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The received wisdom has it that among the billions of humans on earth, no two have identical fingerprints, no matter how closely related they are.

Neither do audio recordings. Despite stylistic similarities, all musical recordings have differences in pitch, tempo, timing, and melody. Researchers at Royal Philips Electronics, NV have exploited this phenomenon in the development of what they are calling an "audio fingerprinting" system that may enable anyone to quickly identify the name of the song they are listening to, its performer, and other important data.

A three-second snippet of the recording is all that is necessary to find its identity, the technology's creators assert. The snippet can be compared against a giant database of audio fingerprints stored on a high-speed server. Philips claims that any song can be identified within a few seconds, even by holding a cellular telephone near a speaker while the song is playing. If the phone is connected to the ID service, a text message with the ID can be sent immediately. The system is supposedly robust enough to identify a song under extremely noisy conditions.

Philips has patented the technology and some of its applications. The company may build audio fingerprinting capabilities into some of its next-generation audio products, a December news release stated.

The Dutch electronics giant has also begun soliciting licensing agreements for the fingerprinting technology from other manufacturers. Plans are under way to sell server computers with the fingerprinting software, according to Philips spokeswoman Ellen de Vries. Philips technicians are testing a version of the system with a 300,000-song database in the town of Eindhoven, she said.

The upside for music lovers is that audio fingerprinting may enable them to find music they have heard on the radio or elsewhere but couldn't identify. Satellite radio startups XM Radio and Sirius Radio plan to provide similar services, in which their receivers' displays will show who and what is playing. Identification technology could also be used to organize hard-disk music collections through the use of simple universal title codes. Royalty applications include automated logs of radio and Internet play. Audio fingerprinting might also be used to track copyright violators, Philips scientists believe.