Position correction for an electronic musical instrument

• US 20070084331A1
• Filed: 10/15/2005
• Published: 04/19/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 10/15/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Lippold Haken
• Original Assignee: Lippold Haken
• Inventors: Haken, Lippold
• Granted Patent: US 7,619,156 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 84/600
• CPC Class Codes: G10H 1/44 Tuning means
• CPC Class Codes: G10H 2210/201 Vibrato, i.e. rapid, repetitive and smooth variation of amplitude, pitch or timbre within a note or chord
• CPC Class Codes: G10H 2210/221 Glissando, i.e. pitch smoothly sliding from one note to another, e.g. gliss, glide, slide, bend, smear or sweep
• CPC Class Codes: G10H 2220/161 with 2D or x/y surface coordinates sensing
• CPC Class Codes: G10H 2220/401 3D sensing, i.e. three-dimensional (x, y, z) position or movement sensing

Abstract

A system and method for correction of finger positions for an electronic musical instrument. By adding a correction step in the direction of a nearest grid value, the system can perform correction in a manner that allows for gradual position correction while maintaining a vibrato or glissando shape that is similar to vibrato or glissando shape of the actual finger positions over time. The system and method may be used for pitch correction for a continuous-pitch electronic musical instrument.

Claims

1. A method for position correction in an electronic musical instrument, the method comprising the acts of:

(a) providing a plurality of grid positions;

(b) receiving current actual finger position data;

(c) identifying a nearest grid position; and

(d) applying a correction step, the correction step having a correction step size; and

(e) outputting a current corrected finger position;

wherein the correction step size is smaller than the distance between two adjacent grid positions and acts (b) through (e) are repeated at least once to yield a current corrected finger position that is within a correction step size of a grid position.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising the acts of;

providing previous corrected finger position data;

providing previous actual finger position data;

computing a change in finger position between current actual finger position data and previous actual finger position data; and

adding the change in finger position to the previously corrected finger position data.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the plurality of grid positions correspond to musical pitches.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising the act of:

encoding the current corrected finger position data as a pitch in MIDI format.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein acts (b) through (e) are repeated until it is determined that a finger corresponding to the actual finger positions has been lifted from a playing surface.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein the current corrected finger position is set to equal the nearest grid position if the act of adding the change in finger position to the previously corrected finger position data yields results in a value that is less than or equal to a correction step of the nearest grid position.

7. A system for position correction for a electronic musical instrument, the system comprising:

a playing surface;

a controller connected with the playing surface, the controller operable to adjust data corresponding to a finger position on the playing surface by mathematically moving the data toward a grid value by applying a correction step.

8. The system of claim 7 wherein the controller is polyphonic.

9. The system of claim 7 wherein the playing surface is a continuous-pitch playing surface.

10. The system of claim 7 wherein the finger position corresponds to a musical pitch and the controller outputs data corresponding to musical pitch.

11. The system of claim 7 wherein the controller outputs data in MIDI format.

12. The system of claim 7 further comprising:

a step size input device connected with the controller, the step size input device operable to input a desired correction step size to the controller.

13. The system of claim 12 wherein the step size input device is a foot pedal.

14. The system of claim 7 wherein the controller is operable to compute a change in finger position between a current actual finger position and a previous actual finger position, add the change in finger position to a previous corrected finger position, identify a nearest grid position, and apply a correction step to the summation of the change in finger position and the previously corrected finger position.

15. The system of claim 7 further comprising:

a grid position input device connected with the controller, the grid position input device operable to instruct a change in grid definition.

16. In a computer readable storage medium having stored therein data representing instructions executable by a programmed processor for electronic music controller, the storage medium comprising instructions for:

storing a set of grid positions;

storing a plurality of corrected finger position values, the plurality comprising a current corrected finger position valve and at least one previous corrected finger position value;

storing a plurality of actual finger position values, the plurality of actual finger position values comprising a current actual finger position and at least one actual finger position value;

identifying a nearest grid position by adding the difference between two actual finger position values to at least one previous corrected finger position value; and

applying a correction step to the least one previously corrected finger position value.

17. The computer readable storage medium of claim 16, further comprising the instructions for:

setting the current corrected finger position value to be the nearest grid value if the nearest grid position is within a correction step of a summation of the difference between two actual finger position values and at least one previous corrected finger position.

18. The computer readable storage medium of claim 16 wherein the set of grid values correspond to musical pitches.

19. The computer readable storage medium of claim 16, further comprising the instructions for concluding finger correction if it is determined that a finger that corresponds to a set of actual finger position values has been lifted from a playing surface.

20. The computer readable storage medium of claim 16, further comprising the instructions for changing the correction step size.