Patents Examined by Jeffrey Donels
  • Patent number: 10580393
    Abstract: An apparatus for analyzing musical performance includes a controller. The controller is configured to detect a cue gesture of a performer who plays a piece of music. The controller is also configured to calculate a distribution of likelihood of observation and estimate the playback position depending on the distribution of the likelihood of observation. The calculating of the distribution of the likelihood of observation includes decreasing the likelihood of observation during a period prior to a reference point specified on a time axis for the piece of music in a case where the cue gesture is detected.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 18, 2019
    Date of Patent: March 3, 2020
    Assignee: Yamaha Corporation
    Inventor: Akira Maezawa
  • Patent number: 10573287
    Abstract: An electronic synthesizer instrument incorporating four bass pedals which can be played either with the heel or the toe of the foot, so as to allow the playing of all twelve notes in a chromatic octave with just the four pedals. The apparatus is an improvement upon existing bass pedal devices which enables easier playing of the bass parts for musicians simultaneously playing other instruments. The assignment of the pitch to the pedals is selectable, but two of the easiest-to-play embodiments are described in detail. The four pedals rock on a central pivot, each giving two distinct notes. Half pitches between notes addressed by adjacent pedals can be accessed by holding both adjacent pedals down.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 6, 2018
    Date of Patent: February 25, 2020
    Inventor: Gregory Clifford Smith
  • Patent number: 10562737
    Abstract: A lift system for protecting the privacy of passengers. The lift system having a lift car that can be moved between floors of a building. The lift car having a video camera arranged in the lift car. The video camera being a part of a video system that also includes a video monitor for displaying information relating to the interior of the lift car. A video control device is communicatively connected to and controls the video system in a selective manner according to one of several operating modes. The several operating modes include a first operating mode in which the video system is deactivated or activation is blocked, so that the video system remains in an inactive state, if a passenger asks for the video system to be deactivated. When in the first operating mode the video system remains in the inactive state for as long as the passenger is in the lift car.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 16, 2015
    Date of Patent: February 18, 2020
    Assignee: Inventio AG
    Inventors: Paul Friedli, Lukas Finschi
  • Patent number: 10559290
    Abstract: An electronic musical instrument includes a sound source LSI to generate a musical sound using a RAM that retains waveform data that has been selectively read from a plurality of waveforms stored in a large-capacity flash memory, and smoothly executes transfer of additional waveform data from the flash memory to the RAM when the requisite waveform data is not retained in the RAM during the performance. Performance data is generated by a sequencer, a prescribed delay time is applied to the performance data by an event time generator and an event delay buffer so as to provide for sufficient time for the transfer of the additional waveform if such transfer is needed. A musical sound is generated by an event buffer and a sound source driver on the basis of the delayed performance data.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 20, 2019
    Date of Patent: February 11, 2020
    Assignee: CASIO COMPUTER CO., LTD.
    Inventors: Hiroki Sato, Hajime Kawashima
  • Patent number: 10549948
    Abstract: A method for operating a safety system having a control unit, a bus, a plurality of bus nodes connected to the control unit via the bus and a plurality of participants connected to the control unit via the bus nodes, wherein at least one participant is designed as a temporary participant. The method involves the steps that the temporary participant is notified in the safety system by the temporary participant being connected at a bus node to the safety system via the bus, the temporary participants is recognized by the control unit, the temporary participant is integrated into the safety system by the control unit and the temporary participant is activated at least once. A further aspect of the invention relates to a safety system for an elevator system for carrying out the method and to an elevator system having the safety system.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 15, 2015
    Date of Patent: February 4, 2020
    Assignee: INVENTIO AG
    Inventors: Astrid Sonnenmoser, Ivo Lustenberger, Martin Hess
  • Patent number: 10553188
    Abstract: Musical attribution is performed in a two-dimensional (2D) digital representation. A piece of music representing a musical score is inputted. An abstracted representation of blanks of the score, called a digital audio canvas, is produced. Interactive, dynamic attribution is performed by a user to bring to life the musical score of abstracted blanks. Instrumentation selection, relative volume, scale selection, and score tempo are all musical attributes that are conveyed to the score of abstracted blanks. The score of the digital audio canvas is played back using the attributed blanks. The playback of the score is enabled by selecting appropriate abstracted blanks. The appropriate abstracted blanks are included among other blanks for increased educational and enjoyment value. The modified score is converted back into the format of the original inputted piece of music.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 26, 2017
    Date of Patent: February 4, 2020
    Assignee: CharmPI, LLC
    Inventor: Wu-Hsi Li
  • Patent number: 10546569
    Abstract: A modified and improved electronic bongo instrument embodying a kick drum and an operatively associated, selectively foot-activated kick pedal to create a new single unified instrument. The instrument has a novel hourglass shell for housing its own stand-alone power source, amplification and input/output units, with analog/digital upload capabilities, while additionally affording functionality associated with a new, completely portable and innovative method of musical collaboration, as well as a meditative and therapeutic application, and a physical exercise tool, and/or a children's toy.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 19, 2019
