By: haiyaku
Reply To: None Wednesday, 12 May 1999 at 7:39 PM EDT
Post # of 18204
Letter to Street.com ~
Mr. Seymour,
The term "MP3" may catch the eyeballs these days, but there are two very important things to consider. First, although the
unsecured MP3 codec is already widespread and will be next to impossible to eradicate, it can host viruses. That could end the
MP3 popularity in a heartbeat..even for a secured MP3 codec. Should viruses proliferate MP3, the term, in itself, will be
blackballed as dangerous. For MP3 to change it's name, they would have to start anew on an uphill battle against the likes of
AAC, M.S. Audio 4, A2B, or EPAC codecs. Second, the intellectual property rights for music are not the only channel in
danger. It is already possible to retrieve bootlegged new release movies from online. What we have here is the start of a
domino effect against intellectual property rights. That said, I believe that the rush to judgement from the early promoters of
MP3 will be their downfall in the end...whether it be by damage or by the capitalized strength of the music label/entertainment
industry.
While slower to come to the limelight than MP3, the four front-running codecs listed above have their merits and demerits.
AAC decompresses five-times slower than the rest but it has the familiar Dolby name. M.S. Audio 4, according to several
prominent audiophile testers, has range difficulties and other problems but it has the Microsoft machine. A2B, although named
by a few early adopters, is under lawsuit by Lucent. Lucent's EPAC is the only one stated to have translucent-CD qualities.
While Lucent/Bell Labs have maintained a fairly low public profile so far about EPAC, it may just be the leading codec. If not,
it will be included in a multi-codec, open architecture platform adopted by the SDMI.
Lucent has hung their EPAC hat on an operating system by e.digital. Texas Instruments has also done the same by
incorporating their newest DSP chip into the player that LU/Edig is offering. So, I'm going to give you herewith a brief
synopsis for e.digital...it's a story in itself which may be the biggest play of them all.
E.digital (hereinafter known as "Edig") ~
The key to understanding Edig's potential is in their multi-patented Micro OS (operating system software.)
patents.ibm.com (Norris/EDIG)
patents.ibm.com (Norris/EDIG)
patents.ibm.com (Norris/EDIG)
patents.ibm.com (Norris/EDIG)
patents.ibm.com (Norris/EDIG)
This is a full-force, small footprint operating system that can be utilized in peripherals connected to the internet, whether by
wired, wiredless or via satellite. At present there are two versions of Micro OS. The full Micro OS stores and manipulates
compressed voice, music, image or video and conventional file data. It supports industry standard flash memory, miniature
(such as IBM's new 340 meg mini drive) and IDE hard disks. It has cross-platform capabilties and can utilize one or multiple
codec algorithms (MP3, AAC, EPAC, etc.). The range of potential products is tremendous: from music players to digital
cameras to cellular phones, to name a few. It's beauty lies in the fact that it takes very little memory and has the capacity to
support an unlimited number of files, directories, and subdirectories. It is scalable.
Edig's Micro OS Audio is a version of the above system specifically adapted for use with large music files. MicroOS Audio is
the version that is incorporated into the Lucent portable music player. IMHO, it's only a matter of time before we see Micro
OS Video patent news (there are patents pending).
Moreover, Edig was commissioned by Intel to develop 100 text to speech/speech to text (tts/stt) protoypes due to Intel
mid-summer. Intel is to market the products to their OEM customers.
IBM (plus Intel, Edig, Phillips, Olympus, Norcom and Dictaphone thru the newly formed VoiceTimes group
software.ibm.com have combined to develop a mobile enterprise
standard. Of this group, only Intel and Edig have relevant operating systems. Intel's system received poor reviews..hence it's
easy to understand why Edig is in this group.
Lanier has already contracted with Edig for tts/stt mobile units. The product is to be delivered shortly and is part of the Lanier
C-Quence solution (http://www.lanier.com/healthcare/docutivity/voicewrite-mobile.html) After medical, there are the legal,
insurance, field, law enforcement fields to come.
In summary, e.digital is at the forefront as the design house (receiving licensing fees and royalties) for Lucent and Txn with
the music player. They do not have an exclusive with Lucent and are thus open to all OEM's which may contract them for
whatever codec(s) are SDMI compliant. They are not a manufacturer but can direct production for the largest
producers. Concurrently, they are courted by Intel, IBM, and Lanier for the sst/tts mobile enterprise expertise developments.
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