Sensor array MIDI controller

Details Sensor array MIDI controller Sensor array MIDI controller

2001-03-21

2002-12-31

Fletcher, Marlon T. (Department: 2837)

Music

Instruments

Electrical musical tone generation

C084S600000, C084S609000, C084S617000, C084S649000, C084S655000

Reexamination Certificate

active

06501011

ABSTRACT:

RELATED APPLICATION
Not Applicable
STATEMENT REGARDING FEDERALLY SPONSORED RESEARCH OR DEVELOPMENT
Not Applicable
REFERENCE TO A “MICROFICHE APPENDIX”
Not Applicable
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is a controller with an array of sensors and their associated buttons. It is primarily used as a music controller but may be used in other applications commanded by the Musical Instrument Digital Interface (MIDI).
Throughout this specification the following terms will be used as follows:
1. Conventional keyboard: standard, traditional or conventional keyboards, such as those found on pianos, organs and harpsichords. These keyboards have keys that may be activated by touch. MIDI controllers generally have conventional keyboards.
2. Generalized keyboard: A generalized keyboard will feature a two-dimensional array of keys which are arranged such that a particular piece of music may be played with a single fingering pattern regardless of the range or key signature in which the piece is performed. Changes in the range or key signature of a piece of music are achieved solely through variation in the position at which the single fingering pattern is executed, not through changes in the fingering pattern itself.
3. Player: a musician, someone who operates a musical instrument.
2. Description of the Related Technology
The controllers used for MIDI modules have most commonly been either conventional MIDI keyboard controllers or MIDI guitar controllers. In the past, controllers which have been designed to offer advantage to the amateur generally limit the options available to the professional, while controllers which have been designed to offer advantage to the professional generally limit the options available to the amateur. Some of the constraints in controller design constitute impediments to both the amateur and the professional.
An impediment exists where the most proximate buttons do not control the most harmonious note combinations.
An impediment exists where the buttons control the notes in an arrangement that requires a different fingering for the same type of chord or scale when it is played in different ranges or key signatures.
An impediment exists where the buttons are placed in a pattern that does not allow the fingers of a hand to simultaneously span the instrument's entire range from the highest to the lowest note.
An impediment exists where the buttons that control the notes of a given major scale are not united within a common area such that notes not part of the scale are outside the boundaries of the area.
An impediment exists where the major scale must be fingered differently with different but related intonations of the notes.
An impediment exists where the two hands may not play the same type of chord or scale when fingering the buttons in mirror symmetry with respect to one another.
An impediment exists where the player cannot manipulate single buttons or rows of buttons with any part of the lengths of the undersides of her fingers.
Conventional keyboards that have been developed previously for MIDI share the above impediments and most of the following disadvantages:
1. Their design involves complex force-transfer mechanisms which are prone to breakdown and which are both costly and difficult to manufacture.
2. Each of the twelve key signatures requires memorization of a different fingering pattern, greatly increasing the complexity of playing in multiple key signatures, and necessitating a lengthy learning period.
3. In playing the same type of chord with differing root notes, one must often adopt differing playing configurations, making harmonization very complicated.
4. Differing octaves of the same note are placed in a widely separated pattern, preventing the fingers from simultaneously reaching most voicings of a chord.
5. The most-often used harmonies usually entail playing widely separated, hard to reach notes, while the least-often used harmonies usually entail playing closely spaced, easy to reach notes.
6. The most likely spatial mistakes made by the keyboard performer lead to the most noticeable dissonances.
7. There are no inert areas between keys which could decrease the likelihood of the musician inadvertently activating undesired notes, which inert areas, if provided, could also facilitate the precise expression of rests by providing the equivalent of “silent keys.”
8. The conventional keyboard is the model for the standard notation system and for music theory, which are as complex and awkward to understand as the conventional keyboard is to play.
9. The playing position is not adjustable. There is a single angle of approach to the keyboard.
10. A chord form on the keyboard cannot be reoriented in multiple ways to give related chords.
11. The keyboard has an archaic geometry biased to the notes of the key signature of C major and its modes, which impedes balanced treatment of the other eleven major key signatures and their modes.
12. The practical, simultaneous input is one note per finger, making a chord of more than ten notes difficult to play.
13. It is impossible to simultaneously cover all the range of a note even when using both hands on a conventional, full-range keyboard.
14. The length of conventional and most generalized keyboards limits the number of multiple octaves of a chord that a single performer can play simultaneously.
15. The keys that must be played in sequence to allow arpeggiation are very dispersed, necessitating much coordination and physical effort, due to the need to cross hands over each other.
16. The keys cannot easily be strummed, which limits the playing rate to a single key activation per finger stroke.
17. The musician's hands are specialized in a pre-set way for the high and low ranges; and neither hand has simultaneous access to the entire range, greatly limiting rhythmic interactivity.
18. The activation of notes of the same pitch on different keys is not possible, so that in order to maximize the speed and accuracy of repetitions and trills of the same note, the player's hands are forced together where they must alternate back and forth awkwardly, striking the same key.
19. Note combinations whose tuning approximates an extended series of harmonic overtones or of subharmonic undertones are widely separated across the length of the keyboard, disallowing their simultaneous manual activation, which necessitates using organ stop drawbars to effect control over timbre.
20. Keys are designed solely as finger-activated devices; the player's other body surfaces or his implements can't easily be employed to play notes.
21. The conventional keyboard employs keys, and does not have the advantage of sensors that respond differently to being played in different areas (of the button) and from different angles.
22. Two or more persons playing the same instruments do not each have full access to all the available notes.
23. The player's moves, such as what key signature she is playing in, cannot easily be followed visually, due to the dispersed arrangement of notes for each major scale and its modes.
24. Design limitations impede real time control by the player, thereby requiring the use of sequencing technology in order to fully utilize the polyphonic capacity of most synthesizer modules.
25. The player tends to adopt a stressful body posture during performance.
26. The force transfer mechanisms of keys make mechanical noise.
27. The spaces between keys allow easy entry of foreign matter, resulting in deterioration of internal mechanisms.
28. There is no simple method of assembly because of the many moving parts, such as keys and action components.
The following Summary and Advantages sections describe how the Sensor Array MIDI Controller overcomes the above-enumerated disadvantages of the prior art.
BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
(A note's location is equated for purposes of description and explanation with the location of the button that controls the note.)
The Sensor Array MIDI Controller is basically a new and highly advantageous arrangement of butto

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