Andantephone: Sequential interactive multimedia environment, device, system, musical sculpture, or method of teaching musical tempo
First Claim
1. A musical instrument for being played by walking on it, said musical instrument comprising:
- a sound generator;
an ordered list of sonels for being conveyed to said sound generator;
a footstep sensor;
a processor responsive to an input from said footstep sensor,said musical instrument playing each of said sonels in response to an input from said foostep sensor, such that each sonel is played in response to one footstep of a player of said musical instrument.
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Abstract
A new way of teaching musical tempo and rhythm is disclosed, together with devices and systems for implementing it. A song-stepper moves through a song or other multimedia file a set amount for each footstep. For andantephonic songs, each step activates the next note in the song, so that there is perfect synchronization between the music and the speed of walking (i.e. if a player walks faster the song plays faster; if the player stops walking the song stops, etc.). The footsteps are sensed by pads such as patio stones arranged along a path. For example, walking to a garden causes a song to play in time with a person'"'"'s footsteps. Portable versions of the invention are also disclosed. These use sensors installed in shoes, skates, skis, or toboggans.
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Citations
11 Claims
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1. A musical instrument for being played by walking on it, said musical instrument comprising:
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a sound generator; an ordered list of sonels for being conveyed to said sound generator; a footstep sensor; a processor responsive to an input from said footstep sensor, said musical instrument playing each of said sonels in response to an input from said foostep sensor, such that each sonel is played in response to one footstep of a player of said musical instrument. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 9, 10, 11)
each sensor connected to a control input of said bandpass filter, said processor receiving input from said user input sensors, said bandpass filter receiving signal input from said pickkup, said processor controlling a frequency of said bandpass filter, said frequency responsive to an input from said input sensors, output from said filter supplied to said audio system.
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11. A wearable musical instrument including the features of claim 1, said instrument further including:
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at least one pickup for use with an article of footwear, said pickup for converting vibrations in said footware into electrical signals; a processor; a bandpass filter controlled by said processor; an audio output system, said audio output system connected to an output of said bandpass filter, said bandpass filter receiving signal input from said pickkup, said processor also receiving input from said pickup, said processor adjusting a passband frequency of said bandpass filter in accordance with an andatephonic schedule, said andantephonic schedule determined by a lookup table, said lookup table sequenced according to steps or strokes of footsteps of a user of said instrument, output from said filter supplied to said audio system.
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4. A method of teaching musical timing, tempo, rhythm, or the like, consisting of the steps of:
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arranging segments of a song spatially, as an ordered set of entries, each entry occupying a spatial distance approximately equal to its duration, said spatial arrangement for being walked upon by a user of said invention; attaching human-readable markings to each of said segments.
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5. A method of teaching musical timing, tempo, rhythm, or the like, consisting of the steps of:
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means for breaking multimedia content into temporally ordinal (timeordered) fragments; sensor means to sense path advance of a participant, said sensor means spatialized into a finite number of possibly overlapping zones or a means for generating multimedia fragments in response to each of said sensor means, each of said multimedia fragments chosen from an ordered list of multimedia fragments.
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6. A method of teaching music, the method comprising the steps of:
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breaking a song down into geospatial coordinates for placement along a walkable path, said geospatial coordinates corresponding to song fragments; associating lyrics corresponding with said song fragments, such that each geospatial coordinate and associated song fragment has text associated with it; affixing said text to said geospatial coordinate; walking or instructing a person to walk, so that a song may be sung or played such that each footstop corresponds to one song fragment of the song. - View Dependent Claims (7, 8)
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Specification