Did You Know...
...that the Eveready Battery began as an invention called the "electric flowerpot," which was a tube with a battery and light bulb inside? The idea was to fasten this gizmo to the side of a flowerpot so it would illuminate the flowers from the bottom. The idea died on the vine and the businessman who licensed the flower pot, Conrad Huber, was left with a pile of useless tubes -- until he found a way to market them as batteries to light the world!
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| Number | Title | Issue Date |
| 5533903 | Method and system for music training A method of and computer system for training a student to play a musical work having an identifiable rhythm structure, the musical work being decomposable into a plurality of variations each maintaining the identifiable rhythm structure. According to the ... | 07/09/1996 |
| 5525062 | Training apparatus for singing A vocal training apparatus accomplishes reproduction of a music signal recorded on an information medium, where the music signal includes a model vocal signal and an accompaniment signal. A model vocal signal is extracted from the music signal and a singe... | 06/11/1996 |
| 5518408 | Karaoke apparatus sounding instrumental accompaniment and back chorus A karaoke apparatus is comprised of a data supply, a tone generator, an ADPCM decoder and a pitch shifter for sounding a requested karaoke song containing an instrumental accompaniment and a back chorus. The data supply supplies an ADPCM data representati... | 05/21/1996 |
| 5499922 | Backing chorus reproducing device in a karaoke device A backing chorus reproducing device is disclosed wherein human backing chorus is PCM coded and then combined with MIDI Standard based instrumental sound to produce karaoke music. In reproduction, the instrumental sound and the chorus sound are played back... | 03/19/1996 |
| 5499921 | Karaoke apparatus with visual assistance in physical vocalism A Karaoke apparatus reproduces an automatic instrumental accompaniment of a selected song during the course of a physical vocal performance of the selected song by a singer. A memory registers a prescribed text data of a selected song, containing accompan... | 03/19/1996 |
| 5496178 | Television receiver having video accompaniment functions A television receiver capable of performing a video accompaniment function includes a television signal generator for receiving a television signal and providing a video signal and an audio signal, a video accompaniment signal generator for reading backgr... | 03/05/1996 |
| 5495786 | Method and apparatus for controlling scale practice of electronic musical instrument A method and an apparatus for controlling scale practice of an electronic musical instrument. The apparatus includes a function select switching section for selecting a desired one of various functions according to a user's selection. The function select ... | 03/05/1996 |
| 5494443 | Karaoke system and method of managing playing time of karaoke songs A karaoke system includes: reproduction unit for reproducing a MIDI sound source control information for karaoke song from a karaoke data recording medium, the MIDI sound source control information including playing time data of the karaoke songs; operati... | 02/27/1996 |
| 5489103 | Interactive communication system for communicating video game and karaoke software An interactive communication system is proposed for communicating software of video games or karaoke music from a host facility or distributor to end users. The system includes a communication terminal device provided at the end user. The communication te... | 02/06/1996 |
| 5484291 | Apparatus and method of playing karaoke accompaniment A karaoke apparatus includes: a karaoke information reproducing unit for reproducing MIDI sound source control information stored in a storage unit; a MIDI sound source control unit for producing first MIDI sound source control information and second MIDI... | 01/16/1996 |
| 5477003 | Karaoke sound processor for automatically adjusting the pitch of the accompaniment signal A karaoke sound processor that automatically adjusts to the pitch of the singer's voice is provided. The pitch of the song signal recorded in the accompaniment recording medium for karaoke is detected by a first pitch detecting facility. The pitch of the ... | 12/19/1995 |
| 5473106 | Karaoke reproducing apparatus A karaoke reproducing apparatus for recording singing sound together with karaoke play sound, has a facility of printing information on the recorded musical program. The karaoke reproducing apparatus has a memory which contains previously stored recorded ... | 12/05/1995 |
| 5466883 | Karaoke reproducing apparatus A karaoke reproducing apparatus which allows a user to specify one vocal part or both vocal parts of two parts when one piece of music selected from a plurality of pieces of music by the user is a multi-audio type, reproduces only instrumental accompanime... | 11/14/1995 |
| 5454723 | Karaoke apparatus and method for medley playback A karaoke apparatus for medley playback includes: playback unit for receiving playback information including MIDI sound source control information and producing acoustic sound of karaoke song on the basis of the playback information; information storage u... | 10/03/1995 |
| 5453570 | Karaoke authoring apparatus Disclosed is a karaoke authoring apparatus for mixing or authoring karaoke music data based on an electronic music sound source. The invention can analyze chronologically, in a sound reproduction block, the musical performance data expressed by a code suc... | 09/26/1995 |
| 5447438 | Music training apparatus A music training apparatus performs a two-part reproduction including first and second parts, in which the first part is like a trial part which allows a video signal to be reproduced on a display unit but prohibits a sound signal to be generated from a s... | 09/05/1995 |
| 5397853 | Apparatus and method for performing auto-playing in synchronism with reproduction of audio data and/or image data On a compact disk is recorded audio data and/or image data for predetermined pieces of music. Auto-play data which is to be reproduced in synchronism with the audio data and/or image data, and data indicating the recorded position of the audio data and/or... | 03/14/1995 |
| 5395123 | System for marking a singing voice and displaying a marked result for a karaoke machine A system for marking a singing voice and displaying a marked result for a karaoke machine. The system comprises a data storage means, a comparison and marking means, a display means, a control mean. The data storage means stores a standard singing voice d... | 03/07/1995 |
