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. 17, 1998
Filed:
Jun. 22, 1996
Peter B Reintjes, Delray Beach, FL (US);
Other;
Abstract
This patent application describes a low-power electronic music synthesizer (1) which may be combined with a radio transmitter (2) for use in audio-kinetic sculptures or toys. The invention consists of a low-voltage circuit implementing a multiple voice analog music synthesizer utilizing digital CMOS invertors biased in their linear regions as push-pull amplifiers and field-effect transistors as parameter controlling elements. Because of the low-voltage operation, a charge-pump is required to produce a negative control voltage for the field-effect transistors. Variations in sound are produced by touching metal contacts (3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10) which are sensitive to the range of resistance and capacitance of human fingertips. The combination of low-voltage, low-power, high-fidelity sound generation and touch-sensitive controls make this ideal for a new kind of toy. Due to the low-voltage and low-power requirements, the circuit can operate for approximately forty hours using two 1.5 volt AA cells. In the demonstration models an FM transmitter is employed, but any suitable part of the radio spectrum could be used subject to FCC emission regulations and the availability of receivers.