Music – Instruments – Automatic
Reexamination Certificate
2000-11-15
2001-09-18
Fletcher, Marlon T. (Department: 2837)
Music
Instruments
Automatic
C084S094100, C084S095100, C084S600000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06291749
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Mechanical music movements produce a distinctive sound and although originally they were expensive toys for aristocrats in Europe used to reproduce complex tunes, in modern days they normally play a short simplified tune and cost very little. The tune or tune fragment is produced by selectively plucking a plurality of reeds on a vibration plate. Modern musical movements pluck the reeds with pins which extend out of the side of a cylindrical drum which is rotated adjacent the vibration plate.
Various mechanical drivers are used to rotate the drum. For example, in very simple musical movements, the drum is rotated by means of a hand crank and a simple reduction gear. In other movements, a spring motor is included which may be wound by means of a key or a pull string. When a spring motor is provided, a transmission is included between the spring motor and the drum, which includes some sort speed regulator. The regulator can take the form of a fan whose drag increases exponentially with speed to compensate for the variations in forces applied by the spring motor between its fully wound position and its unwound position. Better speed regulation can be obtained through the use of centrifugal brake devices, which spin one or more brake shoes against a fixed drum and are arranged so that faster speeds increase the centrifugal force and cause the brake shoes to engage the drum with more force. In this way, high unwind speeds are avoided since at high speeds the braking device produces much more braking than at low speeds. However, because of cost constraints, neither of the described speed regulators are particularly accurate, they only acting to modulate unwind speed of the spring motor and not really completely control it.
Electronic musical circuits are now available at very low costs. However, such devices produce tones by electronically generating sound signals and then playing them through a speaker. In most applications, there is very little room for a speaker so that low volume and a particularly characteristic electronic sound is produced, which is not as pleasing as the sound produced by traditional mechanical musical movements. Also, mechanical musical movements can have power take off devices to actuate additional features. For example, when a mechanical musical movement is placed within a stuffed bear, a power take off can be provided to the bear's mouth. The result is a stuffed bear who appears to be singing along with the tune produced by the mechanical musical movement.
In recent times, bright multi-colored, light emitting diodes and high intensity micro incandescent lamps have become available. There are applications where it is desirable to provide light outputs at the time a mechanical musical movement is producing a tune. This is very simple to do when an electronic musical circuit is used as the required current outputs from such an electronic circuit are relatively easily implemented. However, as aforesaid, the music produced by such electronic devices is of inferior quality.
Therefore, there has been a need to provide mechanical music movements of normal mechanical configurations, which can control and actuate one or more light sources, especially for use in displays and toys.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
In the present invention, a mechanical musical movement of generally conventional form is provided with a cam or similar mechanically timed actuation device attached to the drum of the mechanical musical movement. In this way, actuations caused by such timing means are generally in synchronism with the music produced by the mechanical musical movement. As aforesaid, since such movements tend to slow down gradually as their spring motor unwinds, or if hand cranked, to run at a speed controlled by the cranker, it can be important to the operation of the present invention that the turning on and turning off of the lights is related to the tune being played, and hence the position of the drum in relation to the vibration plate.
In a preferred embodiment, cam lobes are provided at the end of the drum opposite from its driving gear. The lobes are used to close a mechanical switch, which then in turn activates a light control circuit. The light control circuit may be relatively simple or include a central processing unit (CPU), a memory, and a light driver so that sophisticated patterns of light activation can be produced. In some instances, a single lobe is provided so that the switch activates the light circuit at or near the position of the drum where a tune commences. Thereafter, the light circuit is timed to produced flashes from its connected lights during the approximate time that the tune will be played. In more sophisticated arrangements, multi-lobe cams can be used to generally signal the correct time to change the sequence of flashing lights. This sequence change can be synchronized to the start of the tune by having two closely placed lobes which produce closely spaced signals to the CPU allowing it to determine the start of the tune and to reset for further operations.
Although cam lobes are a suitable activation means, other devices such as protrusions placed on the circular side plate of the drum can be used to activate a reed switch which in this instance would be turned 90°. Other suitable means include magnets in the drum to actuate a magnetic switch and even optical stripes on the end plate for reading by an optical sensor, when the expense the cost of such is justified by the wanted tune matching capability of the device.
Therefore is an object of the present invention to integrate mechanical musical movement technology with modern electronic light controls so that lights can be activated in pseudo-synchronism with the tune being played by the mechanical musical movement.
Another object is to provide means to activate lights in accordance with the progress of a tune being played by a mechanical musical movement.
Another object is to provide integration between a mechanical musical movement and an electronic light control in a very economical way, without requiring substantial modification to existing musical movements.
These and other objects and advantages of the present invention will become apparent to those skilled in the art after considering the following detailed specification together with the accompanying drawings wherein:
REFERENCES:
patent: 4890528 (1990-01-01), Kamijima
patent: 6124541 (2000-09-01), Lu
Finch George W
Fletcher Marlon T.
Kao Mei International, Inc.
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