Patents by Inventor Rei Furukawa

Rei Furukawa 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: 10782159
    Abstract: A detection device includes: a movement detector that includes light emitters and light receivers, wherein in accordance with movement of a moving body among moving bodies, each corresponding to a different combination of a light emitter and a light receiver, a light reception level of the light receiver in a combination corresponding to the moving body changes; and a processor coupled to a memory storing instructions that, when executed by the processor, configure the processor to: cause each of the light emitters to sequentially emit light in each light emission period by providing a driving signal, and cause a signal level of the driving signal to differ between unit periods within the light emission period; and select, for each light emission period, a light reception level in one of the unit periods within the light emission period as a detected value for each of the light receivers.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 29, 2018
    Date of Patent: September 22, 2020
    Assignee: YAMAHA CORPORATION
    Inventors: Tetsuo Ota, Rei Furukawa
  • Publication number: 20190011293
    Abstract: A detection device includes: a movement detector that includes light emitters and light receivers, wherein in accordance with movement of a moving body among moving bodies, each corresponding to a different combination of a light emitter and a light receiver, a light reception level of the light receiver in a combination corresponding to the moving body changes; and a processor coupled to a memory storing instructions that, when executed by the processor, configure the processor to: cause each of the light emitters to sequentially emit light in each light emission period by providing a driving signal, and cause a signal level of the driving signal to differ between unit periods within the light emission period; and select, for each light emission period, a light reception level in one of the unit periods within the light emission period as a detected value for each of the light receivers.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 29, 2018
    Publication date: January 10, 2019
    Inventors: Tetsuo OTA, Rei FURUKAWA
  • Patent number: 8933309
    Abstract: A sound generation mechanism, provided with a string for generating a vibration sound in response to striking by a hammer, is automatically played in accordance with performance data. The performance data include striking data (note-on event data) for designating timing at which the string should be struck by the hammer, velocity data indicative of an intensity of the striking, and muting data (soft pedal data) for controlling muting. A controller determines drive start timing of the hammer in accordance with the velocity data in such a manner that the string is struck by the hammer at the timing designated by the striking data and performs control such that the drive start timing is advanced in accordance with the muting data. Thus, the string is struck at the striking timing designated by the striking data, but also muting control is performed in accordance with the muting data.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 12, 2013
    Date of Patent: January 13, 2015
    Assignee: Yamaha Corporation
    Inventors: Yasuhiko Oba, Rei Furukawa, Yuji Fujiwara
  • Publication number: 20140130652
    Abstract: A sound generation mechanism, provided with a string for generating a vibration sound in response to striking by a hammer, is automatically played in accordance with performance data. The performance data include striking data (note-on event data) for designating timing at which the string should be struck by the hammer, velocity data indicative of an intensity of the striking, and muting data (soft pedal data) for controlling muting. A controller determines drive start timing of the hammer in accordance with the velocity data in such a manner that the string is struck by the hammer at the timing designated by the striking data and performs control such that the drive start timing is advanced in accordance with the muting data. Thus, the string is struck at the striking timing designated by the striking data, but also muting control is performed in accordance with the muting data.
    Type: Application
    Filed: November 12, 2013
    Publication date: May 15, 2014
    Applicant: YAMAHA CORPORATION
    Inventors: Yasuhiko OBA, Rei FURUKAWA, Yuji FUJIWARA
  • Patent number: 7985914
    Abstract: An automatic player piano includes a voice recognizer and a piano controller; while a user is singing a song, the voice recognizer analyzes the voice signal representative of vocal tones so as to determine the loudness and pitch of each vocal tone, and successively sends music data codes each expressing a note-on event, key number closest to the pitch of vocal tone and a velocity and music data codes each expressing a note-off and the key number to the piano controller together with music data codes duplicated from a set of music data codes stored in the memory; and the piano controller selectively drives the black and white keys with driving signal produced on the basis of the music data codes so as to play the accompaniment of the song.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 21, 2007
    Date of Patent: July 26, 2011
    Assignee: Yamaha Corporation
    Inventors: Yasuhiko Ohba, Rei Furukawa
  • Patent number: 7902449
    Abstract: While a player is selectively depressing and releasing keys of a master musical instrument, the real key movements are expressed by pieces of key motion data, and physical quantity of keys are presumed at a time later than the present time by a time period equal to communication time lag on the key trajectories determined on the basis of the pieces of key motion data; the presumed physical quantity is transmitted to a slave musical instrument through the internet, and the key movements are reproduced on the basis of the presumed physical quantity so that the performance on the master musical instrument is synchronized with that on the slave musical instrument.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 10, 2008
    Date of Patent: March 8, 2011
