Toy acting in response to a MIDI signal

• US 5,270,480 A
• Filed: 06/25/1992
• Issued: 12/14/1993
• Est. Priority Date: 06/25/1992
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: JVC Kenwood Corporation
• Original Assignee: Victor Company of Japan Limited (JVC Kenwood Corporation)
• Inventors: Hikawa, Kazuo
• Primary Examiner(s): Shoop, Jr., William M.
• Assistant Examiner(s): DONELS, JEFFREY
• Application Number:
  US07/904,176
• Time in Patent Office: 537 Days
• Field of Search: 84/464 A, 84/464 R, 84/645, 84/2, 84/104, 446/298, 446/300
• US Class Current: 84/645
• CPC Class Codes: A63H 13/00 Toy figures with self-moving parts, with or without movement of the toy as a whole
• CPC Class Codes: G10H 1/00 Details of electrophonic musical instruments
• CPC Class Codes: G10H 1/0066 using a MIDI interface
• CPC Class Codes: G10H 2230/055 Spint toy, i.e. specifically designed for children, e.g. adapted for smaller fingers or simplified in some way; Musical instrument-shaped game input interfaces with simplified control features

Abstract

Instrument playing toy for acting a simulated instrument play comprising receiving device for receiving instrument playing information programmed originally for playing instruments electrically but not programmed for driving moving parts of a toy, decoding device for decoding the instrument playing information, converting device for converting output of the decoding device into driving signals and assigning the driving signals to moving parts of the instrument playing toy and driving device for driving the moving parts in response to the driving signals, thereby the instrument playing toy performs simulated instrument playing movements. Sound may be generated from provided acoustic musical instruments activated by the moving parts, or derived from the instrument playing information, or from a sound signal obtained from a source different from the instrument playing information.

Claims

1. toy for simulating a play of musical instruments comprising:

moving parts simulating playing said musical instruments;

means for receiving a MIDI signal including note numbers which are originally not programmed to move parts of a toy;

means for decoding said note numbers of said MIDI signal;

means for converting said decoded note numbers of said MIDI signal outputted from said decoding means into a plurality of actuating signals and respectively assigning said plurality of actuating signals to said moving parts; and

means for driving said moving parts responsive to said plurality of actuating signals assigned to said moving parts, whereby said instrument playing toy simulates said play of musical instruments.

2. A toy as claimed in claim 1, wherein said musical instruments are acoustic musical instruments.

3. A toy as claimed in claim 1, further comprising means for generating sound from said note numbers of said MIDI signal received by said receiving means.

4. Instrument playing toy claimed in claim 3, wherein said sound is musical sound, and wherein said musical instruments are pseudo musical instruments played by said moving parts in synchronization with said musical sound.

5. Instrument playing toy claimed in claim 3, wherein said sound is electronic sound generated from said note numbers of MIDI signal so that said instrument playing toy simulates said play of musical instruments concurrently with said electronic sound generated by said generating means.

6. Instrument playing toy claimed in claim 1, wherein said MIDI signal is accompanied by audio data and said receiving means further comprises means for detecting and separating said MIDI signal and said audio data, and wherein said instrument playing toy further comprises means for reproducing said audio data separated by said detecting and separating means so that said instrument playing toy simulates said play of musical instruments concurrently with said audio data reproduced by said reproducing means.

7. A toy as claimed in claim 1, further comprising means for causing said converting means to change assignment of said plurality of actuating signals to said moving parts.

8. Instrument playing toy claimed in claim 1, wherein said converting means assigns decoded note numbers of said MIDI signal to a single moving part of said moving parts.