Conduct-along system

• US 5,890,116 A
• Filed: 01/27/1997
• Issued: 03/30/1999
• Est. Priority Date: 09/13/1996
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: PFU Limited (Fujitsu Limited)
• Original Assignee: PFU Limited (Fujitsu Limited)
• Inventors: Kiyono, Hiroyuki, Itoh, Yasunari
• Primary Examiner(s): Hudspeth, David R.
• Assistant Examiner(s): Smits, Talivaldis Ivars
• Application Number:
  US08/789,670
• Time in Patent Office: 792 Days
• Field of Search: 704/260, 704/503, 84/612, 84/652, 84/665, 84/668
• US Class Current: 704/260
• CPC Class Codes: G10H 1/0008 Associated control or indicating means
• CPC Class Codes: G10H 1/40 Rhythm
• CPC Class Codes: G10H 2220/206 Conductor baton movement detection used to adjust rhythm, tempo or expressivity of, e.g. the playback of musical pieces

Abstract

A conduct-along system that can give expressions to sounds and/or images, in which expressions are added to sounds and/or images following the playback of sounds and/or images in real-time based on any one or any combination of parameters, such as tempo, intensity, beat timing and accent, detected from the movement of an input device. The conduct-along system detects any one or any combination of parameters, such as tempo, intensity, beat timing and accent, from the movements of the input device, and plays back voices and/or images in real-time following any one or any combination of detected parameters, such as tempo, intensity, beat timing and accent.

Claims

1. A conduct-along system for adding expressions to sounds and/or images output by a data processing system, said conduct-along system comprising:

an input device including a mouse;

means for detecting parameters comprising any one or any combinations of tempo, intensity and beat timing from the movement of a graphic form directly drawn by said mouse; and

playback means for playing back sound and/or image in such a manner as to follow any one or any combinations of said detected parameters tempo, intensity and beat timing.

2. A conduct-along system as set forth in claim 1, wherein said sound being played back is stored together with a series of digital information having at least information indicating a time to start sound generation for a sound being generated, information on the intensity of said sound being generated, and information indicating a time to stop sound generation for said sound being generated.

3. A conduct-along system as set forth in claim 1, wherein said image being played back is stored in the form of a series of image groups comprising a plurality of images as a unit, and played back as the start point of said image group forming a unit is synchronized with the timing of generating major sound in the flow of said sound being played back.

4. A conduct-along system as set forth in claim 1, wherein notation of said sound being played back is displayed, together with said image being played back and displayed in real-time, and a song pointer advancing with the progress of music to point out a note representing a sound now being played back.

5. A conduct-along system as set forth in claim 4, wherein said playback means for playing back said sounds and/or images in real-time displays in advance an initial image by initializing the standby time to a predetermined value, cancels the standby time at the start point of the movement of a graphic form drawn by said mouse and starts the playback of sound in accordance with said song pointer, while starting the playback of image from said initial image.

6. A conduct-along system as set forth in claim 4, wherein said playback means for playing back said sounds and/or images in real-time advances said song pointer to a predetermined restart position in accordance with said breath flag, and starts the playback of said sounds and/or images as said standby time is canceled.

7. A conduct-along system as set forth in claim 1, wherein said means for detecting said parameters extracts a moving speed of said graphic form drawn by said mouse on a coordinate axis, and judges beat or bottom points given by said mouse using a lowest point and/or a highest point of said moving speed.

8. A conduct-along system as set forth in claim 7, wherein said means for detecting said parameters detects said tempo from a repetitive period of the movement of said graphic form drawn by said mouse.

9. A conduct-along system as set forth in claim 8, wherein said means for detecting said parameters obtains a tempo as detection results of a tempo being detected by using time of said judged beat or bottom points, and calculates a weighted average of time of one period of said tempo being detected and time of one period of a tempo before said tempo being detected.

10. A conduct-along system as set forth in claim 9, wherein said means for detecting said parameters adds time of a preceding half-period of said one period of said tempo being detected and time of a succeeding half-period of said one period to values subjected to said weighted average.

11. A conduct-along system as set forth in claim 7, wherein said means for detecting said parameters detects said intensity from a maximum amplitude of movement on a coordinate axis of a graphic form drawn by said mouse.

12. A conduct-along system as set forth in claim 11, wherein said means for detecting said parameters uses the maximum amplitude of said movement of said mouse at said point of time being detected and the maximum amplitude of said movement of said mouse before said point of time being detected to obtain the maximum amplitude of detection results on said movement of said input device at said point of time being detected.

13. A conduct-along system as set forth in claim 1, wherein said means for detecting said parameters combines data representing the top of beat corresponding to sound, data representing the top of measure, a fermata flag, a breath flag, and data representing tempo as beat data to hand over to said playback means for playing back sounds and/or images in real-time.

14. A conduct-along system as set forth in claim 1, wherein said playback means for playing back said sounds and/or images in real-time produces internal data by reading a series of digital information in which tick time is described, and adds the contents of said beat data in accordance with changes in said tick time.

15. A conduct-along system as set forth in claim 14, wherein said playback means for playing back said sounds and/or images in real-time comprises a speaker for playing back said sound and/or a display for displaying said image, and plays back said sounds and/or images by analyzing said internal data.

16. A conduct-along system as set forth in claim 1, wherein said playback means for playing back said sounds and/or images in real-time can select playback in a rehearsal mode and in a concert mode.

17. A conduct-along system as set forth in claim 1, wherein said playback means for playing back said sounds and/or images in real-time selects part of images displayed in said display, and plays back only sounds produced in accordance with said selected images.