PERFORMANCE APPARATUS AND ELECTRONIC MUSICAL INSTRUMENT

• US 20110303076A1
• Filed: 06/08/2011
• Published: 12/15/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 06/15/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Casio Computer Company Limited
• Original Assignee: Casio Computer Company Limited
• Inventors: HARADA, Eiichi
• Granted Patent: US 8,710,347 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 84/742
• CPC Class Codes: G10H 1/14 during execution voice controlled instruments G10H5/005
• CPC Class Codes: G10H 1/24 for selecting plural preset register stops
• CPC Class Codes: G10H 1/46 Volume control
• CPC Class Codes: G10H 2220/185 Stick input, e.g. drumsticks with position or contact sensors stick for music conducting applications, e.g. conductor baton movement detection G10H2220/206
• 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. conductor baton movement sensing G10H2220/206, angle sensing without reference to gravity G10H2220/391; player body joint angle sensing G10H2220/321
• CPC Class Codes: G10H 2220/401 3D sensing, i.e. three-dimensional (x, y, z) position or movement sensing. movement pattern or gesture sensing G10H2220/201; geolocation sensing G10H2220/355, 3D sensing with accelerometer G10H2220/395

Abstract

Based on acceleration-sensor values from a three-dimensional acceleration sensor 23, CPU 21 of a performance apparatus 11 determines a timing at which a musical tone is generated. Further, based on the acceleration-sensor values of the acceleration sensor 23 given at a predetermined timing, for example, at a time when a player starts swinging of the performance apparatus 11, a roll angle of the performance apparatus 11 rotating about an axis in its longitudinal direction is calculated. A timbre of musical tones to be generated is determined based on the calculated roll angle.

Claims

1. A performance apparatus to be used with a musical-tone generating device for generating musical tones, the performance apparatus comprising:

a holding member extending in a longitudinal direction to be held by a player with his or her hand;

an acceleration sensor provided in the holding member, for obtaining acceleration-sensor values along three axial directions; and

controlling means for giving the musical-tone generating device an instruction of generating a musical tone, wherein the controlling means comprises;

sound-generation instructing means for giving the musical-tone generating device an instruction of generating a musical tone at a timing specified based on the acceleration-sensor values obtained by the acceleration sensor;

angle calculating means for calculating based on the acceleration-sensor values obtained by the acceleration sensor at a certain timing an angle of the holding member rotating about one of the three axes of the acceleration sensor; and

musical-tone composing element deciding means for deciding a musical-tone composing element of a musical tone to be generated, based on the angle calculated by the angle calculating means.

2. The performance apparatus according to claim 1, wherein

the angle calculating means determines that motion of the holding member starts at a time when the acceleration-sensor value obtained by the acceleration sensor has increased larger than a predetermined value and calculates an angle of the holding member kept by the player at the time.

3. The performance apparatus according to claim 1, wherein

the angle calculating means determines that motion of the holding member stops at a time when the acceleration-sensor value obtained by the acceleration sensor has decreased less than a predetermined value after increasing once and calculates an angle of the holding member kept by the player at the time.

4. The performance apparatus according to claim 1, wherein

the angle calculating means determines that motion of the holding member starts at a time when the acceleration-sensor value obtained by the acceleration sensor has increased larger than a predetermined value and calculates a first angle of the holding member kept by the player at the time, and further determines that motion of the holding member stops at a time when the acceleration-sensor value has decreased less than a predetermined value after increasing once and calculates a second angle of the holding member kept by the player at the time, and calculates a difference value between the first angle and the second angle of the holding member, and

the musical-tone composing element deciding means decides a musical-tone composing element of a musical tone to be generated, based on the difference value calculated by the angle calculating means.

5. The performance apparatus according to claim 1, wherein

the angle to be calculated by the angle calculating means is a roll angle of the holding member, which rotates about an axis in the longitudinal direction of the holding member.

6. The performance apparatus according to claim 1, wherein

the angle to be calculated by the angle calculating means is a pitch angle of the holding member, which rotates about an axis perpendicular to the longitudinal direction of the holding member.

7. The performance apparatus according to claim 1, wherein

the musical-tone composing element deciding means decides a timbre of a musical tone to be generated, based on the angle calculated by the angle calculating means.

8. The performance apparatus according to claim 7, further comprising:

storing means for storing a timbre table, which associates ranges of the angles with timbres of musical tones to be generated, wherein

the musical-tone composing element deciding means refers to the timbre table stored in the storing means to decide a timbre of a musical tone to be generated.

9. An electronic musical instrument comprising:

a musical instrument unit having a musical-tone generating device for generating musical tones; and

a performance apparatus having a holding member extending in a longitudinal direction to be held by a player with his or her hand;

an acceleration sensor provided in the holding member for obtaining acceleration-sensor values along three axial directions; and

controlling means for giving the musical-tone generating device an instruction of generating a musical tone, wherein the controlling means comprises;

sound-generation instructing means for giving the musical-tone generating device an instruction of generating a musical tone at a timing specified based on the acceleration-sensor values obtained by the acceleration sensor;

angle calculating means for calculating based on the acceleration-sensor values obtained at a certain timing an angle of the holding member rotating about one of the three axes of the acceleration sensor; and

musical-tone composing element deciding means for deciding a musical-tone composing element of a musical tone to be generated, based on the angle calculated by the angle calculating means, wherein

both the musical instrument unit and the performance apparatus comprise communication means for exchanging data with each other.