Musical performance system, musical instrument incorporated therein and multi-purpose portable information terminal device for the system

• US 7,501,568 B2
• Filed: 07/17/2006
• Issued: 03/10/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 07/19/2005
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Yamaha Corporation
• Original Assignee: Yamaha Corporation
• Inventors: Uehara, Haruki
• Primary Examiner(s): Warren; David S.
• Application Number:
  US11/487,784
• Publication Number:
  US 20070017349A1
• Time in Patent Office: 967 Days
• Field of Search: 84600-609
• US Class Current: 84/600
• CPC Class Codes: G10H 1/0008 Associated control or indicating means
• CPC Class Codes: G10H 1/0083 using wireless transmission, e.g. radio, light, infrared
• CPC Class Codes: G10H 2220/445 Bar codes or similar machine readable optical code patterns, e.g. two dimensional mesh pattern, for musical input or control purposes bar codes G06K7/10
• CPC Class Codes: G10H 2220/455 Camera input, e.g. analyzing pictures from a video camera and using the analysis results as control data
• CPC Class Codes: G10H 2230/011 Hybrid piano, e.g. combined acoustic and electronic piano with complete hammer mechanism as well as key-action sensors coupled to an electronic sound generator
• CPC Class Codes: G10H 2230/015 PDA [personal digital assistant] or palmtop computing devices used for musical purposes, e.g. portable music players, tablet computers, e-readers or smart phones in which mobile telephony functions need not be used touch-screen interfaces G10H2220/096
• CPC Class Codes: G10H 2240/115 Instrument identification, i.e. recognizing an electrophonic musical instrument, e.g. on a network, by means of a code, e.g. IMEI, serial number, or a profile describing its capabilities

Abstract

A hybrid musical instrument and a PDA form a musical performance system, and a user controls the hybrid musical instrument by means of the PDA; when the user pairs the hybrid musical instrument with the PDA, the musical instrument converts an identification code to a machine-recognizable image such as an image of a QR code on a monitor display, and the PDA takes in the image of QR code through an image pickup device; the PDA restores the image of QR code to the identification code, and stores it in a memory; and the identification code is directly transmitted from the hybrid musical instrument to the PDA without any keying-in so that the user feels the pairing work easy and speedy.

Claims

1. A musical performance system for producing music sound, comprising:

at least one musical instrument including

a tone generator producing said music sound, and

a controller converting an identifier assigned to said at least one musical instrument for discriminating said at least one musical instrument from other musical instrument to an machine-recognizable image, outputting said machine-recognizable image to the outside thereof, communicable through a wireless channel so as to receive an instruction labeled with said identifier and controlling said tone generator on the basis of said instruction for producing said music sound; and

a portable information terminal device taking in said machine-recognizable image, restoring said machine-recognizable image to said identifier, and establishing said wireless channel in said musical performance system so as to transmit said instruction labeled with said identifier to said controller.

2. The musical performance system as set forth in claim 1, in which said machine-recognizable image is a visual image so that said portable information terminal device takes in said visual image by means of an image pickup device.

3. The musical performance system as set forth in claim 2, in which said visual image expresses a code equivalent to said identifier.

4. The musical performance system as set forth in claim 2, in which said visual image expresses characters expressing said identifier.

5. The musical performance system as set forth in claim 1, in which said machine-recognizable image is output from said controller in the form of sound wave so that said portable information terminal device takes in said sound wave by means of a microphone.

6. The musical performance system as set forth in claim 5, in which said sound wave is recognized as a series of tones.

7. The musical performance system as set forth in claim 1, in which said at least one musical instrument is a hybrid musical instrument having an acoustic musical instrument and an electronic system.

8. The musical performance system as set forth in claim 7, in which said electronic system includes an array of solenoid-operated actuators for driving keys of said acoustic musical instrument.

9. The musical performance system as set forth in claim 7, in which said hybrid musical instrument further has a stopper prohibiting said tone generator from producing said music sound.

10. A musical instrument forming a part of a musical performance system together with a portable information terminal device, comprising:

a tone generator producing music sound; and

a controller converting an identifier assigned to said musical instrument for discriminating said at least one musical instrument from other musical instrument to an machine-recognizable image, outputting said machine-recognizable image to the outside thereof, communicable through a wireless channel with said portable information terminal device so as to receive an instruction labeled with said identifier restored from said machine-recognizable image in said portable information terminal device, and controlling said tone generator on the basis of said instruction for producing said music sound.

11. The musical instrument as set forth in claim 10, in which said controller produces a visual image as said machine-recognizable image.

12. The musical instrument as set forth in claim 11, in which said visual image is recognized as a code equivalent to said identifier.

13. The musical instrument as set forth in claim 11, in which said visual image is recognized as characters expressing said identifier.

14. The musical instrument as set forth in claim 10, in which said controller produces sound wave as said machine-recognizable image.

15. The musical instrument as set forth in claim 10, in which said tone generator includes a keyboard having plural keys, plural key action units respectively linked with said plural keys, plural hammers driven for rotation by said plural key action units and plural strings struck with said plural hammers at the end of said rotation.

16. The musical instrument as set forth in claim 15, in which said tone generator further includes plural solenoid-operated key actuators selectively energized by said controller so as to give rise to the key motion without any fingering of a human player.

17. The musical instrument as set forth in claim 15, further comprising a hammer stopper provided between said plural hammers and said plural strings and moved into and out of trajectories of said hammers.

18. A portable information terminal device forming a part of a musical performance system together with at least one musical instrument having a controller, comprising:

an image pickup device taking in a machine-recognizable image representative of an identifier assigned to said at least one musical instrument for discriminating said at least one musical instrument from other musical instrument and output from said at least one musical instrument;

a converter restoring said machine-recognizable image to said identifier, and

a communication device establishing a wireless channel in said musical performance system so as to transmit an instruction labeled with said identifier to said controller, whereby a user controls said at least one musical instrument.

19. The portable information terminal device as set forth in claim 18, in which said image pickup device is a camera through which a visual image is taken into said portable information terminal device as said machine-recognizable image.

20. The portable information terminal device as set forth in claim 18, in which said image pickup device is a microphone through which sound wave is taken into said portable information terminal device as said machine-recognizable image.