Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak and Clear Channel Communications co-founder Red McCombs are backing an online venture that uses a form of compression technology which gives the appearance of HD-like video, sharpening images and providing more image clarity to otherwise blurred video.
The billionaires are reportedly backing Hotswap.com, a venture capital-funded company, whose technology is currently being used to sell cars online. The technology is being further researched and expanded based on the idea that when typically fuzzy, amateurish video now widely available on YouTube-like sites are made to appear more professional to better distinguish a product, e-commerce will take off as never before.
The compression technology was born out of a graduate-level computer science research project that its founders said can make common digital video clips, in effect, "mimic" HD television on Web sites, according to Reuters.
The company, formed three months ago, has won contracts from two national auto dealers (including McCombs' firm) to use the new HD-like technology online.
