Music – Instruments – Electrical musical tone generation
Reexamination Certificate
2000-05-08
2001-10-23
Donels, Jeffrey (Department: 2837)
Music
Instruments
Electrical musical tone generation
C084S609000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06307139
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is directed to using a search index in a music file.
2. Background Information
With the advent of widespread personal computer use and internet accessibility, EMD (Electronic Music Download) is becoming very popular. A user can retrieve their favorite music immediately over the internet. Downloading of music over the internet is easier and quicker to obtain than conventional media such as compact disc or a cassette tape. The downloaded music can not only be stored and played on a personal computer, but it can also be downloaded onto a personal music playback system, such as Sony's Memory Stick Walkman.
A problem that arises with EDM is how to quickly find the music a user wants to play. An EMD library on a remote host is too large to immediately find the specific music a user wishes to play. Also, after downloading the music to a user's personal computer, again finding the specific music that a user wants to listen to is a problem. Once a user has built up a large library of downloaded music files, the more difficult is to find the specific music file a user wishes to listen to.
One way to alleviate the problem of finding a specific music file is to search by a melody as illustrated by the filed U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/429,260, filed on Oct. 29, 1999. The music, however, is stored in one file and the index is stored in another file. Therefore, a problem arises after the music file is downloaded. Since the index file remains on the remote database, a user cannot use the search function in the client computer after the music file is downloaded. Therefore, a problem exists with portability of music files for searching capabilities.
SUMMARY
The invention includes a music file that includes a search index and a formatted music data block. The formatted music data block includes a complete formatted musical piece. The search index includes information relative to the formatted musical piece. The information in the search index includes a header data block, one or more melody data blocks, a lyrics data block and an auxiliary data block. The header data block, lyrics data block, and auxiliary data block are plain text data. The header data block includes a title to the musical piece, composer information, and performer information. The melody data block includes a melody that is included in the formatted music data block. The melody included in the formatted music data block may be a part of a melody included in the formatted music data block. The melody data blocks may be integer, ASCII or MIDI data. In the case of the melody data block being in integer or ASCII format, the data includes pitch and duration note information.
The lyrics data block includes part or all of the lyrics to the musical piece. The auxiliary data block includes information such as a composer's profile, and background information regarding the musical piece. Each data block in the search index may include an identifier and a block size. In an alternative embodiment, the block size information may be included in the header data block. The search index data blocks may include pointers to the musical piece, which a user could jump to a part of the musical piece that is referred to.
Also, a method for searching a music file including a search index for a musical piece is presented. The method includes selecting a type of search to perform, either a melody search or a text based search. If the type of search selected is a text based search, then text search input is received from a user. The text based search is then performed on stored music file including the search index. If the type of search selected is a melody-based search, then note information is received representing the melody provided by a user.
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Blakely , Sokoloff, Taylor & Zafman LLP
Donels Jeffrey
Sony Corporation
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