Multi-dimensional transformation systems and display communication architecture for musical compositions

• US 5,728,960 A
• Filed: 07/10/1996
• Issued: 03/17/1998
• Est. Priority Date: 07/10/1996
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Intellectual Ventures Assets 28 LLC (Intellectual Ventures LLC)
• Original Assignee: David H Sitrick
• Inventors: Sitrick, David H.
• Primary Examiner(s): Shoop, Jr., William M.
• Assistant Examiner(s): Fletcher, Marlon T.
• Application Number:
  US08/677,469
• Time in Patent Office: 615 Days
• Field of Search: 84/461, 84/462, 84/477 R, 84/478, 84/464 R, 84/464 A, 84/DIG. 6, 84/601, 84/602
• US Class Current: 84/477.00R
• CPC Class Codes: G09B 15/023 Electrically operated
• CPC Class Codes: G10G 1/00 Means for the representation of music
• CPC Class Codes: G10H 1/0008 Associated control or indicating means
• CPC Class Codes: G10H 2220/015 Musical staff, tablature or score displays, e.g. for score reading during a performance. graphical musical score editing G10H2220/121; musical score displays resulting from a transcription G10H2210/086
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 84/06 Cathode-ray tube

Abstract

A musical display system produces a display presentation in one of a plurality of formats from an original musical composition, the formats being created from the original musical composition responsive to input variables and a selected operating mode. The system is comprised of means to receive the original composition, a memory, a selection subsystem, a controller, and a display subsystem. The memory selectively stores the received original musical compositions. The selection subsystem determines a selected operating mode and display format. The controller, responsive to the selection subsystem, provides means for selectively controlling the storing of the original composition in memory and selectively altering the stored original composition responsive to the selected operating mode and the input variables to produce a particular one of a plurality of derivative musical compositions. At least one display subsystem provides for displaying a presentation of the particular one of the derivative compositions in the selected format responsive to the selected operating mode. The display system provides for selection of original compositions, creation of derivative compositions, distribution of compositions, monitoring of each performer'"'"'s performance, and also allows for retrieval and editing of musical compositions, such as changing keys, pitch, tempo, and many other parameters. The music transformation system can have a central or distributed music database, which stores the scores of musical compositions, which can be transposed via a controller, and can be transmitted to workstations that display the scores for playing by musical instruments and for local presentation.

Claims

1. A musical display networked system for producing a display presentation, the system comprising:

means for receiving an original musical composition;

a memory, for selectively storing the received original musical composition;

selection means for determining a selected operating mode;

a controller responsive to the selection means, the controller providing means for selectively controlling the storing of the original musical composition in memory and selectively altering the stored original musical composition responsive to the selected operating mode to produce a derivative musical composition; and

a plurality of display subsystems, at least one of said plurality of display subsystems responsive to communication from the controller wherein at least one of the display subsystems provide for displaying a display presentation of the derivative musical composition in accordance with the selected operating mode.

2. The system as in claim 1, wherein the selection means is further comprised of an input device for selecting a first musical composition from a library of a plurality of musical compositions as the original musical composition to be received.

3. The system as in claim 1, further comprising an input device, for providing at least one of the means for determining the selected operating mode, the means for determining a display format, and means for determining selected ones of the display subsystems for communication between the selected ones of the display subsystems.

4. The system as in claim 1, wherein the derivative musical composition is the same as the original musical composition.

5. The system as recited in claim 1, wherein said plurality of display subsystems comprises interactive music workstations, wherein said interactive music workstations are operatively coupled together and enabled for real time communication with said control means.

6. The system as in claim 1, wherein at least two of the display subsystems provide communications therebetween responsive to the controller.

7. The system as recited in claim 1, wherein each of said display subsystems bidirectionally communicate with said control means.

8. The system as in claim 7, wherein at least one of the display subsystems communicates with at least one other one of the plurality of display subsystems.

9. The system as in claim 1, wherein each of said display subsystems is further comprised of a local memory and a local display, wherein the control means outputs data for the derivative musical composition, wherein said data is stored in said local memory for the respective display subsystem, and wherein the local display provides the display presentation for the derivative musical composition responsive to the data stored in the respective local memory for the respective display subsystem.

