Dynamically adjustable network enabled method for playing along with music

• US 20020005109A1
• Filed: 06/28/2001
• Published: 01/17/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 07/07/2000
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Harmonix Music Systems Incorporated (Epic Games, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Allan Miller
• Inventors: Miller, Allan
• Granted Patent: US 6,541,692 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 84/609
• CPC Class Codes: G10H 1/0058 Transmission between separate instruments or between individual components of a musical system G10H1/0083 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G10H 2210/091 for performance evaluation, i.e. judging, grading or scoring the musical qualities or faithfulness of a performance, e.g. with respect to pitch, tempo or other timings of a reference performance
• CPC Class Codes: G10H 2220/151 Musical difficulty level setting or selection
• CPC Class Codes: G10H 2240/175 for jam sessions or musical collaboration through a network, e.g. for composition, ensemble playing or repeating; Compensation of network or internet delays therefor
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 84/02 Preference networks

Abstract

Many non-musicians enjoy listening to music, and would like to be able to play along with it, but do not have the talent or the time to learn to play a musical instrument. The system described herein allows non-musicians to follow along with a display that is based on the principles of musical notation, but is designed to be intuitive and require no training to use. The player is guided through the steps of playing a rhythm along with a musical performance, and the system provides the illusion that the player is actually playing a melodic part on an instrument. In addition, the system indicates how closely the player is following the guide, and it also scores the player'"'"'s performance. The score is used to drive interactive feedback to the player. The system can be configured to work in local area networks or wide area networks with low latency or high latency in the network. This system is ideally suited for video arcade games, home entertainment devices, dedicated toy applications, music education, Internet entertainment applications, and other uses.

Claims

1. A music system comprising:

a peripheral for generation of a signal in response to activation by a user;

a hierarchical music data structure that represents the music to be played by the user;

a digital processor that receives the signal from the peripheral and drives an audio synthesizer based upon the signal; and

recorded music data that forms the accompanying music to which the user plays.

2. The music system of claim 1 wherein the hierarchical structure comprises at least one structural component.

3. The music system of claim 2 wherein the at least one structural component comprises a plurality of alternative structural components.

4. The music system of claim 1 wherein the hierarchical structure comprises at least one pattern.

5. The music system of claim 4 wherein the at least one pattern comprises a plurality of alternative patterns.

6. The music system of claim 5 wherein the plurality of alternative patterns comprises a first difficulty level and a second difficulty level, the second difficulty level being more difficult that the first difficulty level.

7. The music system of claim 6 further comprising a scoring algorithm to generate a score based upon the correspondence between the signal generated by the user'"'"'s activation of the peripheral and the music represented by the hierarchical music data structure, the score used to activate a corresponding difficulty level.

8. The music system of claim 6 further comprising a randomization algorithm used to determine the difficulty level.

9. The music system of claim 2 further comprising a modification data structure.

10. The music system of claim 9 wherein the modification data structure adjusts a tempo within the hierarchical music data structure.

11. The music system of claim 9 wherein the modification data structure adjusts a musical key within the hierarchical music data structure.

12. The music system of claim 1 further comprising a scoring algorithm to generate a score based upon the correspondence between the signal generated by the user'"'"'s activation of the peripheral and the music represented by the hierarchical music data structure.

13. The music system of claim 1 further comprising a display for guiding a user in activating a peripheral device corresponding to the hierarchical music data structure.

14. The music system of claim 13 wherein the display comprises a first axis showing successive notes within the hierarchical music data structure.

15. The music system of claim 14 wherein the display further comprises a first indicator that increments along the first axis to indicate to a user the note within the hierarchical music data structure to be played.

16. The music system of claim 13 wherein the display comprises a second axis corresponding to the duration of notes within the hierarchical music data structure.

17. The music system of claim 16 wherein the display further comprises a second indicator that moves along the second axis to indicate to a user the duration of the note within the hierarchical music data structure to be played.

18. The music system of claim 1 further comprising a local area network allowing for connection of a plurality of music systems.

19. The music system of claim 1 further comprising a wide area network allowing for connection of a plurality of music systems.

20. The music system of claim 19 further comprising a statistical sampler and a predictive generator, the statistical sampler generating n-th order statistics relative to activation of the peripheral, the statistics sent by the wide area network to the predictive generator that generates a performance based on the statistics from the statistical sampler, independent of the latency of the network.

21. The music system of claim 20 further comprising a virtual peripheral connected to the predictive generator such that the predictive generator drives the virtual peripheral to generate a performance.

22. The music system of claim 19 further comprising a broadcast medium for transmission of recorded music data.

23. The music system of claim 1 further comprising a synchronizer that synchronizes the digital processor to the recorded music data.

24. A method of performing music comprising:

providing a music system having a user activated peripheral for generation of a signal, a hierarchical music data structure representing the music to be played by the user and a digital processor that receives the signal from the peripheral and drives an audio synthesizer based upon the signal;

displaying the hierarchical music data on a display;

activating the peripheral according to the displayed hierarchical music data;

driving the audio synthesizer to form a musical performance.

25. The method of claim 24 further comprising:

providing a plurality of music systems and a local area network; and

connecting the plurality of music systems to the local area network, each of the plurality of music systems being synchronized to an elapsed time within the network.

26. The method of claim 24 further comprising:

providing a plurality of music systems, each of the plurality of music systems having a statistical sampler and a predictive generator, and a wide area network;

connecting the plurality of music systems to the wide area network;

activating a peripheral in a music systems;

generating n-th order statistics form the statistical sampler relative to the activation of the peripheral;

sending the statistics through the wide area network to the predictive generators within the remainder of the music systems connected to the wide area network;

generating a performance having the approximately the same statistics as those generated by the statistical sampler; and

driving a virtual peripheral to form a musical performance.