Controlling audio effects

• US 20070169615A1
• Filed: 02/23/2007
• Published: 07/26/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 06/06/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Source Audio LLC
• Original Assignee: Source Audio LLC
• Inventors: Chidlaw, Robert, Remignanti, Jesse
• Granted Patent: US 7,667,129 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 84/723
• CPC Class Codes: G10H 1/0091 Means for obtaining special acoustic effects combined with modulation G10H1/043
• CPC Class Codes: G10H 2210/231 Wah-wah spectral modulation, i.e. tone color spectral glide obtained by sweeping the peak of a bandpass filter up or down in frequency, e.g. according to the position of a pedal, by automatic modulation or by voice formant detection; control devices therefor, e.g. wah pedals for electric guitars
• CPC Class Codes: G10H 2210/281 Reverberation or echo
• CPC Class Codes: G10H 2210/311 Distortion, i.e. desired non-linear audio processing to change the tone colour, e.g. by adding harmonics or deliberately distorting the amplitude of an audio waveform
• CPC Class Codes: G10H 2220/326 Control glove or other hand or palm-attached control device
• CPC Class Codes: G10H 2220/351 Environmental parameters, e.g. temperature, ambient light, atmospheric pressure, humidity, used as input for musical purposes
• 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 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 2240/056 MIDI or other note-oriented file format
• CPC Class Codes: G10H 2240/211 Wireless transmission, e.g. of music parameters or control data by radio, infrared or ultrasound
• CPC Class Codes: G10H 2250/035 Crossfade, i.e. time domain amplitude envelope control of the transition between musical sounds or melodies, obtained for musical purposes, e.g. for ADSR tone generation, articulations, medley, remix
• CPC Class Codes: G10H 2250/041 Delay lines applied to musical processing
• CPC Class Codes: G10H 3/186 Means for processing the signal picked up from the strings filtering G10H1/12

Abstract

An audio effects control for and method of controlling the application of special audio effects applied to an audio signal, comprises a sensor configured to sense movement associated with the generation of the audio signal, wherein the sensor produces a control signal in response to detecting the movement, and the control signal is transmitted to an audio effects unit to control application of an audio effect on an audio signal

Claims

1. A method comprising:

receiving an audio signal;

monitoring motion associated with a motion sensor device; and

for detected motion of the motion sensor device within a range, applying audio effects to the received audio signal depending on a magnitude of the detected motion.

2. A method as in claim 1 further comprising:

detecting occurrence of a change in movement of the motion sensor device outside of the range; and

in response to detecting the change in movement of the motion sensor device outside of the range, disabling application of the audio effects to the received audio signal.

3. A method as in claim 2, wherein monitoring the motion associated with the motion sensor device includes monitoring acceleration associated with the motion sensor device.

4. A method as in claim 1 further comprising:

detecting a change in motion associated with the motion sensor device;

comparing the change in motion to a threshold value; and

in response to detecting that the change in motion for a given time interval is greater than a threshold value, discontinuing application of the audio effects to the received audio signal.

5. A method as in claim 1, wherein monitoring motion associated with the motion sensor device includes monitoring a magnitude of a motion parameter associated with the motion sensor device, the method further comprising:

in response to detecting that the change in the magnitude of the motion parameter is greater than a threshold value, discontinuing application of the audio effects to the received audio signal.

6. A method as in claim 5, wherein the motion parameter is deceleration of the motion sensor device.

7. A method as in claim 5, wherein detecting that the change in the magnitude of the motion parameter is greater than the threshold value includes detecting that a user wearing the motion sensor device knocks on an object to disable application of the audio effect to the received audio signal.

8. A method as in claim 1 further comprising:

detecting that a user wearing the motion sensor device knocks on an object to switch between a first mode of applying the audio effect to the received audio signal and a second mode of terminating application of the audio effect to the received audio signal.

9. A method as in claim 1, wherein monitoring the motion associated with the motion sensor device includes:

monitoring motion associated with a musician originating the audio signal.

10. A method as in claim 1, wherein applying audio effects to the received audio signal includes applying a first audio effects function to the received audio signal based on a magnitude of a monitored motion parameter associated with the motion sensor device, the method further comprising:

in response to detecting occurrence of the monitored motion parameter above a threshold value, terminating application of the first audio effects function to the audio signal and applying a second audio effects function to the received audio signal.

11. A method as in claim 1, wherein applying the audio effect to the received audio signal includes at least one of:

amplification, attenuation, distortion, reverberation, time delaying, up mixing, down mixing of the received audio signal into other frequency bands for purposes of modifying the received audio signal.

12. A computer program product including a computer-readable medium having instructions stored thereon for processing data information, such that the instructions, when carried out by a processing device, enable the processing device to perform the operations of:

monitoring motion associated with a motion sensor device; and

for detected motion of the motion sensor device within a range, applying audio effects to a received audio signal depending on a magnitude of the detected motion.

13. A computer program product as in claim 12 further supporting operations of:

detecting occurrence of a change in movement of the motion sensor device outside of the range; and

in response to detecting the change in movement of the motion sensor device outside of the range, disabling application of the audio effects to the received audio signal.

14. A computer program product as in claim 13, wherein monitoring the motion associated with the motion sensor device includes monitoring acceleration associated with the motion sensor device.

15. A computer program product as in claim 12 further supporting operations of:

detecting a change in motion associated with the motion sensor device;

comparing the change in motion to a threshold value; and

in response to detecting that the change in motion for a given time interval is greater than a threshold value, discontinuing application of the audio effects to the received audio signal.

16. A computer program product as in claim 12, wherein monitoring motion associated with the motion sensor device includes monitoring a magnitude of a motion parameter associated with the motion sensor device, the computer program product further supporting operations of:

in response to detecting that the change in the magnitude of the motion parameter is greater than a threshold value, discontinuing application of the audio effects to the received audio signal.

17. A computer program product as in claim 12, wherein the motion parameter is deceleration of the motion sensor device;

and

wherein detecting that the change in the magnitude of the motion parameter is greater than the threshold value includes detecting that a user wearing the motion sensor device knocks on an object to disable application of the audio effect to the received audio signal.

18. A computer program product as in claim 17, wherein detecting that the change in the magnitude of the motion parameter is greater than the threshold value includes detecting that a user wearing the motion sensor device knocks on an object to enable application of the audio effect to the received audio signal.

19. A computer program product as in claim 12, wherein applying the audio effect to the received audio signal includes at least one of:

amplification, attenuation, distortion, reverberation, time delaying, up mixing, down mixing of the received audio signal into other frequency bands for purposes of modifying the received audio signal.

20. A computer system comprising:

a processor;

a memory unit that stores instructions associated with an application executed by the processor; and

an interconnect coupling the processor and the memory unit, enabling the computer system to execute the application and perform operations of;

receiving an audio signal;

monitoring motion associated with a motion sensor device; and

for detected motion of the motion sensor device within a range, applying audio effects to the received audio signal depending on a magnitude of the detected motion.