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SALT LAKE CITY -- We all know Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone, the Wright brothers invented the airplane, and we've often heard that Al Gore invented the Internet. But you probably cannot name the person who invented the MP3 player, like the iPod and similar devices, without Googling it.
If you live in the developed world, you probably use an iPod, some other MP3 player, or a smart phone that downloads and plays music. It was a life-changing innovation that still gives the inventor plenty of joy.
"Although I'm not very well known, my device is known all over the world," inventor Nathan Schulhof told KSL News Monday.
His is not a household name, but there's hardly a house in much of the world without some version of Schulhof's MP3 player.
"I'm amazed," he said. "When I see kids with earphones on it makes me feel so good, and everywhere you go you see it."
He showed KSL an original "Listen Up Player," introduced by Audio Highway in 1996. He said he wanted it to replace the Walkman -- the portable cassette and CD players popular in the 1990s.
On the "Listen Up Player" you could load an hour of content through a docking station set up at your computer. Schulhof talks with great excitement about being able to take a large collection of CDs and fit all of that content into a player the size of a deck of cards.
"I find that amazing, no matter who did it," he said.
Schulhof said the iPod took off because Apple made it user-friendly. Apple also made it easy to buy content, organize your own music, and load it on the device through iTunes.
The father of the MP3 player is humble, engaging and full of fresh ideas. Schulhof claims he's not a technical whiz, rather a visionary. When he comes up with an idea, says, "I'll hire some engineers and say, 'How can we do this?'"
I'm amazed. When I see kids with earphones on it makes me feel so good, and everywhere you go you see it.
–Nathan Schulhof, MP3 inventor
Schulhof said he's driven by a passion to make devices and systems better and, consequently, make lives better.
With the MP3 player, his idea was to download music, audio books or news over the Internet onto a computer, and then onto a portable device. Because there was no prior art, he filed four patents that cover the process with compressed files.
Right now, Schulhof is helping fund and introduce BioBanc USA, an immunology storage facility for white blood cells.
Schulhof said he doesn't think much about making money, he thinks about making a difference. His latest project, or passion, is the JOOS Orange portable solar charger. He said most of those chargers currently on the market don't work well, and this one is useful for most low-wattage devices. Wired.com recently gave it a positive review.
"There were a lot of obstacles we wanted to overcome to make this an appliance, make this something that someone could use every day," Schulhof said.
In some countries, Joos Orange solar charger may be the only way many people can charge low-wattage devices.
The charger is durable too. Several videos on YouTube show it standing up to quite a beating, including gun shots and a drive-over by an Austin Mini. Most important, though, a one-hour charge gives you two hours of talking time on your smartphone.
As for the future, Schulhof said great ideas will always emerge at an ever-accelerating pace.
"Technology will continue to evolve," he said. "It will become faster. It will become more powerful. You'll be able to do more."
We couldn't pass up the chance to ask Schulhof what music he had on his iPhone. He said he never really got into walking around listening to music with headphones. Fortunately, he made it happen for all of the rest of us.
E-mail: jboal@ksl.com
