DATA STORAGE ON FINGER NAIL

ABSTRACT

• Storing data on a fingernail comes under the field of study of data recording on biological tissues using
pulsed laser or more appropriately known as a femtosecond laser.
• These tissues include human fingernails, dental memory, DNA, hair, etc. All these undergo adaptive
focusing and target surface detection using a processing system.
• This paper focusses on data storage on human fingernails. In order write data on the nail, a laser pulse of
wavelength 800 nanometers is used.
• The diameter of a data bit is about 0.003 millimeters and the spacing between the bits is 0.005mm in
three layers at depths of 0.04, 0.06, and 0.08 mm within the nail.
 

 
 INTRODUCTION

• We have many approaches for storing the data.

• According to nova in 2013, It might be possible to encode data temporarily into regions of skin
tissue(accomplished using micro-tattooing technology).
• It is a temporary way because the skin tissues are getting affected by environmental conditions.
• Spivack in 2015, started that DNA provides an excellent medium for data-storage (junk DNA).
• Advantage is that the data is distributed throughout the entire body, but it effects on cell
development and health.
• YOSHIO HAYASAKI and his colleagues have discovered that data can be written into a
human fingernail by irradiating it with femetosecond laser pulses.
• femetosecond laser pulse processing offers a powerful tool for developing new high-capacity
devices because it allows fabrication of three dimensional(3-D) structures inside a wide range
of transparent materials.
 APPARATUS USED
The storing of data on a human fingernail is done using a system which consists of two main components:
1. A femtosecond laser processing system.
2. A fluorescence microscope.

A FEMTOSECOND LASER PROCESSING SYSTEM:

• This is used for writing operation on the nails of a person. The laser consists of an oscillator and an amplifier
.The laser from this is directed on the nail to write on it.
• The writing system has two basic functions.
• First is the adaptive focusing. This results in structural changes in the nail due to ionization of molecules in the
nail and the data is written onto them.
• The second function is that of achieving high throughput.

A FLUORESCENCE MICROSCOPE:
• Reading of data from the fingernail is done by visualizing the luminance or fluorescence of the fingernail.
• At the target points, the luminance is increased due to the exposure to the laser pulse. This fluorescence is
different from the original fluorescence spectrum of the fingernail.
• This difference lets the users detect the data and read it out. This is done using a microscope that consists of a
filtered xenon arc lamp.
• This lamp excites the fluorescence of the target points and data from the different depths is read out.
 LIMITATIONS

• It is lost after a span of 6 months.

• The breakage of nails may result in data loss or damage.
• This technology might not be preferred for mainstream use as it may be considered cumbersome.
• Transfer of data is not possible as is the case in other data storage devices such as pen drives.
• A single finger nail can store 5 megabits of data.
 ADVANTAGES
1.It is safe and does not cause any side effects on humans.
2.It is safe from theft and copy.
3.It has a lifetime of 6 months after which it expires.

4.Data can be transported in this manner very easily.

5.It can be used for covert missions.
6.It can be carried around very easily.
7.It is a very intelligent way of data storage as most people would not know about it.
 DISADVANTAGES
1.Data once written cannot be modified.
2.It is lost after a span of 6 months.
3.The breakage of nails may result in data loss or damage.

4.This technology might not be preferred for mainstream use as it may be considered cumbersome.
5.Transfer of data is not possible as is the case in other data storage devices such as pen drives.
6.Diseases relating to bone health may be result in deformity or change in the structure of the nails, this might
affect the readability of the data on the nails.
7.The apparatus involves is very expensive.
8.Data retrieval is manual hence is very time-consuming.
 OTHER PARTS OF HUMAN BODY THE DATA CAN BE
STORED

1.THE LENS OF THE EYE.

 The lens of the human eye may provide a good medium for encoding data. Data would be written into it
using laser holographic etching.
 An advantage of this approach is that biometric authentication of user-access to data could be integrated
with the data itself.
 For example, to access the data that is encoded onto the lens of your eye, you would look into a reader that
would first do an iris scan to authenticate your identity and permission to read the data, and would then
read/write the data as you request.
 A disadvantage of using the lens to store data is that it might not be reusable -- it may be difficult to erase
or overwrite data on the lens, although the jury is still out on this question.
 2.THE TEETH
 The data storage is ok but it is difficult to read and write so it is not an optimal solution.

3.HAIR
 It would be good media for storing data. Data could be etched into the hair strand using a laser.

 The advantage of this is that the body has lots of hair and it is constantly being regenerated, so there would
be an infinite supply of storage and rather than worrying about how to erase or overwrite.
 The disadvantage is that hairs are easily lost, which could make data stored on hairs a bit fragile.
 CONCLUSION & FUTURE SCOPE

 Since the structural changes cause an increase in the luminance, this helps in various ways. The structure
with high fluorescence helps in reading the three – dimensional data inside the nail.The data on a nail is
recorded in three-bit planes. These can be read out with minimum crosstalk by the use of a fluorescence
microscope.
 Also, the luminance can be visualized for a duration of six months. This is same as the time required for
nail growth from root to tip. A recording density of about 2 gigabit/cm3 is achieved under such conditions
which are commendable
 This technology is interesting. It has great future potential once it is adopted by organizations
 REFERENCES

 Www.Google.Com

 www.Wikipedia.Org
 www.Studymafia.Org
THAN KS