Technology: Yamaha, Stanford in Pact For Sound Technology
PALO ALTO, Calif. -- Stanford University and Yamaha Corp. are launching a
partnership to jointly license a new technology for generating electronic
sounds to the computer industry.
The venture, to be formally announced today, is based on more than 400
existing and pending patents from Stanford and Yamaha on techniques for
generating artificial sounds based on mathematical formulas, rather than
from recorded samples of actual sounds. The partners want to turn the new
technology, dubbed Sondius-XG, into a worldwide standard for computerized
sound, potentially succeeding a current standard known as MIDI, for musical
instruments digital interface.
Yamaha, based in Tokyo, expects to launch the first product based on this
technology later this year in the form of a music synthesizer software
program, allowing computers to simulate real instruments with what it
describes as "dynamic and realistic sounds." But the partners are hoping to
get a range of other companies to incorporate Sondius-XG, which makes it
possible to simulate sounds from both real instruments and such
hypothetical instruments as a 20-foot saxophone.
--- Rohit Khare /// MCI Internet Architecture (BOS) /// khare@mci.net Voice+Pager: (617) 960-5131 VNet: 370-5131 Fax: (617) 960-1009