Technology Spinoff

MediaSite. Inc.

In 1997, Carnegie Mellon formed a spinoff company, Mediasite Inc., that commercially developed and productized core Informedia technology. MediaSite became recognized as a global pioneer in the development of automated rich-media publishing, management and access applications. Its advanced media access technologies, coupled with a suite of publishing tools, operates in multiple languages across multiple digital delivery platforms to significantly enhance a host of media production, business, educational and consumer applications. In March 2000, Mediasite was bought by Sonic Foundry . Sonic Foundry today continues to develop and productize Mediasite technology and products.

Grand Illusion Studios

In June 1996, Carnegie Mellon formed a spinoff company, Grand Illusion Studios, to market a commercial version of synthetic interview technology developed by Mike Christel, Scott Stevens, Alex Hauptmann and Don Marinelli. Synthetic interview technology coupled with Informedia technology creates a humanlike interface with a multimedia data base, allowing people to chat with the synthetic interviewee, appearing in interview form, as if he were there in person. Synthetic interviews provide a means of conversing in-depth with an individual or character, permitting users to ask questions in a conversational manner (just as they would if they were interviewing the figure face-to-face), and receive relevant, pertinent answers to the questions asked. For more information, see 1998 The Chronicle of Higher Education article "Multimedia Database at Carnegie Mellon Lets you 'Interview' Albert Einstein" In early 2000, Grand Illusion Studios was bought by Denver based Westwind Media.com , an internet audio-visual company.