Did You Know...
...that the Slinky toy was the result of a failed attempt by engineer Richard James to produce an antivibration device for ship instruments? His goal was to develop a spring that would instantaneously counterbalance the wave motion that rocks a ship at sea. Instead, he developed the Slinky.
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| Number | Title | Issue Date |
| 8013227 | Toy piano In order to be able to salvage toy pianos that have become damaged during shipping, a structure and process for manufacture of toy pianos has been developed wherein (1) stop piece (or block members) are permanently affixed to certain side forming members, allowing c... | 09/06/2011 |
| 7557280 | Automatic player musical instrument producing short tones without missing tone and automatic playing system used therein An automatic player piano is a combination between an acoustic piano and an automatic playing system, and a grand piano and an upright piano are used as the acoustic piano; the grand piano has action units prompter than action units of the upright piano so that a ha... | 07/07/2009 |
| 7435895 | Automatic playing system used for musical instruments and computer program used therein for self-teaching An automatic playing system is independent of acoustic pianos, and is designed to perform music tunes expressed by sets of MIDI music data codes on the acoustic pianos; since the acoustic pianos have their own individualities, control parameter table, which were pre... | 10/14/2008 |
| 7432428 | Electronic keyboard musical instrument An electronic keyboard musical instrument capable of performing delicate sound board vibration control based on outputs generated individually for respective ones of transducers, thereby realizing production of natural sounds with sufficient volume, and an easy tone... | 10/07/2008 |
| 7405350 | Automatic player musical instrument with velocity conversion tables selectively accessed and electronic system used therein A key sensor-less automatic player piano includes, key actuators so as to give rise to key motion without any fingering of a human player, key sensors producing key position signals expressing key motion and a data processing unit producing music data codes during a... | 07/29/2008 |
| 7390956 | Automatic player musical instrument, noise suppressor incorporated therein, method used therein and computer program for the method Black/white keys are selectively moved by key actuators energized with a driving signal in a playback mode, and plunger sensors, which are provided inside of the key actuators, report the measured values of the keystroke to a motion controlling section; since the me... | 06/24/2008 |
| 7382356 | Input unit for games and musical keyboards A computer game system uses an infrared sensor which produces an infrared light to produce pulse of infrared light. Optics focus reflections from the infrared light pulse from different portions of the environment to different detectors in a 2D array of detectors. T... | 06/03/2008 |
| 7361827 | Transducer free from aged deterioration, musical instrument using the same and method used therein An electronic system, which serves as a recorder and an automatic player, is installed in an automatic player piano, and hammer sensors, which are implemented by photo couplers, report current hammer positions through analog signals to a data processor so that the d... | 04/22/2008 |
| 7355109 | Separate automatic player driving keys and pedals of keyboard musical instrument A separate automatic player is independent of a piano, and stands in front of the piano for an automatic playing; the separate automatic player includes a key driver unit, a pedal driver unit and a framework on which the key driver unit and pedal driver unit is carr... | 04/08/2008 |
| 7279630 | Automatic player musical instrument, automatic player used therein and method for exactly controlling keys An automatic playing system creates a feedback control loop for the keys incorporated in an acoustic piano; key sensors, which are provided under the front portions of the keys, informs a motion controller of current positions, and the motion controller periodically... | 10/09/2007 |
| 7265281 | Automatic player musical instrument having playback table partially prepared through transcription from reference table and computer program used therein An automatic player piano is only equipped with key sensors, and the automatic player is expected to give rise to hammer motion to be varied together with the loudness of tones; the manufacturer prepared not only a velocity conversion table expressing a relation bet... | 09/04/2007 |
| 7238873 | Automatic player musical instrument exactly reproducing performance and automatic player used therein An automatic player piano is equipped with solenoid-operated pedal actuators for driving the pedals in a playback; since a large quantity of induction is coupled to the solenoid, the driving signal is delayed due to long time constant so that the pedals behave diffe... | 07/03/2007 |
| 7238868 | Keyboard musical instrument equipped with automatic player and method for retrofitting keyboard musical instrument An automatic player piano is broken down into an acoustic piano and an automatic playing system, and solenoid-operated key actuators are driven to rotate the black/white keys of the acoustic piano; the space between the keyboard and the array of black/white keys is ... | 07/03/2007 |
