Music – Instruments – Electrical musical tone generation
Reexamination Certificate
1999-10-18
2001-05-15
Witkowski, Stanley J. (Department: 2837)
Music
Instruments
Electrical musical tone generation
C084S633000, C084S639000, C084S478000, C434S30700R
Reexamination Certificate
active
06232539
ABSTRACT:
This application includes a Microfiche Appendix pursuant to 37 CFR 1.96(c) that contains a computer program listing of program commands in the commercially available Visual Basic language for implementing various functions of one embodiment of the center of the present invention described herein. The total number of microfiche and the total number of Frames in the Microfiche Appendix are 2 and 103, respectively. A portion of the disclosure of this patent document or patent disclosure contains material, which is subject to copyright protection. The copyright owner has no objection to the facsimile reproduction by anyone of the patent document or the patent disclosure, as it appears in the Patent and Trademark Office patent file or records, but otherwise reserves all copyright rights whatsoever.
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
This invention relates to music recording and playback systems, and more particularly to a system that enables storage and playback of a wide range of individual music selections/songs according to a pre-programmed list of categories.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The storage of music on digital media has presented a number of opportunities to miniaturize storage devices for music, thus enabling larger amounts of music to be stored in one place, and to radically alter the presentation of this music. In addition to the actual music sound data, new data related to certain characteristics of the music can now be overlaid in the storage media. This enables a listener to organize and playback music in a highly customized manner. It is no longer strictly necessary to store music in one format (e.g., a single disc or record) and playback individual selections from this disc or record according to a strict organization scheme. Likewise, advances in data compression and storage technology have enabled much larger quantities of digital data to be stored on magnetic disc and optical media than previously. The “Red Book” format common to music compact discs is somewhat inefficient due to its slow sample rate, and a much larger amount of data can be compressed on a standard data optical disc (CD-ROM), and decompressed and replayed using any number of readily available playback software routines.
In addition, most computers and data processing devices are now equipped with multimedia programs and advanced high-fidelity sound.
It is, therefore, an object of this invention to provide a music organizer and entertainment center that takes advantage of the latest advances in music data compression, storage and data processing capabilities. It is a further object of this invention to provide a user with the ability to fully customize playback of music according to a variety of parameters including categories of music. The graphical presentation of playback and storage controls should be easy to use and learn, and should take advantage of color and other visual aids.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
This invention overcomes the disadvantages of the prior art by providing a music organizer and entertainment center that enables customized playback of music having a variety of predetermined categories that are provided, typically, ahead of time by a service provider. Music is played back in any desired order based upon those categories from an onboard database that can include a large number of songs or titles.
The music organizer and entertainment center provides a center having a microprocessor, sound card functions and high-volume data storage and retrieval units for playing back music according to a variety of predetermined categories. Music can be played back in random form or can be played back according to a particular pre-selected order. The categories are provided by service provider who delivers selected titles and/or songs to the end user. The songs are typically loaded using a custom CD-ROM provided from the service provider. The music is provided in data-compressed form and is decompressed and processed through a sound card during playback. The categories can include a variety of parameters such as title, artists, date, speed, dance characteristics, energy level and music style.
The user selects between a variety of graphical user interface screens that are arranged on a display. The display can comprise a touch screen, or can include a variety of cursor-moving functions for operating different display “buttons” defined on the screen. Alternatively voice recognition software can be used to provide a voice operation capability to the user. Likewise, voice synthesis can be used to inform the user of various system operations.
The interface can be organized according to various music categories that each appear as buttons. Within each button can be contained sub-categories for further organization. All categories are cross indexed with categories that are predefined within various fields of the database, that stores the data for each song in an appropriate file having the various category flags appended thereto. Conventional database software such as Microsoft Access® can be used in forming the database for compressed music data and categories. The music is preferably compressed using MPEG3 and a standard sound card, typically having high-fidelity characteristics is used to playback the decompressed music. The music is stored in a hard drive or other high-volume storage medium on the system in compressed form. Compression of the music, as well as loading of appropriate category flags is accomplished at the service provider's facility based upon the user's orders. Orders can be taken and filled electronically, via the Internet. Alternatively, oral orders can be made, that are filled by preparing a CD-ROM containing the selected songs in compressed form. A master list can be contained on the database of the users' system. This master list can be used to select the various songs from the service provider. the CD-ROM can include updates to the master list that are loaded along with the songs.
The CD-ROM and/or individual songs can include a special code or identification that is keyed to the user's system's code. In this manner only the user's system can load the songs on its hard drive. A docking mechanism can be provided to all or part of the system to allow songs to be moved to different playback devices. In this manner the user can have a library of songs to playback in a variety of portable and fixed base units including vehicles.
One of the categories provided to selections can be ratings. Ratings are typically provided ahead of time by the service provider and are appended to the overall database of categories. The user has, in the center, a facility for blocking out any songs from being listed or searched that exceed a predetermined rating category. A password is used to control the block-out function. This password is initially entered by the user or is provided ahead of time by the service provider. It must be entered in order to control the block-out function.
The center can also be provided with an auto exit function. When an initial screen is called, the user can indicate how many minutes he or she wishes the center to playback songs. When that number of minutes has elapsed, the center automatically shuts off.
It is contemplated that with appropriate data storage techniques and playback facilities, the center can organize video and image data as well as music data. Particular video data compression and playback hardware and software are typically required for such playback.
REFERENCES:
patent: 3947882 (1976-03-01), Lightner
patent: 4227220 (1980-10-01), Brown et al.
patent: 4703465 (1987-10-01), Parker
patent: 4851931 (1989-07-01), Parker et al.
patent: 4937807 (1990-06-01), Weitz et al.
patent: 5408630 (1995-04-01), Moss
patent: 5418713 (1995-05-01), Allen
patent: 5445295 (1995-08-01), Brown
patent: 5486645 (1996-01-01), Suh et al.
patent: 5502601 (1996-03-01), Scheffler
patent: 5508984 (1996-04-01), Goto
patent: 5510573 (1996-04-01), Cho et al.
patent: 5557541 (1996-09-01), Schulhof et al.
patent: 5581795 (1996-12-01), Maupin et al.
patent: 5592
Doyle Edward T.
Looney Brian M.
McMullin Dale R.
Pasciuto Joseph
Cesari and McKenna LLP
Looney Productions, LLC
Witkowski Stanley J.
LandOfFree
Music organizer and entertainment center does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this patent.
If you have personal experience with Music organizer and entertainment center, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Music organizer and entertainment center will most certainly appreciate the feedback.
Profile ID: LFUS-PAI-O-2447447