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Its days may be numbered, but the floppy disc is about to get a place in the
Sun. Agfa-Gevaert of Belgium is modifying the humble disc to tell sunbathers if
their tanning sessions are too long (EP 892 283). The altered floppy has a sheet
coated with a phosphor, barium fluorobromide, which is excited by ultraviolet
rays. When you sunbathe, you open the disc’s shutter so the rays strike the
sheet. A reader, based on a modified floppy drive, then uses a helium neon laser
to make the excited phosphor glow. By measuring the fluorescence, it can work
out how much UV struck the disc. Trouble is, you’ll have to take the monitor to
a pharmacy equipped with a reader to find out if you’ve spent too long in the
Sun.