The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Jun. 28, 1994
Filed:
May. 18, 1992
Richard B Riday, Kirkland, WA (US);
Other;
Abstract
A highly ergonomic keyboard system provides a unified fingering system for both right and left hands in which the fingering is the same in all key signatures with more natural and comfortable thumb and finger positioning than with conventional piano keys, while maintaining hand span capability comparable to that of the conventional keyboard, i.e. at least one octave, and maintaining the convention method of 'thumb tuck' to play extended scales and arpeggios. Three or more parallel horizontal one-octave rows of monolithic keys in half-tone increments are offset from each other in a uniform parallelogram-shaped tiered array with a note duplication offset which facilitates an octave span. All keys are made to have a uniform optimal complementary shape and are retained in a novel integrated pivot matrix configuration. Note/key association is visually indicated by white, black and (optionally) gray and/or other colors. The tiered array system allows the design to be expanded systematically to any number of rows to implement a desired total pitch range; row offset in the X- Y- and Z-axes along with the note duplication offset are strategically chosen to provide an optimal ergonomic interface between the human hand and the keyboard system. The key shape is enhanced by tapering to a narrowed end width, thus allowing a greater tolerance for a finger or thumb to extend past an edge without interfering with the next adjacent key.