Melody playing system

Details Melody playing system Melody playing system

2001-01-26

2004-04-06

Trinh, Sonny (Department: 2645)

Telecommunications

Transmitter and receiver at same station

Radiotelephone equipment detail

C455S550100, C455S401000, C455S415000

Reexamination Certificate

active

06718186

ABSTRACT:

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
(a) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a melody playing system and, more particularly, to a melody playing system which is suitable for use in a cellular phone and capable of storing melodies with a reduced storage capacity.
(b) Description of the Related Art
A cellular phone is known in the art which plays a melody stored therein as a call sign of the cellular phone. Referring to
FIG. 1
, a cellular phone includes a transmission/reception antenna
31
for signal transmission/reception between the cellular phone and a base station of the communication system. A wireless block
32
receives an electric wave through the antenna
31
for signal processing such as demodulation of the received wave, and also modulates a carrier wave with voice to generate a transmission wave. A control unit
33
controls the wireless
32
block as well as other blocks
A display panel
34
is controlled by the control unit
33
to display a calling telephone number etc. An operator panel
35
including a plurality of key switches transfers data input by a user to the control unit
33
.
A speaker
37
converts the electric signal generated by demodulation by the control unit
33
into voice. A microphone
38
converts the voice from a user into an electric signal. A storage device or memory
39
stores program data for operating the cellular phone in accordance with the function thereof. The storage device
39
includes therein a melody data block
39
A for storing a melody played upon a call of the cellular phone, and stores a conversion table
39
B to be used for converting the sound pitch data into frequencies.
The control unit
33
includes therein a melody control section
33
A, which retrieves the melody data from the melody storage block
39
A, and converts the sound pitch data in the retrieved melody into frequency data based on the conversion table
39
B.
A sound source
36
is controlled by the melody control section
33
A to generate a variety of specified frequencies, which regenerate sounds through the speaker
37
based on the frequency data and the sound time data.
The sound time data is used as a timing data, which instructs the sound source
36
to start and stop the sound (or tone). Referring to
FIG. 2
, the storage device
39
includes the melody data block
39
A which stores a plurality of (10) melodies
01
to
10
each having a data structure
51
shown in FIG.
3
.
Referring to
FIG. 3
, the melody data
51
includes a header section
52
for storing the number (n) of tones included in the melody, and a tone data section
53
for storing the plurality (n) of tone data [
1
] to [n] each having the pitch of the tone and the sound time length. The tone data [
1
] to [n] are arranged in the order of occurrence of the tones. In this text, the term “pitch” means the height of the tone determined by the frequency, the term “scale” means the scale level of the tone in each octave band, and the term “sound time length” is a time length between the start of the tone and the end of the tone.
The pitch data in the melody should include the octave data of the tone for specifying a lower octave band, a middle octave band or a higher octave band for the tone, as well as the scale data of the tone for specifying “Do”, “Do#”, “Re”, “Re#”, “Mi”, “Fa”, “Fa#”, “Sol”, “Sol#”, “La”, “La#” or “Si” for the tone in each of the octave bands.
Referring to
FIG. 4
, each pitch data in the tone data section
53
is stored as a code 0×FF to (0×23)
16
which represents the scale of the tone such as “Do”, Do#”, . . . , “Si” as well as the octave band of the pitch. In addition, the code data includes information of “no sound” (0×FF) and “continue” (0×FE) instead of the pitch data if there is no tone at that sound time
FIG. 5
is a table showing the code data of the tone in connection with the scale data and the frequency of the tone, wherein the code data corresponds to the frequency of the sound in a one-to-one correspondence. That is, each code is allocated to a corresponding frequency.
Table 1 shows the relative time length of each of the types of sound note used for indicating the tone, with the quarter note being set at “1”.
TABLE 1
Type of sound note
Relative sound time length
Whole note
4
Dotted half note
3
Half note
2
Dotted quarter note
3/2
Quarter note
1
Dotted octant note
3/4
Octant note
1/2
Sixteenth note
1/4
FIG. 6
shows the relative time length for each of the notes tabulated above. As shown, the relative time length is categorized into eight classes
The practical sound time length (Ts) for each of the notes is determined in terms of tempo (Tempo) and the relative time length (Rtime) by the following formula:
Ts=(
60/Tempo)×
Rtime.
  (1)
The term “tempo” is defined by the number of notes played in a minute or sixty seconds for indicating the degree of speed for playing the melody. Thus, for example, if the tempo is selected at 60, the tone of the quarter note continues for one second.
FIG. 7
is a table showing the sound time lengths of the notes in terms of “second” for each of the tempos of the melodies. As shown in this figure, eight standard tempos 60, 72, . . . , and 138 are used for playing melodies.
The term “no sound” means no note is played at that sound time. The no sound is herein categorized into two types including one defined as a stop note such as used as a quarter stop note or a whole stop note, and the other defined as a wait time which is a time interval between adjacent tones.
FIGS. 8A
to
8
D show different cases of the sound time length. Basically, the sound time length Ts is defined by a time interval between the start of the tone and the stop of the tone, as shown in FIG.
8
A. As shown in
FIG. 8B
, a standard wait time Tw of 0.03 seconds is generally provided between adjacent tones. The practical wait time is determined by adjusting the standard wait time for playing like music.
For example, a “staccato” used as a encouraging function in the play of a musical instrument reduces the sound time length Ts by half, as shown in
FIG. 8C
, and the rest of the sound time length is added to the standard wait time Tw for obtaining the practical wait time. A “slur” used for continuation of tones prolongs the preceding sound time length Ts and removes the wait time Tw as shown in FIG.
8
D.
By removing the wait time Tw, the melody sounds more smooth. The no-sound data as described above is treated as one of pitch data in the tone data section
53
shown in FIG.
3
. For example, a pitch data of a normal tone is associated with a succeeding pitch data indicating a wait time.
The data for a wait time includes “no sound” data as a pitch data and 30 milliseconds as a sound time data. Thus, except for a “slur”, two time data are specified for each of the notes, including the sound time length and the no-sound time (wait time) length.
A fixed melody or an original melody is generally used in a cellular phone as a call sign of the cellular phone. The fixed melody is stored in the cellular phone during fabrication thereof, whereas the original melody is composed by the user on the cellular phone.
The original melody is composed on the display panel
34
by key operations at the operator panel
35
, and stored in the tone data section
39
A of the storage device
39
via the melody control section
33
A in the control unit
33
. The data for the original melody can be modified arbitrarily by the user.
The preference of the melody used as a call sign depends on the users for their ages, genders etc. In particular, the preference of the tempo for the melody differs from user to user.
In the conventional melody playing system in the cellular phone, the change of the tempo for a melody is a time-consuming work, wherein the sound time length for each of the tones is to be recalculated. Especially, it is difficult or practically impossible for the user to change the tempo for the fixed melody in the cellular phone.
In the case of the

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