Stationary Optical Drive

It seems stupid that we spin disks mechanically several thousand times a minute. Lots of work, lots to go wrong. Generates heat, noise, and has hard limitations on how fast we can read data based on how fast we can spin a physical object.

What if instead we read data of a stationary platter with a stationary reader. We direct the reader using a similar method to a CRT. Basically we have two electromagnets, one for the x and one for the y axis. This shines the light onto the desired position of the platter, which then reflects onto a reflective bowl with a focal point of a sensor.

       +---- Sensor
       v
-------S-------   <-- Platter
\             / <-- reflective bowl
 \-----|-----/  
       ^
       +---- read laser and CRT like aiming device

We would probably need to sustain data rates of over 1GB/s and storage comparable to existing DVDs to be interesting.