Portable telephone

• US 20030003967A1
• Filed: 07/19/2002
• Published: 01/02/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 01/25/2000
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Yamaha Corporation
• Original Assignee: Yamaha Corporation
• Inventors: Ito, Shuhei
• Granted Patent: US 6,597,928 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 455/567
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/00 Video games, i.e. games using an electronically generated display having two or more dimensions gaming systems which provide a financial reward G07F17/32
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/1037 being specially adapted for converting control signals received from the game device into a haptic signal, e.g. using force feedback
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/105 using inertial sensors, e.g. accelerometers, gyroscopes
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/204 the platform being a handheld device
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/6072 of an input signal, e.g. pitch and rhythm extraction, voice recognition
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/8047 Music games
• CPC Class Codes: G10H 1/40 Rhythm
• CPC Class Codes: G10H 2220/135 Musical aspects of games or videogames; Musical instrument-shaped game input interfaces
• CPC Class Codes: G10H 2220/395 Acceleration sensing or accelerometer use, e.g. 3D movement computation by integration of accelerometer data, angle sensing with respect to the vertical, i.e. gravity sensing
• CPC Class Codes: G10H 2230/021 Mobile ringtone, i.e. generation, transmission, conversion or downloading of ringing tones or other sounds for mobile telephony; Special musical data formats or protocols therefor
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/72427 for supporting games or graphical animations
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/72442 for playing music files

Abstract

A portable telephone is designed to realize portable telephone functions and game device functions, particularly music games, which are embodied by a vibration device such as a vibration sensor and a vibration motor. When the user swings and vibrates the portable telephone like a maraca in synchronization with the rhythm of a prescribed musical tune, the vibration device produces vibration pulses, which are compared with rhythm pulses. Then, a score is marked on user'"'"'s operation to swing the portable telephone on the basis of time differences detected between the vibration pulses and rhythm pulses and is displayed on the screen of a display.

Claims

1. A portable telephone having a communicator for receiving and transmitting signals with base stations by radio communication to secure conversation with an external telephone terminal, comprising:

a vibration sensor for detecting vibration applied to the portable telephone;

a musical tone generator for generating musical tones of a prescribed musical tune;

a rhythm sound signal generator for generating rhythm sound signals in synchronization with the musical tones of the prescribed musical tune;

a rhythm difference detector for detecting timing differences between outputs of the vibration sensor and the rhythm sound signals;

a scorer for marking a score based on the timing differences detected by the rhythm difference detector; and

a display for displaying the score on a screen thereof.

2. A portable telephone having a communicator for receiving and transmitting signals with base stations by radio communication to secure conversation with an external telephone terminal, comprising:

a vibration motor for applying vibration to the portable telephone at reception of an incoming call, wherein the vibration motor generates counter-electromotive force when vibrated;

a musical tone generator for generating musical tones of a prescribed musical tune;

a rhythm sound signal generator for generating rhythm sound signals in synchronization with the musical tones of the prescribed musical tune;

a rhythm difference detector for detecting timing differences between outputs of the vibration motor corresponding to the counter-electromotive force and the rhythm sound signals;

a scorer for marking a score based on the timing differences detected by the rhythm difference detector; and

a display for displaying the score on a screen thereof.

3. A portable telephone comprising:

a musical tone memory for storing music data containing melody data and rhythm sound data with respect to a plurality of musical tunes;

a musical tone generator for generating musical tones based on the melody data of a prescribed musical tune selected from among the plurality of musical tunes;

a rhythm sound generator for generating rhythm sounds based on the rhythm sound data of the prescribed musical tune;

a vibration device for detecting vibration applied to the portable telephone to produce pulses;

a rhythm difference detector for detecting time differences between rhythm pulses corresponding to the rhythm data and the pulses produced by the vibration device; and

a display for displaying a score marked for user'"'"'s operation swinging the portable telephone on the basis of the time differences detected by the rhythm difference detector.

4. A portable telephone according to claim 3, wherein the vibration device corresponds to a vibration motor that generates pulses of counter-electromotive force when vibrated.

5. A portable telephone according to claim 4, wherein a battery is automatically charged by the counter-electromotive force produced by the vibration motor.