Music – Instruments – Electrical musical tone generation
Reexamination Certificate
2000-10-31
2002-12-03
Donels, Jeffrey (Department: 2837)
Music
Instruments
Electrical musical tone generation
C341S079000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06489550
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The field of the invention is electronic musical apparatuses such as electronic musical instruments, music-related sound generation devices, music-related sound modification devices, and their controllers, including, for example, synthesizers, keyboards, drum machines, effects processors, effects pedals, sequencers and sound modules. More specifically, the electronic musical apparatus embodying the invention is controlled by detecting the location and/or movement of an object (e.g., a hand) within a space by using a light beam, including an infrared light beam.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Non-contact musical control devices have been known in the past which issue control instructions by optically detecting the movement of a hand or the like within a specified space. These devices provided a pair consisting of one light source (infrared emitting diode or the like) which shines a light into the space and one light receiving element (infrared sensor or the like) which receives the light of the light source which has been reflected by the hand when said hand proceeds into said space, and if reflected light was received by the light receiver, the device performed a switch-like control which turned the instruction for a specified operation ON when said received light quantity exceeded a certain threshold value, and turned it OFF when it was below the threshold value.
The intensity distribution of the light beam irradiated from the light source in the conventional non-contact musical control devices described above is as shown, for example, in FIG.
26
. In this case, the light quantity received by the light receiver will differ, even if the hand is held at the same height from the light receiver, when the hand is held directly above the light source as compared to when it is held to the side. Consequently, in a case where ON/OFF operation instructions are performed according to whether or not the quantity of received light exceeds a specified threshold value, the probability of erroneous operation is high if the operation instruction is performed based purely on the height of the hand as the only scale. In other words, a problem with this type of prior musical control device is that it was difficult for the operator to discern at what proximity to the sensor the switch will be turned ON or OFF. In addition, the type of the operation instruction was limited to whether to perform a certain control, i.e., no more than the binary ON/OFF control of a single specified process could be accomplished.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
Electronic musical apparatuses described herein include electronic musical instruments, music-related sound generation devices, music-related sound modification devices, and their controllers, including, for example, synthesizers, keyboards, drum machines, effects processors, effects pedals, sequencers and sound modules.
A first, separate aspect of the invention is an electronic musical apparatus which executes desired operation instructions more accurately by detecting the characteristics of the movement of an object within an operation space, and further performing a variety of types of operation instructions in response to the state of motion of the object.
A second, separate aspect of the invention is an electronic musical apparatus which is able to distinguish between various types of movement of an object in an operation space.
A third, separate aspect of the invention is an electronic musical apparatus which is able to determine whether an object in moving from right to left, or left to right, in the operation space, and to control a musical function based on the direction of movement of the object.
A fourth, separate aspect of the invention is an electronic musical apparatus which is able to determine whether an object in moving horizontally or vertically relative to the light sensor and to control a musical function based on the direction of movement of the object.
A fifth, separate aspect of the invention is an electronic musical apparatus which controls a first musical function based on the horizontal movement of an object in the operation space and controls a second musical function based on the vertical movement of the object.
A sixth, separate aspect of the invention is an electronic musical apparatus which detects the peak value of the detection value of light reflected off an object in space and controls a musical function based on the peak value.
A seventh, separate aspect of the invention is an electronic musical apparatus which detects a detection value for each light path from light source to the object in space to the light receiver and controls a musical function based on a relationship between the detection values.
A eighth, separate aspect of the invention is an electronic musical apparatus in which the axes on which the light beams of the light sources incline outwardly from one another.
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Matsui Akira
Takahashi Shigeru
Donels Jeffrey
Foley & Lardner
Roland Corporation
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