| 7217880 | Previous event feedback system for electronic player piano systems A method of utilizing previous event feedback information from historical derived hammer velocity data, such as associated with a MIDI record function, for providing non-real-time feedback when controlling actuators. The use of non-real-time feedback within the pres... | 05/15/2007 |
| 7214897 | Illuminated keyboard with illuminated patterns displayed on top surface of keyboard An illuminated keyboard with illuminated figures being formed on the top surface of the keyboard including: a top cover, a bottom cover, a plurality of keys and an electroluminescent board. The top cover accommodates the keys and is combined with the bottom cover. T... | 05/08/2007 |
| 7202409 | Musical instrument automatically performing music passage through hybrid feedback control loop containing plural sorts of sensors An automatic player piano includes keys driven for the angular motion through a hybrid feedback control loop; a controller, a key position sensor, a plunger velocity sensor and a solenoid-operated key actuator form parts of the hybrid feedback control loop for each ... | 04/10/2007 |
| 7179974 | Method for retrofitting acoustic keyboard musical instrument, method for forming holes and gadget used therein Upon request for retrofitting, workers bring a gadget and a marking tool and other tools to the user's home; the workers attach the marking tool to a keyboard, mark locators on a key bed by using the marking tool, form locating recesses therein, and bore reference s... | 02/20/2007 |
| 6969792 | Self-locking keyboard bracket A self-locking keyboard bracket is disclosed to include a four-bar linkage, formed of a base frame, a connecting frame, a coupling frame, and a braking mechanism, a supporting frame fastened pivotally with the coupling frame, and an angle adjustment control unit for... | 11/29/2005 |
| 6969791 | Automatic player keyboard musical instrument equipped with key sensors shared between automatic playing system and recording system An automatic player piano has various sorts of individuality due to differences in size, design margins applied to the component parts and a difference in electric characteristics of system component parts so that key position signals contain error components due to... | 11/29/2005 |
| 6459026 | Drum tensioner holding For combination with drum head tensioning structure, including a flange defining a through opening for passing a tensioner rod; a seating surface on the flange in close association with the opening, and a grommet sized to receive loading transmitted by th... | 10/01/2002 |
| 6188004 | Apparatus and method for coupling electronically stored musical performances to the tracker bar of an automatic musical instrument A system for adapting a tracker bar operated automatic musical instrument to play electronically stored performances includes, in one embodiment family, a channel plate member having parallel channels in the upper face. First and second spaced apart holes... | 02/13/2001 |
| 6111174 | Released key velocity estimator, method used therein and information storage medium storing program sequence for it An automatic player piano has a released key velocity estimator for modifying the constant released key velocity of a piece of music data information to a target released key velocity; a memory stores relation between the target key velocity estimator and... | 08/29/2000 |
| 6075196 | Player piano reproducing special performance techniques using information based on musical instrumental digital interface standards A brand-new player piano is designed to have a compatibility with the conventional player piano and the electronic musical instrument based on the MIDI standard while providing a capability of playing a highly skilled music performance such as the perform... | 06/13/2000 |
| 5861566 | Automatic player piano having frame structure self-aligned with keyboard for exactly positioning key actuators arranged in staggered manner An automatic player piano has solenoid-operated key actuator units under a keyboard mounted on a wooden key bed, and the solenoid-operated key actuator units are supported by a frame structure inserted into a slot formed in the wooden key bed and bolted t... | 01/19/1999 |
| 5773738 | Piano toy having automatic playing keys A piano set having automatic playing keys comprises a bracket having a plurality of fixing columns and mounting sockets. A gear set, linkage set of a gear set driven by a motor and connecting shaft of the keyboard are rotationally mounted thereon. The bra... | 06/30/1998 |
| 5714702 | Pedal controlling system and method of controlling pedal for recording and reproducing pedal action A pedal controller monitors a damper pedal incorporated in an acoustic piano, and reduces the amount of music data information represented by digital pedal position signals through an anti-aliasing filtering, a decimation and an interpolation without sacr... | 02/03/1998 |
| 5330848 | Resonator body for drums A resonator body for musical drum instruments is formed by shaping and gluing together several superimposed material layers, particularly wood veneer layers or plywood layers. The resonator body has the shape of a hollow cylinder. Abutting edges of the in... | 07/19/1994 |
| 4444514 | Device to permit reproducing or player pianos to serve as musical clocks An apparatus for adapting an electric player piano to play the hours, simulating the chimes of a clock, can be attached to the piano without alterations to the piano of a permanent nature. The apparatus includes a clock for actuating the piano on each hou... | 04/24/1984 |
