Sound production device

Details Sound production device Sound production device

1984-08-02

1987-04-14

Rubinson, Gene Z.

Electrical audio signal processing systems and devices

Miscellaneous

358 94, 84DIG6, H04N 718

Patent

active

046584277

DESCRIPTION:

BRIEF SUMMARY
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

This invention relates to a method and a device for sound production involving conversion of images to sounds, which makes it possible to analyze images including at least one moving object and to produce musical sounds from this analysis.
The invention is thus directed to a method of sound production which essentially consists: image which vary during displacement of the object, sound synthesis by utilizing said sound control signals for controlling the variations of at least two different parameters of the sounds produced.


BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The invention also has for its object a sound production device which is characterized in that it comprises first means for observing an image which includes a moving object and producing image signals representing at least two parameters of the image which vary during displacement of the object, and second means for producing sound control signals from said image signals and for achieving sound synthesis by utilizing said sound control signals for controlling the variations of at least two different parameters of the sounds produced.
In a device of this type, the first means can advantageously comprise a video signal generator for producing the image signals. Furthermore, the second means can advantageously be designed to control parameters of sounds selected from the pitch of the sound, its tonal quality, its intensity and possibly the frequency of succession of sounds or their duration, or any combination of these parameters.
It is in fact already known to construct devices for the synthesis of noises or sounds which are operated for example by means of voice control as described in French Pat. No. 2 057 645, or which make use of a music analyzer for generating control signals of a sound synthesizer as in French Pat. No. 2 226 092. There has also been disclosed in French Pat. No. 2 206 030 a system for subjecting the production of sounds to the influence of energy displacement of a human being. However, the aforementioned documents are not concerned in any single instance with the use of images for generating video signals in order to control a sound synthesizer after conversion of these signals. The movements cannot really be processed by any of the known techniques whereas this is permitted by the invention since it offers the possibility of applying an analysis of the image in sound synthesis which can thus be influenced for example by any particular movement of an arm, leg, body or the like of a dancer or of a group of persons. It will further be noted that, on the basis of a detailed image analysis, it is possible to control a number of important parameters in sound synthesis by utilizing relations between physical parameters and qualities of sounds which are known per se.
In a particular form of embodiment, the invention involves the use of a device for converting a video signal to sounds, comprising at least one video signal generator, an analog-to-digital converter if the video signal is not already digital, a means for converting the digitized video signal to a plurality p of signals which are representative of P parameters, a set of analog-to-digital converters equal in number to the number of parameters, a matrix for connecting the P signals to a second plurality of q inputs of a sound synthesizer, the output of which is connected to a loudspeaker.


BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

In order that the invention may be readily carried into effect, it will now be described with reference to the accompanying drawings, wherein:
FIG. 1 is a block diagram of the constituent elements of an embodiment of the device of the invention;
FIG. 2 is an example of parameters which can be extracted from an image for utilization in the device of the invention;
FIG. 3 is a block diagram of an embodiment of means for converting a video signal to a plurality of signals employed in the device of FIG. 1;
FIG. 4 is a flow diagram of analysis of the image; and
FIG. 5 is a block diagram of a variant of the interface of FIG. 3 as const

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patent: 4378569 (1983-03-01), Dallas, Jr.
patent: 4483230 (1984-11-01), Yamauchi
Fish, R., "An Audio Display for the Blind," IEEE Transactions on Biomedical Engineering, vol. BME 23, No. 2, Mar. 1976, pp. 144-154.

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