    Assignee: Yamaha Corporation
    Inventors: Rei Furukawa, Yuji Fujiwara
  • Patent number: 7863513
    Abstract: A synchronous player system is used for recording an ensemble between an automatic player piano and an audio player and playback therebetween; while a user is playing on the automatic player piano in ensemble with the audio player, reference characteristic data of the performance is extracted from the audio music data, and are stored in a memory together with the event codes; when the user instructs the synchronous player system to reproduce the performance in ensemble with the same piece of music recorded in another compact disc, the synchronous player system extracts objective characteristic data from the audio data recorded in the other compact disc, finds differences through a correlation analysis, by way of example, and rescheduling the timing to reproduce the note events for synchronously controlling the automatic player piano and audio player.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 14, 2003
    Date of Patent: January 4, 2011
    Assignee: Yamaha Corporation
    Inventors: Jun Ishii, Rei Furukawa, Yoshihiro Shiiya, Takeyoshi Aihara
  • Patent number: 7820902
    Abstract: Automatic player pianos and internet form a music performance system for a music session on the automatic player pianos through data communication between the automatic player pianos, and a communication time lag and mechanical time lag are unavoidably introduced between the data transmission and the data reception and between the data reception and tone generation; one of or both of the time lags are compensated by employment of an electronic tone generation, presumption of key positions or presumption of key event so that the slave automatic player piano generates the tones almost concurrently with the tones generated through the master automatic player piano.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 3, 2008
    Date of Patent: October 26, 2010
    Assignee: Yamaha Corporation
    Inventors: Rei Furukawa, Yuji Fujiwara
  • Patent number: 7642446
    Abstract: Channel voice messages representative of a piece of music are enciphered to pieces of enciphered music data, and the pieces of enciphered music data are stored in maker exclusive messages; the maker exclusive messages are loaded into packets, and are transmitted from a server to a client; when the packets arrive at the client, the pieces of enciphered music data are restored to the channel voice messages through a reverse process so that the piece of music is produced by means of electronic musical instruments where the data restoration program has been already loaded.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 18, 2004
    Date of Patent: January 5, 2010
    Assignee: Yamaha Corporation
    Inventor: Rei Furukawa
  • Patent number: 7547838
    Abstract: A tuning device includes an analog-to-digital converter for converting sound waves propagated from a piano to an audio signal in synchronism with a sampling signal and a data processor for visualizing a difference between a target pitch of a tone and an actual pitch of the tone; since the sampling signal is less accurate in frequency, the data processor previously determines the frequency difference between a design frequency and an actual frequency of the sampling signal by using a calendar clock signal as a measure; the data processor eliminates noise due to the sampling signal from visual images of the pitch difference, and makes the visual images more accurate.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 2, 2006
    Date of Patent: June 16, 2009
    Assignee: Yamaha Corporation
    Inventors: Fukutaro Okuyama, Rei Furukawa
  • Publication number: 20090100979
    Abstract: While a player is selectively depressing and releasing keys of a master musical instrument, the real key movements are expressed by pieces of key motion data, and physical quantity of keys are presumed at a time later than the present time by a time period equal to communication time lag on the key trajectories determined on the basis of the pieces of key motion data; the presumed physical quantity is transmitted to a slave musical instrument through the internet, and the key movements are reproduced on the basis of the presumed physical quantity so that the performance on the master musical instrument is synchronized with that on the slave musical instrument.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 10, 2008
    Publication date: April 23, 2009
    Applicant: YAMAHA CORPORATION
    Inventors: Rei Furukawa, Yuji Fujiwara
  • Publication number: 20090084248
    Abstract: Automatic player pianos and internet form a music performance system for a music session on the automatic player pianos through data communication between the automatic player pianos, and a communication time lag and mechanical time lag are unavoidably introduced between the data transmission and the data reception and between the data reception and tone generation; one of or both of the time lags are compensated by employment of an electronic tone generation, presumption of key positions or presumption of key event so that the slave automatic player piano generates the tones almost concurrently with the tones generated through the master automatic player piano.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 3, 2008
    Publication date: April 2, 2009
    Applicant: YAMAHA CORPORATION
    Inventors: Rei FURUKAWA, Yuji Fujiwara
  • Publication number: 20080072743
    Abstract: An automatic player piano includes a voice recognizer and a piano controller; while a user is singing a song, the voice recognizer analyzes the voice signal representative of vocal tones so as to determine the loudness and pitch of each vocal tone, and successively sends music data codes each expressing a note-on event, key number closest to the pitch of vocal tone and a velocity and music data codes each expressing a note-off and the key number to the piano controller together with music data codes duplicated from a set of music data codes stored in the memory; and the piano controller selectively drives the black and white keys with driving signal produced on the basis of the music data codes so as to play the accompaniment of the song.
