, UK, who invented the technique, says the holograms do not affect playback.
Richardson created the discs by modifying the normal process for making DVDs. He embossed a holographic pattern on a disc of reflective metal film, which he then attached to the plastic layer on which the data is normally burnt. To a laser reading the disc, the signal reflected from the data is stronger than that from the image, as the hologram scatters light in all directions. But when viewed from a distance, the hologram is clearly visible.
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Richardson is in talks with the DVD Forum 鈥� an industry consortium that sets standards for DVD discs and players 鈥� about making data-side holograms standard in the next generation of DVDs, known as Blu-Ray DVDs. He says his invention could help curb piracy if players are designed to accept only holographic DVDs.
鈥淭hese discs need not cost any extra because the hologram can be printed at the time the disc is cut,鈥� says Richardson.
FULL MOBILE JACKET
A wearable mobile phone base station packed into a jacket will soon be available. Riva Networks, based in New Jersey, has developed the jacket to provide aid workers and military personnel with a portable communications network in the field. But it will not be available to the general public because the radio frequencies that it uses are restricted to licensed operators.
Each jacket, demonstrated at the 3GSM conference in Cannes, France, last week, provides coverage for a cell 200 metres in diameter. Several jackets can be configured to cover a wider area. The jacket weighs just under 5 kilograms and the company says it produces radiation comparable with an average mobile phone. Each one can support up to seven simultaneous phone calls, and comes with a portable computer, detachable screen and a miniature transceiver 21 x 28 x 8 centimetres. A pair of antennas fit into the lapels. It can even be configured to create a private cellular network.
The jackets have already been used by New York鈥檚 coastguard to create temporary private networks for use during inspection of docked vessels.
