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:
Mar. 03, 1998
Filed:
Jan. 23, 1996
Charles L Johnson, Cambridge, MA (US);
Allan A Miller, Hollis, NH (US);
Herbert P Snow, Somerville, MA (US);
Vernon A Miller, Mount Vernon, NH (US);
Virtual Music Entertainment, Inc., Andover, MA (US);
Abstract
A musical instrument including an actuator which generates a plurality of signals in response to being played by a user; an audio synthesizer which generates audio tones in response to control signals; a memory storing a musical score for the actuator; a video display unit; and a digital processing means controlling the audio synthesizer and the video display unit. The stored musical score includes a sequence of lead notes each of which has an associated time stamp to identify a time at which it is supposed to be played in the musical score. The digital processing means is programmed to map the plurality of signals to a corresponding subsequence of lead notes from among the sequence of lead notes; it is programmed to produce a sequence of control signals from the subsequence of lead notes for causing the synthesizer to generate sounds representing the subsequence of lead notes; it is programmed to display on the video display unit a trace indicating when the lead notes of the sequence of lead notes are supposed to be played by the user as a function of time; and it is programmed to display relative to that trace an indicator marking where the user is supposed to be within the musical score as a function of an elapsed real time.