I love GOOGLE !

[fixminze77]

Hi Everyone,

I just want to let you guys know that I tried the new google patent search engine, and... it's terrific!! Just try it for yourself at

http://www.google.com/patents

One thing I want to note: It seems as if the patents aren't in english! Dont get me wrong, they have english words in it, but it seems as it that patents were written in japanese and then translated into english by an badly written computer program. Reading them is very difficult. Anyway.

If you really want to know for example what Sony had in mind with MiniDisc then simply search for "Sony MiniDisc" and start exploring. Sony even patented storing video and text-files on those discs! But they only came up with one or two video-cams. What a waste!

There are about 500 (!) patents which have the word ATRAC in it. You can even find the patent which describes the word length and scale factors within a sound frame -- simply search for "0.62996052" (thats a scale factor -- search without the quotes!) -- absolutly cool!

It would be nice if we could come up with some lists that group those patents, so for example all patents which are ATRAC related comes into onw list, all ATRAC3 related in another one, all MiniDisc stuff in another list, and so on...

Anyway, I hope you find that interesting - happy exploring....

Regards,

fixminze77

[fixminze77]

Hi,

...me again....

stupid me, in fact. I just found out that Mr. Eric Woudenberg had done this already 5(!) years ago. Have a look at:

http://www.minidisc.org/patents

(almost the same address as google :-)

He also mentions that the patents are basically non-readable.

Anyway.

Another thing which I find interesting. I have an ATRAC3.ACM decoder dated Sep.28,2000 (an old one), which needed the following files in order to compile:

D:\Microsoft Visual Studio\MyProjects\ATRAC3\ACM\src\at2dec.c

D:\Microsoft Visual Studio\MyProjects\ATRAC3\ACM\src\atrac2.c

D:\Microsoft Visual Studio\MyProjects\ATRAC3\ACM\src\Atrac2ACM.c

D:\Microsoft Visual Studio\MyProjects\ATRAC3\ACM\src\Codec_at2.c

D:\Microsoft Visual Studio\MyProjects\ATRAC3\ACM\src\dataio.c

D:\Microsoft Visual Studio\MyProjects\ATRAC3\ACM\src\Debug_at2.c

D:\Microsoft Visual Studio\MyProjects\ATRAC3\ACM\src\decode_at2_new.c

D:\Microsoft Visual Studio\MyProjects\ATRAC3\ACM\src\difside.c

D:\Microsoft Visual Studio\MyProjects\ATRAC3\ACM\src\f2t_at3.c

D:\Microsoft Visual Studio\MyProjects\ATRAC3\ACM\src\func.c

D:\Microsoft Visual Studio\MyProjects\ATRAC3\ACM\src\gainc.c

D:\Microsoft Visual Studio\MyProjects\ATRAC3\ACM\src\huff_at2.c

D:\Microsoft Visual Studio\MyProjects\ATRAC3\ACM\src\huff_new.c

D:\Microsoft Visual Studio\MyProjects\ATRAC3\ACM\src\hufffile_new.c

D:\Microsoft Visual Studio\MyProjects\ATRAC3\ACM\src\imdct.c

D:\Microsoft Visual Studio\MyProjects\ATRAC3\ACM\src\m_at2dec.c

D:\Microsoft Visual Studio\MyProjects\ATRAC3\ACM\src\mdwind_at2.c

D:\Microsoft Visual Studio\MyProjects\ATRAC3\ACM\src\packmsb_new.c

D:\Microsoft Visual Studio\MyProjects\ATRAC3\ACM\src\qmf_new.c

There you can see very nicely that ATRAC2 = ATRAC3....

Ohhh, btw: in case you find those files somewhere, please be so kind and send them to me! ;-)

Best regards,

fixminze77