Slashdot Mirror
Coating Promises Scratch-Proof CDs, DVDs, LCDs
13.7BillionYears writes "NewScientist reports that TDK has developed a transparent polymer for LCD screens and optical media that is impervious to general neglect and abuse. Quoth the reporter, 'In one of the most convincing technology demonstrations this reporter has witnessed, I was handed a CD, a wire-wool pan scourer and some permanent marker pens, and invited to scratch or mark the discs. Hard as I tried, I could not make a single mark on the disc with the scourer. And the ink simply wiped off.' The coating is apparently responsible for Blu-Ray's new caddy-less form factor."
If this can be applied to cars when coming out of factory, it'll save a lot of 'disagreement' with supermarket trollies.
There's no mention of price, and more importantly, the ease of removal if this protective coating is somehow scratched. I find the current PDA sheet very difficult to remove (as if you're about to pull the LCD out).
And will record companies do more to prevent "backup" copies now that you simply can't scratch your CDs anymore??
Rock that crushes, Paper & Scissors that don't matter.
I *ALWAYS* wondered why people whose buildings get tagged wouldn't spray teflon on the side of their building...now I will wonder why they don't use this stuff.
Sounds pretty cool
Joe
The PSP could really use this.
No more marking the edge of CD to defeat the copy protection?
This issue is a bit more complicated than you think.
There was similar hype twenty years ago when CDs first came out, although that was based on supposedly miraculous error correction rather than a miraculous coating.
A popular science program on UK television had a demo where they scratched CDs, drilled holes in them, covered them in jam, and Look! they still work.
Of course, it all turned out to be cobblers.
You might as well go all the way and demand something as hard as carbon nanotubes.
Of course, the penalty of extra hardness is the fact that it becomes brittle. Glass CD's wouldn't scratch, but I'd prefer soft plastic over them any day.
I've got a synthetic sapphire crystal on my watch, and the rest of it is made of a hardened titanium, and 4 years so far without a single scratch. It's obvious that I've never whacked the crystal hard against a rock.
HIV Crosses Species Barrier... into Muppets
Indestructable AOL disks.. *Shivers*
No, Good! We then have free roofing "tiles" that last forever. You know how much roofing tiles cost?
Table-ized A.I.
And, if it makes fingerprints stick less, then that'd be an added bonus. I wonder whether the ink-resisitant properties have any effect on oily or gummy buildups.
Anyone care to speculate?
Great - when can I get this coating on my glasses?
I'm hoping they're going to use this stuff as an under/over finish. I've more CDs die from label damage- the least protected side of a CD -than outright read side abuse. All it takes is a minor scatch to that area and the CD becomes an unreadable coaster. ...Which makes it all the more funny to watch people set it on that side, thinking they're protecting the read surface.
You need a FREE iPod Nano
That's because the caddie was a part of the media, just like Zip disks.
When the caddy sits on your desk, and you have to put the media in it in order to insert it into a drive (like early CD-ROMs and DVD-RAM) it becomes much less consumer-friendly.
I'm out of my mind right now, but feel free to leave a message.....
DVD's, and the new forms of media should as well, have a layer of plastic on the label side as well just as thick as the data side. Fixes thoses issue of worrying about the label side (have to get a pretty deep scratch to damage the data from the label side).
for the stalls in bathrooms. Cut down on that stupid graffiti.
This guy is way out there
As the opthalmic industry has applied scratch resistant coatings with matched refractive indices to polycarbonate lenses for many years now. Indeed, the "wire wool" test is a standard for scratch resistance.
:)
It seems just a new application of old technology, long overdue IMHO. When I used to work in R&D for one of the major opthalmic lens manufacturers (when they still had R&D) I recall the licensing of our scratch proof coatings to the optical storage industry was mooted on several occasions.
As the cost of these coatings was prohibitive; often costing up to $12USD per application, I suspect they may have found ways to reduce the cost or they could afford to sacrafice matching of RI or some degrees of scratch resistance.
Furthermore, I recall an undergrad student doing work with Diamond Like Carbon coating of optical media at a local university several years back. Althought the differing refractive indices of media and coating led to problems.
Id love to see some REAL detail about this technique and hear if it is possible to apply to existing CDs/DVDs... although back at aforementioned opthalmic R&D lab I coated all of my own CDs/DVDs that I owned at the time... Since the coating was RI matched, it even repaired scratches
err!
jak.
How degradable is this supertough coating? How hard will it be for you to get rid of it when you want it to go away? Remember that one of the main selling points of CFC's was that they were very unreactive. As we've all learned within the past couple decades, this was also a bad thing about them, since they were found to be associated with ozone layer depletion. I'm not saying unmarkable AOL CD's will destroy the ozone layer, but I'm thinking that disposal of items covered with this new coating might be a bit more complicated than it would be with conventional, noncoated objects. Thoughts?
See my post somewhere else here :)... Polymer opthalmic lenses have carried (or have had the option to carry, depending on how cheap you are) scratch resistant coatings for a VERY LONG time... Anti reflective coatings too, tho these are not chemical "films" applied as liquids (as per scratch resisiting) but are thin layers of metal applied using PVD (Physical Vapour Deposition).
Most of the "hazing" would be due to build up of oils or fluids leaching in from the exposed edges when they are cut for framing.
Of course, scratch resistant is NOT scratch proof. Not now, not ever.
Err!
jak.
That always seemed a low blow to me. When you have kids, you want to be able to plop the DVD in the player and have it start playing immediately to placate a kid who is too young to understand patience.
Instead, you must wade through banners and trailers because you can't get through them using the navigation features.
Can kids themselves use this DVD? Not likely, my wife can't, and I can barely navigate it.
First thing I do with a Disney DVD is copy it to remove all that bullshit.
I notice another trend (NickleOdeon!) is instead of loading to the main menu, it loads to a little menu which asks you if you want previews or the main menu. Idiots! If I wanted previews, I'd choose it from the special features section!
If I remember correctly, there was a /. story not that long ago about companies who were planning to make rental DVDs which after a certain period of time would deteriorate when exposed to air because of a special coating - so if you go to Blockbuster you might find yourself choosing between the "Indestructible" and "Self-Destructing" DVD aisles.
Try to use Brasso, it works great on the bottom side of the disk.
It's by far the best and cheapest (yes, both) anti-scratch CD/DVD product you can buy.
I have never tried it on the top side of the disk, but I expect it will work as well as on the bottom side.
On CD's, yes. On most DVD's, no, the top and bottom layers are of roughly equal thickness.
I saw most because I have one DVD of 'Shaolin Soccer'.. they 'forgot' to apply the top layer of plastic, so the disc is about half as thick as a normal CD. Its extremely light and flexible, almost like a piece of cardboard. Everyone (ie nerds, geeks) I show it to loves it, but I have to maintain a strict look but dont touch policy. I dont know how much you can bend it and I dont want someone to find out for me!
Anyway, where was I? Oh thats right, you were wrong. 8)
-Copyright law #69:Whenever Mickey Mouse is about to enter the public domain,copyrights get extended by 25 years.