Shake Jamming Portable Media Player

• US 20070118241A1
• Filed: 11/02/2006
• Published: 05/24/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 12/16/2005
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Outland Research LLC
• Original Assignee: Outland Research LLC
• Inventors: Rosenberg, Louis
• Application Number:
  US11/555,784
• Publication Number:
  US 20070118241A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 700/94
• CPC Class Codes: G10H 1/053 during execution only voice controlled instruments G10H5/005
• CPC Class Codes: G10H 1/36 Accompaniment arrangements
• 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 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

Abstract

An apparatus, method and computer program product are provided which establishes a shake jamming portable media player in which a user can listen to a playing musical media file while simultaneously incorporating audio representations of percussion instrument sounds into an audio output stream by physically shaking the portable media player. In response to the physical shaking, the portable media player generates percussion audio signals which are mixed with an audio signal stream of a currently playing musical media file and output to the user. The shake jamming portable media player includes a processor, a memory functionally coupled to the processor, a motion sensor functionally coupled to the processor and configured to detect manual shaking motions imparted by a user on the portable media player, an instrument accompaniment program operatively loadable into the memory which includes instructions executable by the processor to cause a musical media file to be accessed from the memory and be currently played; identify a characteristic shake event from the detected manual shaking motions; generate an audio representation of an audio signal representing a striking or shaking sound of a percussion instrument in dependence on the identified characteristic shake event; mix the generated audio representation of the audio signal with an audio signal stream of the currently playing musical media file and output a resulting audio mixture to the user in near real-time relative to the identified characteristic shake event.

Claims

1. A shake jamming portable media player comprising:

a processor;

a memory functionally coupled to the processor;

a motion sensor functionally coupled to the processor and configured to detect manual shaking motions imparted by a user on the portable media player;

an instrument accompaniment program operatively loaded into the memory including instructions executable by the processor to;

cause a musical media file to be accessed from the memory;

cause the accessed musical media file to currently play;

identify a characteristic shake event from the detected manual shaking motions;

generate an audio signal representing a striking or shaking sound of a percussion instrument in dependence on the identified characteristic shake event;

mix the generated audio signal with an audio stream of the currently playing musical media file; and

,

output a resulting audio mixture to the user in near real-time relative to the identified characteristic shake event.

2. The shake jamming portable media player according to claim 1 wherein the motion sensor is physically coupled to the portable media player.

3. The shake jamming portable media player according to claim 1 wherein an audio signal is generated for each identified characteristic shake event.

4. The shake jamming portable media player according to claim 1 wherein an acoustical characteristic of the generated audio signal is dependent on one of;

a magnitude of the identified characteristic shake event, a time duration of the identified characteristic shake event and any combination thereof.

5. The shake jamming portable media player according to claim 4 wherein the acoustical characteristic is one of;

volume, decay, attack and resonance.

6. The shake jamming portable media player according to claim 5 wherein the volume is dependent upon the magnitude of the identified characteristic shake event.

7. The shake jamming portable media player according to claim 5 wherein the decay is dependent upon the time duration of the identified characteristic shake event.

8. The shake jamming portable media player according to claim 5 wherein the attack is dependent upon the magnitude of the identified characteristic shake event.

9. The shake jamming portable media player according to claim 5 wherein the resonance is dependent upon one of;

the magnitude, the time duration and any combination thereof of the identified characteristic shake event.

10. The shake jamming portable media player according to claim 4 wherein the generated audio signal is contingent upon the magnitude of the identified characteristic shake event.

11. The shake jamming portable media player according to claim 1 wherein the generated audio signal is a striking or shaking sound representation of one of;

a drum, a cymbal, a triangle, a maraca, a bell, a tambourine and any combination thereof.

12. The shake jamming portable media player according to claim 11 wherein the instrument accompaniment program further includes instructions to output a visual image of the percussion instrument corresponding to the current striking or shaking sound representation being generated.