    Date of Patent: January 28, 2020
    Inventors: Mark Raymond Hawdon, Nicholas Jon Guccione
  • Patent number: 10540950
    Abstract: Provided is an electrophonic chordophone system (20) comprising sensor (24) configured to be operatively responsive to respective strings of a guitar (22). The system (20) also includes non-transitory processor-readable storage means (26) which contains first and second user-configurable tonal formats (28) and (30). Also included is processor (32), arranged in signal communication with the sensor (24) and storage means (26), and adapted to associate a melody group of notes producible by the strings with the first tonal format (28) in a one-to-one mapping or direct correlation, and to associate a control group of notes producible by the strings with the second tonal format (30) in a one-to-many mapping or indirect correlation. Also included is a synthesiser (34), arranged in signal communication with the processor (32), and configured to produce both the first and second tonal formats simultaneously in substantial real-time.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 15, 2016
    Date of Patent: January 21, 2020
    Assignee: In8Beats Pty Ltd
    Inventor: Christopher Andrew Nurse
  • Patent number: 10532909
    Abstract: A passenger conveyance passenger tracking control system that controls operation of a passenger conveyance, e.g., an elevator car, includes at least one call request device, e.g., a call request panel, configured to receive at least one input from at least one passenger located at a occupancy depth grid. At least one passenger position three-dimensional (3-D) depth-sensing sensor is configured to track a position of the at least one passenger located at the occupancy depth grid. The passenger conveyance passenger tracking control system further includes an electronic control module in signal communication with the at least one call request device and at least one passenger position 3-D depth-sensing sensor. The electronic control module is configured to control operation of the passenger conveyance based on the position of the at least one passenger.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 3, 2015
    Date of Patent: January 14, 2020
    Assignee: OTIS ELEVATOR COMPANY
    Inventors: Stephen K. Richmond, Alan Matthew Finn, Arthur Hsu, Hui Fang
  • Patent number: 10534811
    Abstract: A method and system of using Artificial Intelligence to automatically create and generate an interactive play-along song from a selected audio file/song imported from either a music streaming service, a personal music library and the like, that can later be played on an interactive music engine.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 16, 2018
    Date of Patent: January 14, 2020
    Inventors: Gary Bencar, Todd Nystrom
  • Patent number: 10529249
    Abstract: A music practice feedback system, comprising, a processor; and a memory storing instructions that cause the processor to perform, monitoring an outcome of a playing of a sheet music by a user, and based on the outcome, suggesting a type of improvement to increase a success rate of playing the sheet music.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 24, 2017
    Date of Patent: January 7, 2020
    Assignee: INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES CORPORATION
    Inventors: Minkyong Kim, Clifford A. Pickover, Valentina Salapura
  • Patent number: 10529312
    Abstract: A system and method for delivering dynamic user-controlled musical accompaniments, utilizing a computing device with a graphical user interface, an application running on said device, optionally using peripheral external or integrated devices, and a variety of controls to dynamically alter the playback of a pre-recorded accompaniment track, saving the altered accompaniment track for later use, and for sharing with other users via a cloud service engine, if desired.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 28, 2019
    Date of Patent: January 7, 2020
    Assignee: APPCOMPANIST, LLC
    Inventors: Darin Adams, Christopher Deppe
  • Patent number: 10519004
    Abstract: An elevator system includes: key switches, provided at a hall, used in an evacuation operation to select either a shuttle operation request mode requesting a car to shuttle between an evacuation floor and a rescue floor, or an evacuation completion mode indicating completion of evacuation; a first notification mechanism provided in the car; and an elevator controller switching between normal operation and the evacuation operation, determining, in a case at least one of the key switches is switched to the evacuation operation, that a floor at a hall whose key switch is in the shuttle operation mode is a rescue floor and a floor at a hall whose key switch is in the evacuation completion mode is an evacuation completion floor, and making, in a case a hall button provided at the hall of the evacuation completion floor is operated, the first notification mechanism notify of the evacuation completion floor.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 21, 2014
    Date of Patent: December 31, 2019
    Assignee: Mitsubishi Electric Corporation
    Inventor: Chiaki Nishida
  • Patent number: 10522126
    Abstract: A hum-cancelling system includes two or more hum-cancelling coils configured in a distributed manner, connected in series with each other. The hum-cancelling coils form a series circuit that is electrically connected to at least one pickup. Each hum-cancelling coil includes a top plate, a bottom plate, and a coil of wire wrapped between the top plate and the bottom plate.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 18, 2019
    Date of Patent: December 31, 2019
    Inventor: Carey J. Nordstrand
  • Patent number: 10515617
    Abstract: A device for controlling electronic musical instruments includes a casing having a base. The casing and the base define the body of the control device. The device also includes a slotted hole for connecting to an instrument pedalboard. The slotted hole is located in a cavity in the body of the control device such that the slotted hole is integrated in the body of the device.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 18, 2019
    Date of Patent: December 24, 2019
    Assignee: LLEVINAC, S.L.
