Patents Examined by Marlon Fletcher
  • Patent number: 9576566
    Abstract: An electronic bass musical instrument that has the appearance, character and ambiance of a traditional washtub bass where the sounds of the bass are produced electronically by manually pressing an electrically conductive string extending along a neck of the bass against selected electrically conductive contacts arranged at spaced positions along the neck thus sending signals to an electronic control circuit of the instrument, whereby the sounds of the bass are produced electronically, providing vastly improved tonal quality and pitch accuracy to the sounds produced.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 25, 2011
    Date of Patent: February 21, 2017
    Inventor: David Senften
  • Patent number: 9570059
    Abstract: A system and methods for acquiring cadence and selecting a song version based on the acquired cadence are disclosed. If the system detects a new cadence, then a new song version that corresponds to the new cadence can be played. The new song version playback can start in a corresponding position as the location of playback in a currently-playing song version. Each related song version shares one or more characteristics, such as melody, but is different in at least one characteristic, such as tempo.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 14, 2015
    Date of Patent: February 14, 2017
    Assignee: SPOTIFY AB
    Inventors: Sten Garmark, Dariusz Dziuk, Mateo Rando, Angus William Sackfield
  • Patent number: 9569165
    Abstract: A playback apparatus includes: a storage unit storing music data and group identification information for identifying groups in which the music data are arranged in a predetermined unit; a selection unit selecting the group identification information stored in the storage unit; a notification unit notifying the group identification information selected by the selection unit with a sound; and a playback unit playing back the notification of the group identification information in the notification unit and the music data belonging to the group identified by the group identification information selected by the selection unit.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 22, 2014
    Date of Patent: February 14, 2017
    Assignee: Sony Corporation
    Inventors: Shingo Utsuki, Manabu Fujiki, Hiroshi Sato, Junichi Nagahara
  • Patent number: 9558732
    Abstract: An active noise control system includes a first microphone, a controller operably coupled to the first microphone, and a speaker operably coupled to the controller. The first microphone senses a sound input in an audible spectrum, wherein the sound input includes a disturbance noise portion. The controller includes a selection unit and an output unit. The selection unit determines the disturbance noise portion of the sound input based on a highest frequency level of the sound input. The output unit removes the disturbance noise portion from the sound input to generate a filtered sound input. The speaker generates a speaker output based on the filtered sound input.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 12, 2008
    Date of Patent: January 31, 2017
    Assignee: Iowa State University Research Foundation, Inc.
    Inventors: Thomas C. Waite, Atul G. Kelkar
  • Patent number: 9558726
    Abstract: An automatic composition apparatus includes a processing unit. The processing unit performs (i) a calculation process of calculating a matching level of each chord progression data item for a motif including a plurality of note data items, with reference to a plurality of note connection rules each of which defines a connection relation of consecutive note types, and (ii) a melody generating process of generating a melody based on the motif and the chord progression data items which matching levels are calculated.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 15, 2015
    Date of Patent: January 31, 2017
    Assignee: CASIO COMPUTER CO., LTD.
    Inventor: Junichi Minamitaka
  • Patent number: 9558728
    Abstract: A storage device stores a plurality of sets of tone setting information, each of the sets of tone setting information including one or more tone setting parameters. The storage device also stores, for each of the sets of tone setting information, a link ID identifying a link set in association with the set of tone setting information. Processing is performed to cause, based on the link IDs, settings of the tone setting parameters to match between a plurality of sets of the tone setting information having a same link ID. A selected set of the tone setting information is editable in accordance with a user operation. In accordance with the editing, processing is performed to cause a setting of any one of the tone setting parameters in one or more other sets of the tone setting information, having a same link ID as the link ID associated with the edited set of the tone setting information, to match a setting of the tone setting parameter in the edited set of the tone setting information.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 15, 2014
    Date of Patent: January 31, 2017
    Assignee: YAMAHA CORPORATION
    Inventors: Hiroyuki Torimura, Akemi Kubita
  • Patent number: 9552741
    Abstract: A system and method that quantifies a sound into dynamic pitch-based graphs that correlate to the pitch frequencies of the sound. The system records a sound, such as musical notes. A pitch detection algorithm identifies and quantifies the pitch frequencies of the notes. The algorithm analyzes the pitch frequencies, and graphically displays the pitch frequency and notes in real time as fluctuating circles, rectangular bars, and lines that represent variances in pitch. The algorithm comprises a modified Type 2 Normalized Square Difference Function that transforms the musical notes into the pitch frequencies. The Type 2 Normalized Square Difference Function analyzes the peaks of the pitch frequency to arrive at a precise pitch frequency, such as 440 Hertz. A Lagrangian interpolation enables comparative analysis and teaching of the pitches and notes. The algorithm also performs transformations and heuristic comparisons to generate the real time graphical representation of the pitch frequency.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 29, 2015