13. The shake jamming portable media player according to claim 10 further including instructions executable by the processor to generate a first audio signal if the magnitude of the identified characteristic shake event is below a predefined threshold and generate a second audio signal if the magnitude of the identified characteristic shake event is equal to or greater than the predefined threshold.

14. The shake jamming portable media player according to claim 13 wherein the first audio signal is a striking or shaking sound representation of a drum and the second audio signal is a striking or shaking sound representation of a cymbal.

15. The shake jamming portable media player according to claim 1 wherein the characteristic shake event corresponds with the user imparting a single up-down motion generally in parallel to a long axis of the portable media player.

16. The shake jamming portable media player according to claim 1 wherein the characteristic shake event is identified based at least in part upon the motion sensor data exceeding both a positive and negative magnitude threshold within a predefined timeframe.

17. A method for providing a shake jamming portable media player comprising:

functionally coupling a motion sensor to a processor associated with the portable media player;

configuring the motion sensor to detect manual shaking motions imparted by a user on the portable media player;

operatively loading into a memory coupled to the processor an instrument accompaniment program including instructions executable by the processor for;

causing a musical media file to be accessed from the memory;

causing the accessed musical media file to currently play;

identifying the imparted characteristic shake event from the manual shaking motion signals;

generating an audio signal representing a striking or shaking sound of a percussion instrument in dependence on the identified characteristic shake event;

mixing the generated audio signal with an audio stream of the currently playing musical media file; and

,

outputting a resulting audio mixture to the user in near real-time relative to the identified characteristic shake event.

18. The method according to claim 17 further including instructions executable by the processor for controlling an acoustical characteristic of the generated audio signal in dependence on one of;

a magnitude of the identified characteristic shake event, a time duration of the characteristic shake event and any combination thereof.

19. The method according to claim 18 wherein the acoustical characteristic is one of;

volume, decay, attack and resonance.

20. The method according to claim 19 further including instructions executable by the processor for controlling the decay in dependence upon the time duration of the identified characteristic shake event.

21. The method according to claim 19 further including instructions executable by the processor for controlling the attack in dependence upon the magnitude of the identified characteristic shake event.

22. The method according to claim 20 further including instructions executable by the processor for generating a first audio signal if the magnitude of the identified characteristic shake event is below a predefined threshold and generating a second audio signal if the magnitude of the identified characteristic shake event is equal to or greater than the predefined threshold.

23. The method according to claim 22 wherein the first audio signal is a striking or shaking sound representation a drum and the second audio signal is a striking or shaking sound representation of a cymbal.

24. A computer program product for a shake jamming interface embodied in a tangible form comprising instructions executable by a processor associated with a portable media player to:

cause a musical media file to be accessed from a memory coupled to the processor;

cause the accessed musical media file to be currently played;

identify a user imparted characteristic shake event from detected manual shaking motion signals received from a motion sensor functionally coupled to the processor;

generate an audio signal representing a striking or shaking sound of a percussion instrument in dependence on the identified characteristic shake event;

mix the generated audio signal with an audio stream of the currently playing musical media file; and

,

output a resulting audio mixture to the user in near real-time relative to the identified characteristic shake event.

25. The computer program product according to claim 24 further including instructions executable by the processor to output a first audio signal if the magnitude of the identified characteristic shake event is below a predefined threshold and output a second audio signal if the magnitude of the identified characteristic shake event is equal to or greater than the predefined threshold.

26. The computer program product according to claim 25 wherein the first audio signal is a striking or shaking sound representation of a drum and the second audio signal is a striking or shaking sound representation of a cymbal.

27. The computer program product according to claim 24 further including instructions executable by the processor for controlling an acoustical characteristic of the output in dependence on one of;

a magnitude of the identified characteristic shake event, a time duration of the characteristic shake event and any combination thereof.

28. The computer program product according to claim 27 wherein the acoustical characteristic is one of;

volume, decay, attack and resonance.

29. The computer program product according to claim 24 wherein the tangible form is one of;

a logical media, a magnetic media and an optical media.