Numerous web sites and software packages explore gigapixel images formed from a mosaic of smaller images. With multiscale design, we believe that gigapixel imaging will become ubiquitous.
An obvious question arises as to whether or not data systems can handle the coming data storm as image data rates increase.
Will it be useful for people to keep lifelogs? A picture of themselves every day for their entire life? A picture of their home and neighborhood? With ubiquitous autonomous imaging systems each person might generate a terabyte each day, perhaps 100 petabytes over a lifetime.
Begtrup et al. recently claim 1 billion year stability for 0.1 terabit/cm^2 storage. A lifetime would require a million square cm, or 100 square meters. Thats 10 Km of 1 cm wide tape. If the tape is 100 microns thick, the volume is 0.01 cubic meters. That’s a reasonable sized bread box of state of the art memory.
The data flood will probably come faster than the memory solution.
