Musical sound generating vehicular apparatus, musical sound generating method and program

• US 7,528,316 B2
• Filed: 12/04/2007
• Issued: 05/05/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 12/06/2006
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Yamaha Corporation
• Original Assignee: Yamaha Corporation
• Inventors: Isozaki, Yoshimasa
• Primary Examiner(s): Donels; Jeffrey
• Application Number:
  US11/950,033
• Publication Number:
  US 20080163745A1
• Time in Patent Office: 518 Days
• Field of Search: 846/02, 846/11, 846/12
• US Class Current: 84/612
• 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 1/40 Rhythm
• CPC Class Codes: G10H 2210/066 for pitch analysis as part of wider processing for musical purposes, e.g. transcription, musical performance evaluation; Pitch recognition, e.g. in polyphonic sounds; Estimation or use of missing fundamental
• CPC Class Codes: G10H 2210/076 for extraction of timing, tempo; Beat detection tempo display G10H2220/081; tempo control G10H2210/375
• CPC Class Codes: G10H 2210/391 Automatic tempo adjustment, correction or control
• CPC Class Codes: G10H 2220/351 Environmental parameters, e.g. temperature, ambient light, atmospheric pressure, humidity, used as input for musical purposes
• 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 2240/056 MIDI or other note-oriented file format
• CPC Class Codes: G10H 2240/131 Library retrieval, i.e. searching a database or selecting a specific musical piece, segment, pattern, rule or parameter set
• CPC Class Codes: G10H 2240/155 Library update, i.e. making or modifying a musical database using musical parameters as indices data structures involving musical parameters G10H2240/005
• CPC Class Codes: G10H 2240/211 Wireless transmission, e.g. of music parameters or control data by radio, infrared or ultrasound beam G10H2220/405
• CPC Class Codes: G10H 2240/285 USB, i.e. either using a USB plug as power supply or using the USB protocol to exchange data

Abstract

In order to provide a musical sound generating vehicular apparatus and a program of the same for playing musical sounds based on a status of a vehicle without depending on parameter changes such as volume of the musical sound, a vehicle status detection means (11) which detects a control status of the vehicle, a storage means (13) which stores musical sound data, a musical sound data playback means (3) which plays the musical sound based on the musical sound data stored in the storage means (13), and a control means (1) which determines a playback interval of the musical sound data stored in the storage means (13) based on the control status of the vehicle detected by the vehicle status detection means (11) and controls the musical sound playback means (3) to play the playback interval of the musical sound data are provided.

Claims

1. A musical sound generating apparatus for a vehicle, comprising:

a vehicle state detection unit that detects a control state among a plurality of predetermined control states of a vehicle;

a storage unit that stores at least one musical sound data containing a plurality of predetermined markers each associated with one of the predetermined control states;

a musical sound playback unit that plays the musical sound data stored in the storage unit; and

a control unit that selects one of the predetermined markers associated with the control state of the vehicle detected by the vehicle state detecting unit, and controls the musical sound playback unit to play a segment of the musical sound data corresponding to the selected predetermined marker,

wherein the segment of the musical sound data corresponding to each of the predetermined markers has an associated playback duration.

2. A musical sound generating apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the storage unit stores a plurality of musical sound data, and the control unit selects one of the plurality of musical sound data to be played by the musical sound playback unit from the storage unit.

3. A musical sound generating apparatus according to claim 2, further comprising an environmental condition detection unit that detects environmental condition of the vehicle,

wherein the control unit selects one of the plurality of the musical sound data to be played by the musical sound playback unit from the storage unit based on the detected control environmental condition of the vehicle.

4. A musical sound generating apparatus according to claim 1, wherein if the detected control state of the vehicle has not been changed for a predetermined time, the control unit controls the musical sound playback unit to repeat the segment of the musical sound data for the associated playback duration.

5. A musical sound generating apparatus according to claim 1, wherein if the detected control state of the vehicle has not been changed after a predetermined time, the control unit selects another predetermined marker to play another segment of the musical sound data corresponding to the another predetermined marker for an associated playback duration corresponding to the another predetermined marker, and controls the musical sound playback unit to repeat the another segment of the musical sound data if the detected control state has not changed for another predetermined time.

6. A musical sound generating apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising:

a playback position detection unit that determines the associated playback duration of each segment of the musical sound data corresponding to one of the predetermined markers based on a predetermined musical element parameter of the musical sound data;

an analysis unit that analyzes and stores the predetermined musical element parameter of the associated playback duration in the storage unit together with a connection relationship with regard to the musical sound data; and

a playback rule data storage unit that stores the predetermined musical element parameter of the musical sound to be played together in association with a corresponding-control state of the vehicle,

wherein the control unit obtains the musical element parameter corresponding to the control state of the vehicle detected by the vehicle state detection unit in reference to the playback rule data storage unit, determines the associated playback duration of the musical sound data that satisfies conditions of the obtained musical element parameter, and controls the musical sound data playback portion to play the associated playback duration of the musical sound data.

7. A musical sound generating apparatus according to claim 6, further comprising an environmental condition detection unit that detects an environmental condition of the vehicle,

wherein the storage unit stores a plurality of musical sound data, and

wherein the control unit selects one of the plurality of the musical sound data to be played by the musical sound playback unit from the storage unit based on the environmental condition of the vehicle detected by the environmental condition detection unit.

8. A musical sound generating apparatus according to claim 6, wherein the musical element parameter is at least one of pitch, volume, tempo, or timbre.

9. A musical sound generating method for a vehicle comprising the steps of:

detecting a control state among a plurality of predetermined control states of a vehicle;

storing at least one musical sound data containing predetermined markers each associated with one of the predetermined control states in a storage unit;

selecting one of the predetermined markers associated with the control state detected in the detecting step; and

playing a segment of the musical sound data corresponding to the selected predetermined marker,

wherein the segment of the musical sound data corresponding to each of the predetermined markers has an associated playback duration.

10. A computer-readable medium storing a computer program for controlling a musical sound generating apparatus for a vehicle, the computer program comprising computer executable instructions for:

detecting a control state among a plurality of predetermined control states of a vehicle;

storing at least one musical sound data containing predetermined markers each associated with one of the predetermined control states in a storage unit;

selecting one of the predetermined markers associated with the control state detected in the detecting instruction; and

playing a segment of the musical sound data corresponding to the selected predetermined marker,

wherein the segment of the musical sound data corresponding to each of the predetermined markers has an associated playback duration.