Music – Accessories – Teaching devices
Reexamination Certificate
2001-11-28
2003-07-01
Fletcher, Marlon T. (Department: 2837)
Music
Accessories
Teaching devices
C084S478000, C084S41100A, C084S46400A, C084S600000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06586666
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an electronic musical instrument of a drum type or a keyboard type that detects beats on pad members or depressions of keys to generate a signal indicative of the detected beats or depressions, for musical tones generation based on the signal.
2. Prior Art
Conventionally, electronic musical instruments have been proposed in which portions of the instruments are caused to shine by light from light sources, such as LED's. For example, Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication (Kokai) No. 11-30983 discloses an electronic drum including light transmitters (light transmitting devices) arranged at pad frames forming the peripheries of respective pads, and light sources, such as LED's, arranged substantially in contact with the respective light transmitters, to thereby cause the pad frames to shine.
Further, a type of electronic keyboard is known which includes keys formed of a light-transmissive material, and electronic sources arranged below the keys to illuminate corresponding ones of the keys from below, or arranged in the vicinity of root portions of the keys to illuminate top surfaces of the corresponding keys from rear, to thereby cause the keys to shine.
In these electronic musical instruments, the light sources are selectively caused to emit light according to the performance of a musical piece, or in response to light emission-instructing signals indicating pads to be beaten or keys to be depressed for performance practice.
In the conventional electronic drum, however, to cause the whole pad frame to shine, a plurality of light sources have to be provided, which complicates the construction of the drum and results in an increased manufacturing cost. Further, due to provision of a large number of light sources at locations close to the pads to be beaten, the drum is prone to failure and is degraded in durability.
On the other hand, in the conventional electronic keyboard, even if the manner of illumination of each key is varied by changing the location, orientation, color, or the like of a light source arranged for the key, the key shines in a generally uniform manner, and it is difficult to freely configure or design a manner of lighting of the key for visual recognition. Therefore, there is room for improvement in the freedom of configuration of the manner of lighting e.g. for providing more ornamental lighting.
Further, a technique is also known in which a key is caused to shine such that light appears to be emitted from the key itself. In this technique, however, a considerable intensity of light is required even for causing one key to shine, and to cause shining of ten or more keys (e.g. a total of ten or more keys as a sum total of keys to shine according to instructions for depression by automatic accompaniment performance and keys to shine by erroneous depressions thereof which do not conform to the instructions for depression), the electric power required for this purpose and also for a main circuit of the electronic musical instrument can cause an electrically overloaded status of the instrument. This brings about a drop in the power supply voltage, causing interruption of musical tones and other malfunctions. If the electronic musical instrument is of a battery-powered type, a drastic power consumption of the battery can be caused in addition to the above inconveniences.
Moreover, in the above-described conventional electronic drum, the provision of light transmitters needs fixing the light transmitters to a case, and this can be done e.g. by providing a protruding portion on one of each light transmitter and the casing, and a recessed portion in the other of the two, and fitting the protruding portion in the recessed portion. However, due to an inevitable manufacturing error and a tolerance for assemblage, a considerable gap can be formed between the fitted portions of the two. Further, each light transmitter is an optically light transmissive member, and therefore, the light transmitter is different in material from the casing, so that the above gap varies with the temperature. Therefore, when the instrument is in use, so-called “rattling” may be produced which is a mechanical noise occurring due to the presence of the gap when a pad member is beaten.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
It is a first object of the present invention to provide an electronic musical instrument which can cause the whole peripheral area of each pad member to shine by a simple construction, and at the same time maintain durability and low costs, as well as a shining method for the electronic musical instrument.
It is a second object of the present invention to provide an electronic musical instrument which can cause individual keys to shine in desired fashions, by a simple construction, and in particular, to provide an electronic musical instrument realized as an electronic keyboard which is capable of causing part of each key to shine with a low power, and preventing the part from being in shadow of fingers during performance, with efficiency.
It is a third object of the present invention to provide an electronic musical instrument which is capable of causing the whole peripheral area of each pad member to shine while preventing rattling from being caused by a beat on the pad member.
It is a fourth object of the present invention to provide a shining method for an electronic musical instrument, which is capable of causing an operating member to shine in desired fashions by a simple construction.
To attain the first object, according to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided an electronic musical instrument of a drum type, comprising at least one pad member that has at least one surface to be beaten, at least one detecting device that detects beats on the surface to be beaten of the at least one pad member, a musical tone signal-generating section that generates a musical tone signal in response to an output from the at least one detecting device, a light transmitter in a linear form arranged along a periphery of the pad member, the light transmitter having one end, another end, and an exposed surface, part of the exposed surface being roughened to provide a light-emitting surface, and a light source arranged in the vicinity of the one end of the light transmitter, for emitting light toward the one end, wherein the light transmitter guides the light emitted from the light source and entering the light transmitter via the one end, by utilizing principles of light propagation of an optical fiber, toward the other end, and at the same time causes at least part of the light entering via the one end to emit out of the light transmitter.
With the above construction, when the light source emits light, the light enters one end of the light transmitter. The light entering the light transmitter is guided toward to the other end of the light transmitter due to principles of light propagation of an optical fiber. Part of the exposed surface of the light transmitter is in a roughened form to provide a light-emitting surface, and part of the light entering via the one end is irregularly reflected or diffused at the light-emitting surface to emit light therefrom so as to be visually recognized. As a result, the whole peripheral area of the pad member can be caused to shine by a simple construction. Further, the light-emitting function of this electronic musical instrument can be realized by a small number of LED's or the like, and therefore, it provides the advantageous features of low manufacturing costs, excellent durability, and less proneness to failure. Thus, according to the first aspect of the invention, it is possible to cause the whole peripheral area of the pad member to shine by a simple construction, while maintaining durability and low manufacturing costs.
Preferably, the light transmitter has a substantially annular shape having an outer periphery, part of which has a cutout formed therein to provide the one end and the other end, the light source being arranged in the cutout in
Fletcher Marlon T.
Morrison & Foerster / LLP
Yamaha Corporation
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