    Date of Patent: January 24, 2017
    Assignee: QUANTZ COMPANY, LLC
    Inventors: Shelly Sue Granger, Douglas Scott Gallatin
  • Patent number: 9552801
    Abstract: An electronic music instrument comprises an input configured for receiving at least one note event from an input device having a plurality of input elements configured for generating at least one note event when activated; a software module configured for including: at least one instrument plugin configured for defining sounding note events and non-sounding control events, and at least one play assistant module, wherein the software module is further configured for at least one of the group comprising excluding the control events from being processed by play assistant functions and excluding play assistant functions generating control events.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 2, 2014
    Date of Patent: January 24, 2017
    Assignee: Native Instruments GmbH
    Inventors: Tim Adnitt, Dinos Vallianatos
  • Patent number: 9542923
    Abstract: A music synthesizer is provided. The synthesizer divides an input sound into a plurality of musical bands, and, for each divided band, generates a waveform having a predetermined shape with a period corresponding to a detected pitch and with a level corresponding to a detected level. The synthesizer then adds up the waveforms generated for each band and outputs a result thereof.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 29, 2015
    Date of Patent: January 10, 2017
    Assignee: ROLAND CORPORATION
    Inventor: Yukio Shigeno
  • Patent number: 9543753
    Abstract: A protection device is provided for electric appliances suitable for selectively connecting an electric appliance to a power supply line. The protection device includes a metal plate member, a composite metal blade, an insulating block for supporting the metal plate member and the composite metal blade, and a compensating resistor made en bloc with the metal plate member.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 18, 2014
    Date of Patent: January 10, 2017
    Assignee: Electrica S.r.l.
    Inventor: Fabrizio Rotulo
  • Patent number: 9543872
    Abstract: A control method for a switched reluctance generator employing dual switched-mode power converters does not require a position sensor. In the excitation stage, the upper tube and lower tube of the main switch of a phase in the power converter are switched on, and the phase current is detected. When the phase current rises to a preset threshold, the upper tube or lower tube of the main switch of the phase is switched off, changing the phase of the switched reluctance generator into a zero voltage natural freewheeling state. When the phase current drops to the valley value, the rotor position is the end position of maximum phase inductance of the phase. This rotor position is used as the switch-off position of the main switch of the phase of the switched reluctance generator, and the upper tube and lower tube for the main switch of the phase are switched off.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 24, 2013
    Date of Patent: January 10, 2017
    Assignee: China University of Mining and Technology
    Inventor: Hao Chen
  • Patent number: 9542918
    Abstract: A method and system for analyzing patterns in the relationships of notes of an input piece of music. The method comprises generating a set of the most frequently occurring note pitches in ascending pitch order that matches an interval pattern, and detecting out-of-key pitches that lie outside of this interval pattern. One or more potential key sequence bifurcations are identified which represent a list of possible key sequences according to forwards and backwards analysis. By finding patterns of repetition in the chordal sequences that may be generated according to these key sequence bifurcations, a key sequence that allows the most frequently recurring chord sequences may be chosen. Chord sequences may be analyzed by using ghost chords, temporary harmonic structures that are created, updated and finalized over time according to a combination of essential and inessential note fragments. The method further comprises identifying non-harmony pitches according to the analyzed chord sequence.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 7, 2015
    Date of Patent: January 10, 2017
    Assignee: Exomens
    Inventor: Marcus A. Matusiak
  • Patent number: 9537426
    Abstract: The invention relates to a method for actuating an inverter (10) by means of space vector pulse width modulation, in particular for actuating an electrical machine (14), wherein the inverter (10) has a plurality of controllable switches (S) and is configured to provide a multi-phase electrical voltage (U, V, W) in the form of a voltage space vector (V*), wherein the controllable switches (S) are actuated in such a manner that different duty cycles of the switches (S) are set and a plurality of successive different switching states (V0-V7) of the switches (S) are set up to provide the voltage space vector (V*), wherein the duty cycles of the switches (S) are extended during a pulse width modulation period (T) if a duty cycle of one of the switches (S) falls below a predefined threshold (44) during the pulse width modulation period (T).
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 24, 2013
    Date of Patent: January 3, 2017
    Assignee: Robert Bosch GmbH
    Inventors: Mark Damson, Thomas Wiecha
  • Patent number: 9532840
    Abstract: One exemplary user interface for a medical robotics system may include a control panel and one or more sliders that may be slidably carried by the control panel to actuate one or more motors for moving a surgical instrument of the medical robotics system. The sliders may be configured to actuate the motors to move the surgical instrument along a respective one of a plurality of degrees of freedom.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 7, 2014
    Date of Patent: January 3, 2017
    Assignee: HANSEN MEDICAL, INC.
