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:
Sep. 23, 1997
Filed:
May. 11, 1995
Allan A Miller, Hollis, NH (US);
Vernon A Miller, Mount Vernon, NH (US);
Virtual Music Entertainment, Inc., Andover, MA (US);
Abstract
A virtual musical instrument including a hand-held accessory of a type that is intended to be brought into contact with a musical instrument so as to play that instrument. The hand-held accessory includes a switch which, in response to the hand-held accessory being caused to strike another object by a person holding it, generates an activation signal. The musical instrument also includes an audio synthesizer; a memory storing a sequence of notes data structures for a musical score, each of the notes data structures representing a note or notes within said musical score and having an identified location in time relative to the other notes in the sequence; a timer; and a digital processor receiving the activation signal and generating a control signal therefrom. The digital processor is programmed (1) to use the timer to measure a time at which the activation signal is generated; (2) to use the measured time to select one of the notes data structures within the sequence; and (3) to generate the control signal, which causes the synthesizer to generate the note(s) represented by the selected notes data structure.