Location-aware musical instrument

• US 10,140,966 B1
• Filed: 12/12/2017
• Issued: 11/27/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 12/12/2017
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Ryan Laurence Edwards
• Original Assignee: Ryan Laurence Edwards
• Inventors: Edwards, Ryan Laurence
• Primary Examiner(s): Fletcher, Marlon
• Application Number:
  US15/838,899
• Time in Patent Office: 350 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G10H 1/0008 Associated control or indicating means
• CPC Class Codes: G10H 1/0066 using a MIDI interface
• CPC Class Codes: G10H 1/0083 using wireless transmission, e.g. radio, light, infrared
• CPC Class Codes: G10H 2220/111 for graphical orchestra or soundstage control, e.g. on-screen selection or positioning of instruments in a virtual orchestra, using movable or selectable musical instrument icons
• CPC Class Codes: G10H 2220/355 Geolocation input, i.e. control of musical parameters based on location or geographic position, e.g. provided by GPS, WiFi network location databases or mobile phone base station position databases
• CPC Class Codes: G10H 7/002 using a common processing for different operations or calculations, and a set of microinstructions (programme) to control the sequence thereof

Abstract

A system and method for receiving, from each of a plurality of moveable nodes, the position of the moveable node within a coordinate space, generating a graph of the moveable nodes based on the received positions, generating an audio-visual composition based on a sweep of the graph over time, and outputting the audio-visual composition.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

receiving, from each of a plurality of moveable nodes, the position of the moveable node within a coordinate space, wherein the moveable nodes comprise objects that can be physically moved by a person;

generating a graph of the moveable nodes based on the received positions;

generating an audio-visual composition based on a sweep of the graph over time; and

outputting the audio-visual composition.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein generating the audio-visual composition comprises generating a digital music composition.

3. The method of claim 2 wherein generating the audio-visual composition comprises generating light at each of the moveable nodes, wherein the generated light is synchronized to the digital music composition.

4. The method of claim 1 where generating the audio-visual composition based on a sweep of the graph over time comprises:

sweeping a line across the graph;

detecting when the line intersects with points on the graph corresponding to the moveable nodes;

generating musical events in response to detecting the intersects.

5. The method of claim 4 where generating the audio-visual composition based on a sweep of the graph over time comprises sweeping two or more lines across the graph simultaneously to generate musical events.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein generating the audio-visual composition based on a sweep of the graph over time comprises:

dividing the coordinate space into a plurality of bins; and

assigning, to each of the moveable nodes, a bin selected from the plurality of bins using a quantization process based on the received positions.

7. A system comprising:

a processor;

at least one non-transitory computer-readable memory communicatively coupled to the processor; and

processing instructions for a computer program, the processing instructions encoded in the computer-readable memory, the processing instructions, when executed by the processor, operable to perform operations comprising;

receiving, from each of a plurality of moveable nodes, the position of the moveable node within a coordinate space, wherein the moveable nodes comprise objects that can be physically moved by a person;

generating a graph of the moveable nodes based on the received positions;

generating an audio-visual composition based on a sweep of the graph over time; and

outputting the audio-visual composition.

8. The system of claim 7 wherein generating the audio-visual composition comprises generating a digital music composition.

9. The system of claim 8 wherein generating the audio-visual composition comprises generating light at each of the moveable nodes, wherein the generated light is synchronized to the digital music composition.

10. The system of claim 8 where generating the audio-visual composition based on a sweep of the graph over time comprises:

sweeping a line across the graph;

detecting when the line intersects with points on the graph corresponding to the moveable nodes;

generating musical events in response to detecting the intersects.

11. The system of claim 10 where generating the audio-visual composition based on a sweep of the graph over time comprises sweeping two or more lines across the graph simultaneously to generate musical events.

12. The system of claim 10 where generating the audio-visual composition based on a sweep of the graph over time comprises:

dividing the coordinate space into a plurality of bins; and

assigning, to each of the moveable nodes, a bin selected from the plurality of bins using a quantization process based on the received positions.