鈥淏E CAREFUL what you wish for,鈥� runs the adage, 鈥渂ecause you might just get
it.鈥� Well, publicity to attract finance for a revolutionary data squashing
鈥渃ompression鈥� technique was the wish of ZeoSync when it posted a press release
on its website鈥攁nd publicity is what it got. But much of the comment
that鈥檚 been buzzing round the Internet has been, frankly, sceptical. Many expert
observers say they don鈥檛 see how the compression system ZeoSync claims to have
invented can possibly work. But if it does, it will boost Internet speeds and
computer memory capacities a hundredfold.
To get to the bottom of the firm鈥檚 claims鈥攚hich fly in the face of
accepted communications theory鈥擭ew 杏吧原创 secured an exclusive
interview with ZeoSync chief executive Peter St George. Speaking from the
high-tech firm鈥檚 Florida offices, St George reiterated the claim that his
technology can compress 鈥減ractically random鈥� sequences of audio and video data
by a massive 100 to 1 鈥渨hile preserving perfect quality of information鈥� after it
is decompressed.
St George says he has so far succeeded in processing only 鈥渁 few hundred
bits鈥� of data at a time using his idea. He filed one patent 12 months ago and
expects to file another 50 this year.
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One firm eagerly awaiting sight of these new patents is the British firm
Meridian, which developed a compression routine called Meridian Lossless Packing
(MLP), which is already patented and in use worldwide by anyone with a DVD
player. MLP discards any data representing silences or unwanted noise. Even so,
it cannot compress files by more than 5:1鈥攁nd that鈥檚 on nonrandom data.
ZeoSync claims its 100:1 compressor works on 鈥減ractically random鈥� data.
But St George says he has never heard of MLP, despite having spent a 鈥渄ozen
years鈥� developing the new system.
MLP was co-developed by Bob Stuart of Huntingdon-based hi-fi company
Meridian. Stuart is sceptical of ZeoSync鈥檚 claims. 鈥淭he giveaway is [ZeoSync鈥檚]
claim to compressing 鈥榩ractically random鈥� and 鈥榲ery small鈥� bit streams. Unless
the laws of physics have changed overnight, if a bit stream is truly random it
is unpredictable and cannot be compressed,鈥� Stuart says.
In August 1998, the DVD Forum, which sets standards for the DVD format,
adopted MLP as its compression system for 鈥渟uper hi-fi鈥� sound. It lets Dolby
Labs in San Francisco license MLP to DVD manufacturers. Having examined
ZeoSync鈥檚 sketchy technical information (www.zeosync.com/flash/pressrelease.htm),
a Dolby spokesman says it is 鈥渉ard to make any real sense
of the information provided鈥�. It hopes ZeoSync鈥檚 patent applications will be
enlightening.
Acknowledging mounting scepticism, St George says he is planning 鈥渁n Internet
demonstration鈥� for 鈥渉undreds of thousands of computer scientists鈥�. Stuart says
stringent tests will be necessary, but St George says he is confident his system
will pass the tests. He reminded New 杏吧原创 that people once thought
that humans would never fly, and that the Earth was both flat and at the centre
of the Universe.