| 5341253 | Extended circuit of a HiFi KARAOKE video cassette recorder having a function of simultaneous singing and recording An extended circuit of a HiFi KARAOKE VCR having a simultaneous singing and recording function, wherein an audio erasing head (AE head) on the KARAOKE VCR is used to erase the sound on a normal track of a HiFi KARAOKE program tape and then use the audio c... | 08/23/1994 |
| 5335073 | Sound and image reproduction system Based on a series of video data for producing one or a plurality of text displaying images and a series of accompaniment MIDI data, a signal processing circuit (1) prepares a quasi video signal containing the two kinds of data as arranged in alternating f... | 08/02/1994 |
| 5321200 | Data recording system with midi signal channels and reproduction apparatus therefore A magnetic disc 13 serving as a memory medium has stored therein sound control MIDI messages and MIDI messages containing character codes so as to make it possible to reproduce performance data and image data over a prolonged period of time although the m... | 06/14/1994 |
| 5319452 | Control system for concentratively controlling a plurality of music accompanying apparatuses The music number is input through the panel switch arranged in the music accompanying apparatus. The modulated music number signal by the modulation-demodulation device is transmitted to the control apparatus through the coaxial cable. In the control appa... | 06/07/1994 |
| 5296643 | Automatic musical key adjustment system for karaoke equipment A system and method for control of so-called KARAOKE equipment whereby the musical key of the pre-recorded accompaniment music may be altered automatically to substantially coincide with the analyzed or given vocal range of the singer, for example, sopran... | 03/22/1994 |
| 5294746 | Backing chorus mixing device and karaoke system incorporating said device A karaoke system incorporating a backing chorus mixing device having a memory for storing backing chorus patterns converted to data form by breaking down and organizing the backing chorus for a particular piece of music into appropriate segments. Thus, wh... | 03/15/1994 |
| 5286907 | Apparatus for reproducing musical accompaniment information There are disclosed an apparatus adapted to generate musical information of a synthetic sound in accordance with the MIDI (Musical Instrument Digital Interface) standard to carry out PCM (Pulse Code Modulation) recording of a natural effect sound includin... | 02/15/1994 |
| 5250747 | Karaoke music reproduction device The invention relates to a technique whereby karaoke music and lyrics, which have been digitalized with the help of MIDI data, are transmitted by public telephone line for reproduction on a terminal unit. Associated dynamic images are, on account of the v... | 10/05/1993 |
| 5250745 | Karaoke music selection device The invention provides an indication for a karaoke singer of that music in the karaoke music library which would be best suited to the singer's own vocal characteristics. For the purpose of providing this indication, the singer's voice signals are first o... | 10/05/1993 |
| 5247126 | Image reproducing apparatus, image information recording medium, and musical accompaniment playing apparatus In an image reproducing apparatus, a music information reproducing unit reproduces musical information, lyrics information or still picture information from a music information recording medium on which the musical information, the lyrics information or t... | 09/21/1993 |
| 5247127 | Musical climax display device The invention is designed to provide a clear indication, for karaoke purposes, of the point at which a piece of music starts to build to a climax. To this end, the invention first relates warning period data, which is inserted in advance of the climax sta... | 09/21/1993 |
| 5243123 | Music reproducing device capable of reproducing instrumental sound and vocal sound A music entertaining device which reproduces music instrumental sound and back chorus so that an entertainer can sing a song to the accompaniment of the reproduced music instrumental sound and the back chorus. The music instrumental data and back chorus d... | 09/07/1993 |
| 5235124 | Musical accompaniment playing apparatus having phoneme memory for chorus voices A musical accompaniment playing apparatus comprises a MIDI sound source, a phoneme information memory, a playing information memory, a control means, a mixing means and a sound output means. When a user sings a song with a musical accompaniment and a back chor... | 08/10/1993 |
| 5208413 | Vocal display device Conventional karaoke devices simply show lyrics on screen. This invention displays not only lyrics but also data useful for the enhancement of the singer's presentation such as the strength of the vocals and the pitch. More precisely, vocal data, which in... | 05/04/1993 |
| 5194683 | Karaoke lyric position display device The purpose of the invention is to ensure that when digitally coded music is being reproduced as audio signals and lyrics are being displayed on a screen that the progress of the two operations is synchronized. To this end music reproduction data is processed ... | 03/16/1993 |
| 5194682 | Musical accompaniment playing apparatus In a musical accompaniment playing apparatus, a reproducing unit reproduces control information from a recording medium on which control information is recorded according to a MIDI standard, a sound source unit generates musical accompaniment information ... | 03/16/1993 |
| 5153917 | Communication terminal system The invention provides an improved communication terminal system which basically works only in an on-line state, that is, when it is connected with a host computer; but, which is also workable for a pre-determined time period even in an off-line state. Th... | 10/06/1992 |
| 5131311 | Music reproducing method and apparatus which mixes voice input from a microphone and music data A music reproducing method and apparatus for mixing voices input from a microphone and music data displays various information which represents that a musical performance of a piece of music is entering an interlude inserted between singing -portions, i.e... | 07/21/1992 |
| 4797750 | Method and apparatus for transmitting/recording computer-generated displays on an information channel having only audio bandwidth A method and apparatus for transmitting/recording a computer-generated display simultaneously with the transmission of audio and/or video signals. A computer generates a series of codes from which an image may be derived, the resolution of which is not de... | 01/10/1989 |
