Products: Fuji Photo Film

Within 18 months, you'll be able to buy a holographic storage device; it will burn gigabytes of data to a new generation of media from Fuji Photo Film and Maxell, among others. While it's unfortunate that — like VHS and Betamax, and Blu-Ray and HD-DVD — two contending standards will soon compete for market dominance, now's the time to make yourself familiar with the different offerings.

Holographic Versatile Disc (HVD), developed by Optware and supported by the recently formed Holographic Versatile Disc Alliance, offers one approach. Fujifilm, one of the prime media developers for the technology, has developed new materials technology such as photo polymers and a dichroic mirror layer, which provides precise control of the light beam.

One interesting touch: The company has found a way to build servo information into the disc, taking some of the complexity out of the player/recorder to make a more reliable removable, interchangeable format.

Last year, Optware demonstrated what it describes as the world's first recording and playback of digital movies on a holographic recording disc, based on the company's reflective layer collinear technology. Read about collinear holographic technology at www.optware.co.jp/english/index_tech.htm. For more on the media employed, visit www.fujifilm.com.