In this article we present you the complete documentation of the format description of the piqlFilm which would enable anyone to be able understand and retrieve information stored on the media. The piqlFilm format is also known as *boxing barcode.*
The decoding software to get data off the piqlFilm is opensource and to be found on Github
The documentation is stored following the Archival File System (AFS) structure which is the underlying format on the piqlFilm.
** Figure 1. Archival File System (Reel format)**
The piqlFilm Format Description consists of many parts, which in this article has been divided into three sections. The documentation is always written to any piqlFilm in a human readable format to make it interpretable in the long distance future.
Start here - This section gives a good overview. It talks about the Table of Content (ToC) of the piqlFilm, the Representation Information structure and how the film optimise for data preservation storage.
Table of Contents Format description
Representation Information Format Description
[
Generic Preservation Reel Structure Specification](https://piql.notion.site/Generic-Preservation-Reel-Structure-Specification-20372961908f8095a8e5f105eb264cdf)
This section talks about general digital preservation, an explanation of the characteristics of piqlFilm and how you can retrieve data from the film in the future, with and without Piql technology.
Digital Preservation and How to Retrieve Data
Data Retrieval Technology - How to Capture Images from piqlFilm?
This section talks about the Generic Preservation 4K Frame Format for archiving data on the piqlFilm. It gives an in-depth explanation of the structure and properties of a frame representing one storage unit.
One of the key principles of the piqlFilm is that the retrieval process should be independent, well documented and open-source. You find more information about the code and can suggest updates in the repository on Github:
afslib is a library for reading Archival File Systems (AFS). The AFS has unique preservation capabilites, including support for human readable data, file format ids and other types of metadata.
https://github.com/piql/unboxing
Boxinglib (unboxing) is a cross-platform software library for decoding high-capacity 2D barcode images