10. The system as in claim 1, wherein the communication is via wireless communications.

11. The system as in claim 5, wherein the controller provides for the output of multiple different ones of the plurality of derivative musical compositions, and wherein the plurality of display subsystems are each individually operatively configured for receipt of only a selected one of the plurality of derivative musical compositions.

12. The system as in claim 1, wherein at least two of the plurality of display subsystems are configured to receive the same output from the controller.

13. The system as in claim 1, wherein the selection means is comprised of at least one of a keyboard device, a touch sensitive liquid crystal display, a voice recognition system which sends commands to the controller in response to voice commands, a visual recognition system which sends commands to the controller responsive to an individuals movement, and an audiotransducer for converting input soundwaves into signals representative of soundwaves.

14. The system as in claim 8, wherein said different ones of said plurality of derivative musical compositions each represent a different musical part of the original musical composition.

15. The system as in claim 1, wherein said selection means is comprised of at least one of a keyboard apparatus, a touch sensitive liquid crystal display apparatus, a voice recognition system for sending operative commands to said control means in response to voiced commands;

a visual recognition system which sends commands to the control means responsive to an individual'"'"'s movement, and an audio transducer for converting in put sound waves into signals representative of sound waves.

16. The system as in claim 1, wherein the display is comprised of at least one of a liquid crystal display, a projector driven display, a cathode ray tube display, and a heads up display.

17. The system as in claim 1, further comprising a library of a plurality of music compositions and wherein one of the plurality of music compositions from the library is selected as the original music composition.

18. The system as in claim 2, wherein the library is coupled from an external source outside said networked system.

19. The system as in claim 17, wherein the library is stored in non-volatile memory.

20. The system as in claim 1, wherein the selection means provides for selection of an auto-operation mode wherein the system provides for display of a real-time scrolling presentation of the musical composition, said real time scrolling selectively enabled on at least one of said display subsystems.

21. The system as in claim 20, wherein the system displays the musical composition in a page format, wherein the system automatically turns a page in the enabled display subsystem in accordance with the musical composition in response to user input variables.

22. The system as in claim 1, wherein the variables comprise feedback signals generated responsive to a music performance external to the networked system.

23. The system as in claim 1, wherein the input processor provides for selection of an operating mode, wherein the system is responsive to the user input means to provide for at least one of selecting, transposing, composing, and deriving additional musical compositions from the original music composition to create the derivative musical composition.

24. The system as in claim 1, wherein at least one of said plurality of display subsystems comprises a designated master interactive music workstation enabled to provide system control, communication and selection, and wherein all other said display subsystems comprise slave music workstations responsive to the master interactive music workstation.

25. The system as in claim 1, wherein at least one of the plurality of display subsystems provides an audio presentation to synchronously accompany the display presentation for that respective one of the display subsystems.

26. The system as in claim 1, wherein at least one of the display subsystems is further comprised of local control means for providing local user selection of a display format of the derivative musical composition responsive to the local control means.

27. The system as in claim 26 wherein the local control means provides for selection of a musical instrument type, wherein a corresponding musical instrument display presentation is generated responsive to the selection of the musical instrument type.

28. The system as in claim 1, further comprising a plurality of selectable display formats wherein at least one said display subsystem provides the display presentation for a selected one of the plurality of display formats.

29. The system as in claim 28, wherein the display presentation format is selected responsive to an external audio performance, associated with a particular musical instrument type which is thereafter associated with said at least one respective display subsystem.

30. The system as in claim 1, wherein at least one of said display subsystems is programmable to accept only a derivative musical composition for a particular musical instrument type associated with said display subsystem.

31. The system as in claim 1, wherein the control means further comprises means for sensing parameters of performed music, and advancing the display presentation responsive to tracking the parameters of the performed music relative to said display presentation.

32. The system as in claim 1, further comprising:

means for tracking a user'"'"'s movements to generate tracking data; and

means for interpreting the tracking data to convey presentation information associated with the tracking data to at least one said music display subsystem.

33. The system as in claim 32, wherein the tracking data is associated with a conductor, and wherein the display presentation is provided at least in part in response to the tracking data.

