Method of controlling remote equipment over the internet and a method of subscribing to a subscription service for controlling remote equipment over the internet

• US 6,069,310 A
• Filed: 03/11/1998
• Issued: 05/30/2000
• Est. Priority Date: 03/11/1998
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Northrop Grumman Systems Corporation (Northrop Grumman Corporation)
• Original Assignee: PRC, Inc. (Arthur D. Little, Inc.)
• Inventors: James, William Charles
• Primary Examiner(s): Nappi, Robert E.
• Assistant Examiner(s): FLETCHER, MARLON T
• Application Number:
  US09/038,232
• Time in Patent Office: 811 Days
• Field of Search: 84/601-607, 84/622-625, 84/645, 84/659-660
• US Class Current: 84/645
• CPC Class Codes: G10H 1/0058 Transmission between separate instruments or between individual components of a musical system G10H1/0083 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G10H 1/0066 using a MIDI interface
• CPC Class Codes: G10H 2220/161 with 2D or x/y surface coordinates sensing
• CPC Class Codes: G10H 2240/245 ISDN [Integrated Services Digital Network]
• CPC Class Codes: G10H 2240/305 Internet or TCP/IP protocol use for any electrophonic musical instrument data or musical parameter transmission purposes

Abstract

A method is disclosed for transmitting musical performances over the Internet from a single point such as a piano Internet web site to multipoint such as player pianos located within subscriber'"'"'s homes. A subscription service associated with the web site would offer monthly subscription services where a subscriber can access any one of millions of prerecorded performances at any time of day and have a signal transmitted to the subscriber'"'"'s computer. A transmitted signal is received at the subscriber'"'"'s computer and a musical instrument, such as a player piano, can perform the prerecorded performance. The web site would also offer a mix of live performances as part of the basic subscription at additional cost, at a pay-per-performance basis. The musical performance would be either a live performance which would be transmitted from point to multipoint or prerecorded performance which would be more typically sent from a storage device associated with the web site directly to a single customer.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

transmitting a signal representative of a musical performance over a computer network from a source system to specified addresses;

receiving, at a plurality of receiving computers having the specified addresses, the transmitted signal representative of the live musical performance;

forwarding a received signal from one of the receiving computers to an external device which controls the musical instrument; and

causing a musical instrument each associated with one of the plurality of receiving computers and under control of the external device to perform the musical performance using the received signal in real time.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the musical instrument is a player piano.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the computer network comprises the Internet.

4. The method of claim 1, comprising converting a live musical performance into digital data wherein the broadcast signal is the digital data.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the receiving step is performed by plug-in receiver software.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the external device includes a musical instrument digital interface file.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein each of the receiving computers includes a musical instrument digital interface file.

8. The method of claim 1, comprising storing received broadcast signals at one of the receiving computers sufficient to account for broadcast delays introduced by the computer network.

22. The method of claim 1, wherein the external device is separate from the receiving computer.

23. The method of claim 1, wherein the external device is a MIDI controller.

9. A computer implemented method, comprising:

receiving a subscription request for a particular address;

sending a signal representative of a live musical performance over a computer network from a source system to the particular address;

receiving the signal representative of the live musical performance at a receiving computer having the particular address;

forwarding a received signal from one of the receiving computers to an external device which controls the musical instrument; and

causing a musical instrument associated with the receiving computer to perform the live musical performance using the received signal under control of the external device in real time.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the musical instrument is a player piano.

11. The method of claim 9, wherein the computer network comprises the Internet.

12. The method of claim 9, comprising of converting a live musical performance into digital data wherein the broadcast signal is the digital data.

13. The method of claim 9, wherein the receiving step is performed by plug-in receiver software.

14. The method of claim 9, comprising forwarding a received signal from one of the receiving computers to an external device which controls the musical instrument.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the external device includes a musical instrument digital interface file.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein each of the receiving computers includes a musical instrument digital interface file.

17. The method of claim 9, wherein the causing step is performed in near real time.

18. The method of claim 9, further comprising facilitating subscribing to a subscription service so that the web site will permit the selection of a performance.

19. The method of claim 9, comprising storing received signals at the receiving computer sufficient to account for transmission delays introduced by the computer network.

20. The method of claim 9, further comprising accessing a body of subscription information and determining a subscriber address and a status of the subscriber.

21. A computer system implemented method for subscribing to a pay-per-performance service from an Internet web site and for transmitting each requested pay-per-performance over the Internet, comprising:

subscriber account data file means for storing current information characterizing each pay-per-performance subscriber;

requesting means for requesting a pay-per-performance;

verifying means responsive to said subscriber account data file means for verifying that each requested pay-per-performance would be sent to a subscriber having a subscriber account in good standing;

transmitting means for sending the pay-per-performance to the verified subscriber at a particular Internet protocol address;

wherein the pay-per-performance is a live performance and the transmitting means transmits a signal representative of the live performance over a computer network from a source system to a specified address;

receiving means for receiving at a receiving computer having the specified address, the transmitted signal representative of the musical performance;

forwarding means for forwarding a received signal from the receiving computer to an external device which controls a musical instrument; and

causing means for causing the musical instrument associated with the receiving computer under control of the external device to perform the musical performance using the received signal in real time.