    Type: Application
    Filed: November 21, 2007
    Publication date: March 27, 2008
    Applicant: Yamaha Corporation
    Inventors: Yasuhiko Ohba, Rei Furukawa
  • Publication number: 20070079688
    Abstract: A tuning device includes an analog-to-digital converter for converting sound waves propagated from a piano to an audio signal in synchronism with a sampling signal and a data processor for visualizing a difference between a target pitch of a tone and an actual pitch of the tone; since the sampling signal is less accurate in frequency, the data processor previously determines the frequency difference between a design frequency and an actual frequency of the sampling signal by using a calendar clock signal as a measure; the data processor eliminates noise due to the sampling signal from visual images of the pitch difference, and makes the visual images more accurate.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 2, 2006
    Publication date: April 12, 2007
    Applicant: Yamaha Corporation
    Inventors: Fukutaro Okuyama, Rei Furukawa
  • Publication number: 20060196346
    Abstract: An automatic player piano includes a voice recognizer and a piano controller; while a user is singing a song, the voice recognizer analyzes the voice signal representative of vocal tones so as to determine the loudness and pitch of each vocal tone, and successively sends music data codes each expressing a note-on event, key number closest to the pitch of vocal tone and a velocity and music data codes each expressing a note-off and the key number to the piano controller together with music data codes duplicated from a set of music data codes stored in the memory; and the piano controller selectively drives the black and white keys with driving signal produced on the basis of the music data codes so as to play the accompaniment of the song.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 23, 2005
    Publication date: September 7, 2006
    Applicant: Yamaha Corporation
    Inventors: Yasuhiko Ohba, Rei Furukawa
  • Patent number: 6949705
    Abstract: An ensemble controller records a performance on a MIDI musical instrument in a data field of a MIDI file synchronously with playback of a piece of music stored in a compact disc player, and the data read-out speed is stored in the control data field of the MIDI file together with an audio identification code assigned to the piece of music reproduced; when the performance is reproduced synchronously with the playback of the compact disc player, the ensemble controller adjusts a clock signal to a frequency corresponding to the data read-out speed; while the ensemble controller is making the composite apparatus reproduce the ensemble, the magnetic disc driver clocks the time intervals between the data transmission of event codes by using the clock signal of the same frequency; this results in the perfect ensemble.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 11, 2003
    Date of Patent: September 27, 2005
    Assignee: Yamaha Corporation
    Inventor: Rei Furukawa
  • Publication number: 20040264506
    Abstract: Channel voice messages representative of a piece of music are enciphered to pieces of enciphered music data, and the pieces of enciphered music data are stored in maker exclusive messages; the maker exclusive messages are loaded into packets, and are transmitted from a server to a client; when the packets arrive at the client, the pieces of enciphered music data are restored to the channel voice messages through a reverse process so that the piece of music is produced by means of electronic musical instruments where the data restoration program has been already loaded.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 18, 2004
    Publication date: December 30, 2004
    Applicant: YAMAHA CORPORATION
    Inventor: Rei Furukawa
  • Patent number: 6800799
    Abstract: A user records a part of a piece of music performed on the composite audio system into and reproduces the performance from a floppy disc in ensemble with another part of the piece of music; while a compact disc player is producing an audio signal from audio data codes, the composite audio system produces event codes representative of local peaks in the audio signal for timing control, and stores these event codes together with event codes representative of note events and duration data codes in the floppy disc; while the composite audio system and compact disc player are reproducing the parts of the piece of music, the time intervals among the tones are prolonged and shrunk by using the event codes for timing control and actual local peaks so that the tones in one of the parts are produced synchronously with the tones of the other part.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 7, 2003
    Date of Patent: October 5, 2004
    Assignee: Yamaha Corporation
    Inventors: Yuji Fujiwara, Rei Furukawa
  • Patent number: 6737571
    Abstract: A music player/recorder includes two data sources, a controlling system and two sound source or a recording system; one of the two data sources supplies event codes representative of first tones and delta-time codes representative of time intervals between the events as defined in the MIDI standards to the controlling system, and the other data source supplies audio data codes representative of second tones and time codes representative of a lapse of time to the controlling system; the controlling system counts tempo clocks, and converts the number of tempo clocks to a reference lapse of time to see whether or not the difference between the lapse of time and the reference lapse of time is ignoreable; when the answer is given negative, the controlling system varies the time interval so that the first tone is produced synchronously with the corresponding second tone.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 25, 2002
    Date of Patent: May 18, 2004
    Assignee: Yamaha Corporation
    Inventor: Rei Furukawa
  • Publication number: 20040055444
    Abstract: A synchronous player system is used for recording an ensemble between an automatic player piano and an audio player and playback therebetween; while a user is playing on the automatic player piano in ensemble with the audio player, reference characteristic data of the performance is extracted from the audio music data, and are stored in a memory together with the event codes; when the user instructs the synchronous player system to reproduce the performance in ensemble with the same piece of music recorded in another compact disc, the synchronous player system extracts objective characteristic data from the audio data recorded in the other compact disc, finds differences through a correlation analysis, by way of example, and rescheduling the timing to reproduce the note events for synchronously controlling the automatic player piano and audio player.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 14, 2003
    Publication date: March 25, 2004
    Applicant: YAMAHA CORPORATION
    Inventors: Jun Ishii, Rei Furukawa, Yoshihiro Shiiya, Takeyoshi Aihara