34. The system as in claim 1, further comprising:

means for tracking a user'"'"'s movements to generate tracking data; and

means for interpreting the tracking data to provide a virtual music performance by said user, said performance being correspondingly associated with the tracking data.

35. The system as in claim 1, further comprising:

means for tracking a user'"'"'s movement to generate tracking data; and

means for interpreting the tracking data to analyze said user'"'"'s performance associated with the tracking data.

36. The system as in claim 1, wherein there is performed music associated with the display presentation, wherein there are parameters associated with the performed music and respective parameters associated with the display presentation wherein the control means further comprises means for tracking the parameters of the performed music, and comparing said parameters of the performed music to the respective parameters of the display presentation wherein at least one said music display subsystem provides a user performance quality indicator responsive to analyzing the parameters relative to the respective parameters.

37. The system as in claim 36, further comprising:

means for providing a training mode, wherein the display presentation for said training mode provides for teaching assistance to said user of said music display subsystem responsive to the performance quality indicator.

38. The system as in claim 36, wherein the controller further comprises means for producing a report of skill level and errors of said user responsive to the performance quality indicator.

39. The system as in claim 1, wherein at least one said music display subsystem is further comprised of:

local input means for providing performance signals representative of a particular individual performer associated with a particular one of the display subsystems;

means for receiving a plurality of said performers'"'"' performance signals individually; and

wherein the control means further comprises means for comparing and tracking the performance signals relative to the respective displayed musical compositions for the respective particular one of the display subsystems to produce divergence data representative of at least one of performance quality, skill level, and errors related to said respective particular individual performer associated with said at least one said music display subsystem.

40. The system as in claim 1, further comprising:

a virtual reality image generator for generating a virtual reality image;

at least one sensor coupling an appendage of a user to the virtual reality image generator; and

a visor for displaying a generated virtual reality image, said image comprising the display presentation in the form of a music score.

41. The system as in claim 39, further comprising at least one master music display subsystem comprised of one of said music display subsystems said master music display subsystem further comprised of an error controller subsystem;

wherein all said music display subsystems communicate respective ones of said individual performance signals to the master music display subsystem; and

wherein the error controller subsystem is responsive to the communicated performance signals to provide a display presentation which identifies which communicating individual performers are playing correctly and which are playing incorrectly.

42. The system as in claim 1, wherein at least some of said display subsystems are distributed to a plurality of performers comprising a marching band, wherein respective derivative music compositions are communicated to respective ones of the marching band performers music display subsystems.

43. The system as in claim 42, wherein at least one of the distributed music display subsystems comprises a conductor master music display subsystem, wherein music display subsystems distributed to the performers in the marching band provide divergence data to said conductor master music display subsystem, wherein the display presentation for said conductor master music workstation provides a display representation of the divergence data.

44. The system as in claim 39, wherein at least one of the music display subsystems comprises a conductor master music display subsystem, wherein divergence data from each performer is displayed on the conductor master music display subsystem as feedback.

45. The system as in claim 39, wherein divergence data of an individual performer is displayed as feedback on the music display subsystem for the respective individual performer.

46. The system as in claim 39, wherein said divergence data is stored for later analysis.

47. The system as in claim 39, wherein the divergence data is processed by the controller to provide for the display presentation of the divergence data.

48. The system as in claim 39, wherein said divergence data is processed by the controller to provide the display presentation of the divergence data in a selected one of multiple display formats, and wherein said multiple formats comprise at least one of deviation error, deviation direction, timing, pitch, audio, video, and an audiovisual graphical presentation.

49. The system of claim 11, wherein the plurality of music display subsystems are each further comprised of local memory means for local storage of respective selected derivative musical compositions.

50. A musical display networked music system for selectively creating derivative musical compositions, and monitoring user performance relative to a stored original musical composition, the system comprising:

a plurality of networked music display subsystems, said subsystems enabled to communicate;

a user input device responsive to a user for providing user control signals;

composition selection means for providing a selected musical composition responsive to the stored original musical composition;

means for associating the selected musical composition with an associated addressable user type;

wherein each of the music display subsystems is further comprised of an addressable receiver for selectively receiving addressed communication for the associated addressable user type to provide for a local display presentation of the respective selected musical composition in a display format directed to the associated addressable user type;

a local display each associated with one of the associated addressable user types;

wherein the system is further comprised of means for communicating the selected musical composition to at least one of said plurality of music display subsystems, such that said selected musical composition is received and displayed only by the respective associated local display.

