Music – Instruments – Electrical musical tone generation
Reexamination Certificate
2002-05-14
2004-11-23
Donels, Jeffrey W (Department: 2837)
Music
Instruments
Electrical musical tone generation
C084S645000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06822153
ABSTRACT:
STATEMENT REGARDING FEDERALLY SPONSORED RESEARCH OR DEVELOPMENT
Not Applicable
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The invention relates to computer generation of music and sound effects, and more particularly, to video game or other multimedia applications which interactively generate a musical composition or other audio in response to game state. Still more particularly, the invention relates to systems and methods for generating, in real time, a natural-sounding musical score or other sound track by handling smooth transitions between disparate pieces of music or other sounds.
BACKGROUND AND SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
Music is an important part of the modern entertainment experience. Anyone who has ever attended a live sports event or watched a movie in the theater or on television knows that music can significantly add to the overall entertainment value of any presentation. Music can, for example, create excitement, suspense, and other mood shifts. Since teenagers and others often accompany many of their everyday experiences with a continual music soundtrack through use of mobile and portable sound systems, the sound track accompanying a movie, video game or other multimedia presentation can be a very important factor in the success, desirability or entertainment value of the presentation.
Back in the days of early arcade video games, players were content to hear occasional sound effects emanating from arcade games. As technology has advanced and state-of-the-art audio processing capabilities have been incorporated into relatively inexpensive home video game platforms, it has become possible to accompany exciting three-dimensional graphics with interesting and exciting high quality music and sound effects. Most successful video games have both compelling, exciting graphics and interesting musical accompaniment.
One way to provide an interesting sound track for a video game or other multimedia application is to carefully compose musical compositions to accompany each different scene in the game. In an adventure type game, for example, every time a character enters a certain room or encounters a certain enemy, the game designer can cause an appropriate theme music or leitmotiv to begin playing. Many successful video games have been designed based on this approach. An advantage is that the game designer has a high degree of control over exactly what music is played under what game circumstances—just as a movie director controls which music is played during which parts of the movie. The result can be a very satisfying entertainment experience. Sometimes, however, there can be a lack of spontaneity and adaptability to changing video game interactions. By planning and predetermining each and every complete musical composition and transition in advance, the music sound track of a video game or interactive multimedia presentation can sometime sound the same each time the movie or video game is played without taking into account changes in game play due to user interactivity. This can be monotonous to frequent players.
In a sports or driving game, it may be desirable to have the type and intensity of the music reflect the level of competition and performance of the corresponding game play. Many games play the same music irrespective of the game player's level of performance and other interactivity-based factors. Imagine the additional excitement that could be created in a sports or driving game if the music becomes more intense or exciting as the game player competes more effectively and performs better.
People in the past have programmed computers to compose music or sounds in real time. However, such attempts at dynamic musical composition by computer have generally not been particularly successful since the resulting music can sound very machine-like. No one has yet developed a computerized music compositional engine capable of matching, in terms of creativity, interest and fun factor, the music that a talented human composer can compose. Thus, there is a long-felt but unsolved need for an interactive dynamic musical composition engine for use in video games, multimedia and other applications that allows a human musical composer to define, specify and control the basic musical material to be presented while also allowing a real time parameter (e.g., related to user interactivity) to dynamically “compose” the music being played.
The present invention solves this problem by providing a system and method that dynamically generates sounds (e.g., music, sound effects, and/or other sounds) based on a combination of predefined compositional building blocks and a real time interactivity parameter, by providing a smooth transition between precomposed segments. In accordance with one aspect provided by an illustrative exemplary embodiment of the present invention, a human composer composes a plurality of musical compositions and stores them in corresponding sound files. These sound files are assigned states of a sequential state machine. Connections between states are defined specifying transitions between the states—both in terms of sound file exit/entrance points and in terms of conditions for transitioning between the states. This illustrative arrangement provides for both variations provided through interactivity and also the complexity and appropriateness of predefined composition.
The preferred illustrative embodiment music presentation system can dynamically “compose” a musical or other audio presentation based on user activity by dynamically selecting between different, precomposed music and/or sound building blocks. Different game players (or the same game player playing the game at different times) will experience different dynamically-generated overall musical compositions—but with the musical compositions based on musical composition building blocks thoughtfully precomposed by a human musical composer in advance.
As one example, a transition from more serene precomposed musical segment to more intense or exciting precomposed musical segment can be triggered by a certain predetermined interactivity state (e.g., success or progress in a competition-type game, as gauged for example by an “adrenaline meter”). A further transition to even more exciting or energetic precomposed musical segment can be triggered by further success or performance criteria based upon additional interaction between the user and the application. If the user suffers a setback or otherwise fails to maintain the attained level of energy in the graphics portion of the game play or other multimedia application, a further transition to lower-energy precomposed musical segments can occur.
In accordance with yet another aspect provided by the invention, a game play parameter can be used to randomly or pseudo-randomly select a set of musical composition building blocks the system will use to dynamically create a musical composition. For example, a pseudo-random number generator (e.g., based on detailed hand-held controller input timing and/or other variable input) can be used to set a game play environment state value. This game play environment state value may be used to affect the overall state of the game play environment—including the music and other sound effects that are presented. As one example, the game play environment state value can be used to select different weather conditions (e.g., sunny, foggy, stormy), different lighting conditions (e.g., morning, afternoon, evening, nighttime), different locations within a three-dimensional world (e.g., beach, mountaintop, woods, etc.) or other environmental condition(s). The graphics generator produces and displays graphics corresponding to the environment state parameter, and the audio presentation engine may select a corresponding musical theme (e.g., mysterious music for a foggy environment, ominous music for a stormy environment, joyous music for a sunny environment, contemplative music for a nighttime environment, surfer music for a beach environment, etc.).
In the preferred embodiment, a game play environment parameter value is used to select a particular set or “
Comair Claude
Johnston Rory
Phillipsen James
Schwedler Lawrence
Donels Jeffrey W
Nintendo Co. Ltd.
Nixon & Vanderhye P.C.
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