    Inventors: Jordi Canivell Grifols, David MaƱosa Ripoll, Marta Hereu Ros
  • Patent number: 10515614
    Abstract: A musical notation system is disclosed. The musical notation system comprises: a pitch symbol representing a key of a keyboard instrument, wherein the pitch symbol corresponds to a number representing a pitch in a numbered musical notation system and represents a white key and a black key of the keyboard instrument respectively in different forms; and a duration symbol representing a duration of the pitch symbol, the duration symbol corresponding to a symbol representing a duration in the numbered musical notation system.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 13, 2018
    Date of Patent: December 24, 2019
    Inventor: Jianxun Zhou
  • Patent number: 10515618
    Abstract: A waveform data structure includes a plurality of types of frames having different data sizes. Each of the plurality of types of frames includes an auxiliary information area and a data area. The auxiliary information area includes an area for storing common effective-bit length data for a section of waveform samples, and an area for storing an identifier for identifying one of the plurality of types of frames. The data area is an area for storing extracted waveform samples which are extracted from the waveform samples based on the common effective-bit length. The number of the extracted waveform samples is determined based on the common effective-bit length.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 3, 2019
    Date of Patent: December 24, 2019
    Assignee: CASIO COMPUTER CO., LTD.
    Inventor: Goro Sakata
  • Patent number: 10513031
    Abstract: Devices, systems, and methods for providing commanded movement of an end effector of a manipulator concurrent with a desired movement of one or more joints of the manipulator according to one or more consolidated null-space objectives. The null-space objectives may include a joint state combination, relative joint states, range of joint states, joint state profile, kinetic energy, clutching movements, collision avoidance movements, singularity avoidance movements, pose or pitch preference, desired manipulator configurations, commanded reconfiguration of the manipulator, and anisotropic emphasis of the joints. Methods include calculating multiple null-space movements according to different null-space objectives, determining an attribute for each and consolidating the null-space movements with a null-space manager using various approaches. The approaches may include applying weighting, scaling, saturation levels, priority, master velocity limiting, saturated limited integration and various combinations thereof.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 30, 2018
    Date of Patent: December 24, 2019
    Assignee: Intuitive Surgical Operations, Inc.
    Inventor: Arjang M. Hourtash
  • Patent number: 10510329
    Abstract: A keyboard apparatus includes a plurality of keys, a frame supporting the plurality of keys arranged in a first direction, a first member, a longitudinal direction of the first member being along the first direction, and a second member including a first section, a second section, and a third section, the first section, the third section, and the second section being arranged in this order in a second direction perpendicular to the first direction, the first section being a plate-shaped member sandwiched between the first member and the frame, the second section being connected to the first member at a position away from the first section, the third section being separated from the first member between the first section and the second section, and a longitudinal direction of the second member being along the first direction.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 4, 2019
    Date of Patent: December 17, 2019
    Assignee: YAMAHA CORPORATION
    Inventors: Yoshihiko Yasuda, Yuji Yamada
  • Patent number: 10510328
    Abstract: A lyrics analyzer generates tags and explicitness indicators for a set of tracks. These tags may indicate the genre, mood, occasion, or other features of each track. The lyrics analyzer does so by generating an n-dimensional vector relating to a set of topics extracted from the lyrics and then using those vectors to train a classifier to determine whether each tag applies to each track. The lyrics analyzer may also generate playlists for a user based on a single seed song by comparing the lyrics vector or the lyrics and acoustics vectors of the seed song to other songs to select songs that closely match the seed song. Such a playlist generator may also take into account the tags generated for each track.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 24, 2018
    Date of Patent: December 17, 2019
    Assignee: Spotify AB
    Inventors: Tahora H. Nazer, Tristan Jehan