51. The system as in claim 50, wherein a plurality of said selected musical compositions are provided, wherein each of said selected musical compositions is associated with a different one of the addressable user types;

and

wherein the means for communicating further comprises means for communicating said plurality of selected musical compositions, wherein the plurality of music display subsystems are further comprised of independently addressable receivers for receiving respective selected ones of said plurality of selected musical compositions.

52. The system as in claim 50, further comprising:

means for selecting and monitoring characteristic parameters of a performance by a user of one of the user types; and

means for comparing the monitored characteristic parameters of the performance to determine divergence of the performance from the displayed selected musical composition.

53. The system as in claim 50, further comprising means for providing an editing mode, wherein the user can use the user input device to create at least one derivative composition from the original composition wherein the derivative composition is the selected musical composition wherein the editing mode further provides means for the user to selectively modify the musical key of the selected musical composition.

54. The system as in claim 50, wherein the characteristic parameters of the performance comprise an audio performance.

55. The system as in claim 50, wherein the editing mode further provides means for a user to modify the user type associated with the selected musical composition.

56. The system as in claim 50, further comprising means for a user to modify the musical tempo of the selected musical composition.

57. The system as in claim 50, further comprising means for providing audio output to at least one said music display subsystem.

58. The system as in claim 53, wherein the editing mode further comprises means for automatically modifying an original composition to create at least one derivative musical composition responsive to the selection of a target intended user type of musical instrument, wherein the derivative musical composition is the selected musical composition.

59. The system as in claim 50, further comprising:

means for providing a manual mode of user operation, wherein user input is required to control and operate the system.

60. A networked musical presentation system capable of individually and simultaneously displaying a plurality of individual musical scores relating to a common selected musical composition, each of the plurality of scores being correspondingly displayed for a selected corresponding one of a plurality of musical instrument types, the system comprising:

a music database storage subsystem comprising at least one of a plurality of musical compositions, each said musical composition comprising music data representative of a corresponding music score stored in the database;

first means for selecting a particular one of the musical compositions from the music database;

second means for selecting at least one particular one of the plurality of musical instrument types associated with a particular musical instrument associated with the selected particular one of the musical compositions;

memory for storing the music data corresponding to the selected particular one of the musical compositions;

controller means for performing system tasks, said controller means comprising means for adapting the music data for the selected particular one of the musical compositions to provide display presentation data for the selected musical instrument types; and

a plurality of networked music display presentation stands each providing a music display presentation responsive to said controller means and said display presentation data, each said stand being associated with one of the selected particular musical instrument types, each said stand further comprising means for locally displaying a respective associated particular one of said plurality of musical scores in accordance with the selected particular musical instrument type associated with using that stand.

61. The system of claim 60 wherein each said music stand is programmable to selectively receive only display presentation data associated with the selected one of the particular musical instrument types.

62. The system of claim 60, further comprising transducer means for receiving sound from a musical instrument;

wherein the controller means is responsive to the transducer means to provide for selection of at least one of musical key, instrument type, tempo setting, audio communications, and voice recognition.

63. A method for presenting a music score presentable in at least one of a plurality of play modes, for display of a display presentation on at least one of a plurality of music display subsystems, said modes including a practice mode and a performance mode, the method comprising the steps of:

selecting an adaptation to the music score;

adapting the music score in accordance with the selected adaptation, thereby creating at least one adapted practice music score;

displaying the at least one adapted practice music score on at least one said music display subsystem;

selecting a first performance play mode of the plurality of play modes; and

displaying a selected performance music score in accordance with said selected play mode.

64. The method of claim 63, wherein the step of selecting a first play mode further comprises selecting one of a manual mode and an automatic mode, said method further comprising the steps of:

advancing the display presentation of the music score responsive to manual input of a user, responsive to selection of the manual mode; and

advancing the display presentation of the music score automatically such that subsequent portions of the music score are displayed as the performance continues, responsive to selection of the automatic mode.