    Inventors: Serena H. Wong, Sean P. Walker, June Park, Richard Henderson
  • Patent number: 9524706
    Abstract: A music reproduction apparatus includes a reproduction section for reproducing user-selected music piece data, a generation section for generating control information including music piece information identifying a music piece reproduced by the reproduction section and reproduced position information indicative of a currently-reproduced position, a modulation section for outputting, on the basis of the generated control information, an audio signal of a predetermined frequency band for carrying the control information, and an output section for transmitting to outside the audio signal generated by the modulation section.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 16, 2014
    Date of Patent: December 20, 2016
    Assignee: YAMAHA CORPORATION
    Inventor: Satoshi Hiratsuka
  • Patent number: 9526162
    Abstract: A board assembly includes: a circuit board; a shield member coupled to the circuit board to face the circuit board; and at least one socket for a storage medium which is mounted on the circuit board. The shield member includes an opening that exposes the entirety of the socket to the outside. The board assembly forms an opening in a dual recess structure to accommodate the socket. Thus, the board assembly may contribute to the reduction of the thickness of an electronic device while being stacked with a battery. Further, the entire socket is exposed to the outside of the shield member, the storage medium may be easily removed.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 12, 2013
    Date of Patent: December 20, 2016
    Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Min-Su Jung, Sang-Hyeon Kim, Young-Tae Kim, Hong-Beom Kim, Il-Sung Jeong
  • Patent number: 9514722
    Abstract: Techniques are disclosed for automatic detection of dense ornamentation in music. Input data representing a piece of digitally encoded music in a time domain is converted into a spectrogram representing time-frequency coefficients in a frequency domain. The spectrogram includes column vectors of the time-frequency coefficients that correspond to time periods spanning different portions of the piece of music. A one-dimensional onset detection array is calculated based on a subset of the column vectors. Using the spectrogram and the onset detection array, a two-dimensional self-similarity matrix (SSM) is calculated based on pair-wise comparisons of elements in the onset detection array. As a result, an irregular pattern score representing the presence of dense ornamentation in the piece of music can be calculated based on a magnitude difference between a beat pattern in the music and each column of the slim SSM.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 10, 2015
    Date of Patent: December 6, 2016
    Assignee: Adobe Systems Incorporated
    Inventors: Minje Kim, Gautham J. Mysore, Paris Smaragdis, Peter Merrill
  • Patent number: 9514724
    Abstract: The present invention receives sound wave data from a sound inputted into a microphone and samples the sound wave data received using a CPU to obtain sampled data as a digitized tone data, which is then stored in a sampling memory. The CPU performs auto-play of a sound using the digitized tone data sampled by the sampling and stored in the sampling memory. Thus, a result of the sampling is automatically provided to the user after the sampling takes place and the user can intuitively understand what can be done through sampling.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 23, 2015
    Date of Patent: December 6, 2016
    Assignee: CASIO COMPUTER CO., LTD.
    Inventors: Masaru Setoguchi, Yukina Ishioka
  • Patent number: 9514727
    Abstract: A musical instrument pickup, having a pickup body, a tone shaping circuit, and at least one integrated control in and/or on the pickup body. Embodiments of the present disclosure may utilize one or more techniques, alone or in combination, to adjust, e.g., the tone of a musical instrument by changing the frequency response of a pickup with the one or more integrated controls. One exemplary technique utilizes a plurality of knobs to selectively control the gain, resonant frequency, and/or circuit Q of the pickup.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 29, 2015
    Date of Patent: December 6, 2016
    Assignee: DIALTONE PICKUPS
    Inventor: John Edward Liptac
  • Patent number: 9502017
    Abstract: A digital medium environment includes an audio editing application that remixes an original audio recording to play back over a target duration. An improved audio remixing method implemented by the audio editing application comprises segmenting the original audio recording into individual beats, computing costs for transitioning between different beats of the original audio recording, and creating a remixed audio recording using the transition costs and beats of the original audio recording. As the remixed audio recording is created, transition costs are updated by assigning penalties to transitions as the transitions are inserted into the remix. Using the beats of the original audio recording with updated transition costs ensures that a remix retains a quality and structure of the original audio recording while avoiding repetition.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 14, 2016
    Date of Patent: November 22, 2016
    Assignee: Adobe Systems Incorporated
    Inventor: Nico Alexander Becherer