Patents by Inventor Douglas Duncan

Douglas Duncan has filed for patents to protect the following inventions. This listing includes patent applications that are pending as well as patents that have already been granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).

  • Patent number: 7196257
    Abstract: The present invention discloses a method for determining an optimal piano hammer felt voicing technique for voicing an unvoiced tone in a piano so as to achieve a predetermined standard of tonal quality associated with a given voiced tone using a computer program. The method comprises a) creating a library comprising at least two records wherein each record comprises a transfer function and a voicing technique wherein said transfer function mathematically expresses the effect upon tonal quality of said voicing technique; b) determining the harmonic profile for each of said unvoiced and voiced tones; c) identifying the record in said library that contains the transfer function that is most similar to the voiced transfer function that would be calculated from the harmonic profiles of said unvoiced and voiced tones; and d) disclosing the voicing technique that is contained in said identified record.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 15, 2003
    Date of Patent: March 27, 2007
    Assignee: William Marsh Rice University
    Inventors: Andrew Swick, Douglas Duncan, Darius Roberts, Shannon Hughes
  • Publication number: 20040182227
    Abstract: The present invention discloses a method for determining an optimal piano hammer felt voicing technique for voicing an unvoiced tone in a piano so as to achieve a predetermined standard of tonal quality associated with a given voiced tone using a computer program. The method comprises a) creating a library comprising at least two records wherein each record comprises a transfer function and a voicing technique wherein said transfer function mathematically expresses the effect upon tonal quality of said voicing technique; b) determining the harmonic profile for each of said unvoiced and voiced tones; c) identifying the record in said library that contains the transfer function that is most similar to the voiced transfer function that would be calculated from the harmonic profiles of said unvoiced and voiced tones; and d) disclosing the voicing technique that is contained in said identified record.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 15, 2003
    Publication date: September 23, 2004
    Applicant: WILLIAM MARSH RICE UNIVERSITY
    Inventors: Andrew Swick, Douglas Duncan, Darius Roberts, Shannon Hughes