Holographic Wii storage en route?

Nintendo has already admitted that the Wii has a storage-related “issue”. But a patent application’s revealed that the firm could be considering a futuristic storage format as a solution to the problem. Wii_holographic_storage_01 A drawing from the holographic storage patent An application to patent “Miniature flexure …

[Alex]

heh

If anyone can bring the cost down, Nintendo can.

Doubt it would go into the Wii though.. more likely a future console? Wouldn't really see the point in having a Wii with holographic memory in it..

[David Gosnell]

Obviously speculative dredging, but I'd still like to know...

... what this alleged storage crisis is. Especially given that the average Wii owner buys 0.673 games or whatever.

[Rob Beard]

Re: heh

I agree, maybe Nintendo might use it for piracy protection in their next console. Considering the next console is probably a couple of years away (going on Wii sales) then maybe they might be able to mass produce something cheap enough. It's not as if they'd need TB's of storage.

It certainly wouldn't be the first time Nintendo have released their own storage media, just look at the Famicom disc system and the N64DD.

As a Wii owner though, I wish they'd just add the ability to use SD cards for storage (rather than the current, archive things to SD card).

Rob

[Anonymous Coward]

@david Gosnell

"speculative" ?? "blissfully unaware" perhaps. You have looked at the games charts for the past few months haven't you ?

[Dan]

Holowii?

You guys are having a laugh right?

Associating a next gen technology with a console that strives to appeal to the masses through pricing and casual gaming. Holographic storage comming to the wii is about as likely as a ps3 emulator being released for the wii.

[Sentry23]

Holographic storage..

Wasn't the main drawback that disks like this can only be 'burned' rather then pressed?

(unless somebody finds a way to stamp multi angle information, but I thought that the whole storage was based on wave interference)

There is only so much power that can be dissipated in a piece of plastic, so there is also a limit to how fast these things can be burned at a mass production rate, making it very unlikely that this will be the next distribution medium for games.

And for local storage, hard disks (even solid state) make much more sense.

/me is still intrigued.

[Andy]

I call...

.. position/ strain sensing, rather than storage. If this 'flexure' multiplexes different data from the holographic medium depending on it's state of flex, then you have a way to detect it's position. The holographic medium is just a lump of material with position data encoded into it (like a standard printed holographic sticker). The flexure gives different data depending on how it has been moved or what sort of pressure has been applied.

I could be wrong, but Nintendo are much more concerned with increasing the interaction with the user than overcoming storage issues. Sensor technology has already given them a huge lead over their competitors, and it would make sense to increase that lead where possible.

If I'm right, can someone in Nintendo give me a big R&D budget and I'll come up with something funky for them to sell to games players? :)

[Sooty]

anyone else reminded of doctor who...

when they read "a device comprising a spatial flexure for a scanner used in angle multiplexing of holographic data"

Sounds like just the sort of thing he could save the world with.

[Anonymous Coward]

@ Andy

So they're making a Wii-compatible Wobble board, so we can all play along with Rolf?

[wayne]

Holographic

I'm still think holographic storage was possibly behind the decision to go with cartridges with the Nintendo 64. Before it came out, there had been a breakthrough in cheap holographic storage (soon, sort of thing, but as usual this did not eventuate).

While cartridges were costly and limited in capacity (by cost for one) the holographic part was promising lower cost and more capacity, while further securing the storage cartridge from simple copying.

It will be interceding to see what the strategy is now.

[Andy Worth]

Nah....

If they incorporate something like this into the Wii, it will push it on to complete along the same price range as the 360/PS3. I don't see it happening.