History

In 1999 MRT Founder and CEO Hank Risan and his business partner, Bianca Soros, launched the Museum of Musical Instruments (MoMI; TheMoMI.org), America's first virtual musical instrument museum. During its first two years of operation, the MoMI presented multimedia exhibitions in conjunction with national institutions and museums including The Smithsonian Institution, the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. During this period, the MoMI also offered one of the first on-demand music services on the Internet.

In 2003 MRT launched BlueBeat Music, an Internet music service that transmits sound-alike recordings of previously recorded musical works called 'psycho-acoustic simulations,' based on a branch of science that studies the psychological and physiological responses associated with sound (including speech and music). The primary goals of BlueBeat were to restore 20th century sound recordings that had degraded due to primitive recording technologies, subsequent re-recordings, and the effects of time using MRT's patent-pending simulation process, and to develop a Serial Copy Management System to protect the simulations from piracy and ensure that artists and composers receive due compensation for their works.

During the Napster era of the early 2000s, no reliable method of protecting digital content existed. The public believed that copyrighted content should be shared freely and was unwilling to download and install 3rd-party software to control content on their computers. Security methods deployed by Microsoft, InterTrust, Real Networks and Sony required complicated locks located on the content itself. These methods were ineffective once the files were decrypted on the client system and disastrous on the server/storage side due to relatively easy access to decryption keys by hackers. In addition, these methods were not interoperable or cross-platform compatible.

To securely distribute the MoMI's original works of authorship and the BlueBeat simulations, Risan, a scientist and mathematician, set out to design, build, and patent a fully secure Content Distribution Network to protect digital content. In 1999 he funded a team of 16 software engineers to embody intellectual property that would enable the effective transmission, protection, and monetization of digital content for record companies, Hollywood studios, financial services companies, and other digital content owners and providers.

In 2001 Risan filed the first of more than 125 domestic and foreign patent applications to protect his innovations, which would ultimately comprise the MRT Digital Media Patent Portfolio.

The MRT Digital Media Patent Portfolio

The MRT Digital Media Patent Portfolio enables the effective transmission, protection and monetization of digital content for entertainment, finance, defense, and education in the commercial and personal sectors. MRT is also dedicated to protecting and monetizing royalties for copyright owners such as artists, filmmakers and songwriters and protects the interests of their partners, publishers and broadcasters.

The Controlled Data Pathway

The MRT Digital Media Patent Portfolio revolves around a patented and copyrighted concept called the "Controlled Data Pathway," which resolves persistent real-world challenges in computer networking such as securing user data during storage, transmission and presentation in the context of a Content Distribution Network.

In the late 1970’s, then double-PhD candidate Risan was conducting research in the fields of neurobiology, mathematics and computer science at the University of California at Berkeley and Santa Cruz., which involved significant use of the UC’s mainframe computers and networks. Risan contemplated how the brain organizes unlocked information in networked corridors, preventing the intermixing and garbling of ideas and instructions. He realized that the networked corridors are controlled pathways that are monitored by the central nervous system, which secures both thoughts and instructions.

MRT used this model to develop and patent an interoperable Content Distribution Network that incorporates a computer network’s ability to create monitored connections, which securely store, transmit and present any content to networked devices. While all other solutions require cumbersome locks on the transferred data, the Controlled Data Pathway creates a pathway through which encrypted or unencrypted data is transmitted securely.

In general, the Controlled Data Pathway inventions describe: (1) activating a compliance mechanism on the client system where the media is being received to be displayed; (2) controlling a data output path of the client system by diverting a commonly used data pathway to a Controlled Data Pathway monitored by the compliance mechanism; and (3) directing the media content to a custom media device for selectively restricting output of the media content.

One embodiment of the Controlled Data Pathway involves the downloading of a Web page with an embedded media player from a media broadcaster, secure online banking service, or e-commerce website. The Web page would ordinarily be displayed on a user's computer or mobile device via a commonly used data path with no associated compliance mechanism for enforcing restrictions on copying or use.

Security is accomplished by diverting and routing data via the Controlled Data Pathway. In addition, the address and location of the data are time-sensitive and constantly shift and change. The result is maximum speed, flexibility, and utility in all manner of digital distribution. Importantly, this is the most cost-effective means of securely storing and transmitting digital data.

After login, a compliance mechanism is automatically installed on the user' computer and the data is transmitted to the user's display via a Controlled Data Pathway monitored by the compliance mechanism. The compliance mechanism enforces the usage restrictions prescribed by the content owner and can also employ preset usage controls, such as session timeouts.

BlueBeat Music

MRT launched BlueBeat Music, an online music service, in 2003. Today, BlueBeat offers more than 2.2 million tracks.

BlueBeat was founded to achieve several goals. The first was to restore 20th century sound recordings that had degraded due to primitive recording technologies, subsequent re-recordings, and the effects of time. The second was to develop and patent a Serial Copy Management System to protect the simulations from piracy and ensure that artists and composers receive due compensation for their works. The third goal was to position 'simulated' sounds in a virtual 3-D environment to create a dynamic and evocative listening experience, in contrast with planar multi-track performances typical of studio recordings produced during the last 75 years.

Psycho-Acoustic Simulations

Risan pioneered simulated sound-alike recordings of previously recorded musical works, called 'Psycho-Acoustic Simulations,' based on a branch of science that studies the psychological and physiological responses associated with sound (including speech and music). Risan's proprietary and patent-pending simulation technology (a) analyzes and deconstructs original sound recordings into their component parts, (b) creates compositional scores based on the deconstructions, (c) synthesizes replacement sounds, and (d) fixes the sounds in a 3-D virtual sound stage in MP3 format. BlueBeat sound engineers control artist placement and mic'ing to create a dynamic and evocative listening experience for each BlueBeat simulation.

All music content on the BlueBeat.com site is performed using BlueBeat Simulations
MOMI-065: SYNTHETIC SIMULATION OF A MEDIA RECORDING
(13,344,911, Pub Date: May 16, 2012)