This article goes in depth of describing the piqlFilm
2.1. Film Structure
2.2. Dimensions
2.3. Characteristics
2.3.1 Sensitometry
2.3.2 Spectral sensitivity
2.4. Data storage capacity
2.5. Core
2.6. Film Identification
2.7. Storage conditions
The piqlFilm storage medium is a polyester film coated with a gelatine layer of light-sensitive silver halides. The storage medium’s physical properties are the same as used in 35mm picture film and it follows all SMPTE motion picture standards. The film is exposed with light to store a latent image with digital data, the film is then developed and the latent image is permanent. The film has been used in analogue cinematography where analogue images are represented in every frame. The film’s excellent image permanence and polyester and silver stability has made it the preservation standard for analogue image preservation in the microfilm industry. Piql has seen the advantages of this medium and developed a technology where binary data is exposed on the film, taking advantage of the mechanical and longevity characteristics of the film, and extending it to the digital realm. In addition, the image permanence characteristic makes the film a true WORM (Write One Read Many) digital storage medium, meaning the digital information can safely remain unchanged.
The film now becomes a digital storage medium with same technical storage properties as current digital storage solution such as magnetic tapes, hard drives, sold state drives and optical discs, but adding the reliability, security and longevity of the medium. In addition, the possibility of exposing human readable characters on film gives the film a “self-contained” feature which allows to describe instructions needed to interpret and decode the digital content in the future.