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| Number | Title | Issue Date |
| 7960629 | Automatic player piano equipped with soft pedal, automatic playing system and method used therein An upright piano is equipped with a soft pedal, and a player makes the hammer stroke shorter by depressing the soft pedal; while a user is reproducing a music tune by means of an automatic player piano fabricated on the basis of the upright piano, the keys are servo... | 06/14/2011 |
| 7718871 | System and method for actuating keys with different lever advantages The keys in a reproducing piano are actuated by a plurality of solenoids, one for each key to be played. The solenoids are arranged along the width of the keyboard and deviated from each other in the front-back direction of the keys in a staggered manner. A conseque... | 05/18/2010 |
| 7528309 | Automatic player musical instruments and automatic playing system incorporated therein While an automatic player piano is reenacting a music tune, the automatic player piano sometimes fails to miss a tone or tones in a repetition due to a high-speed key movement; a controller searches a music data file for a series of key events expressing the repetit... | 05/05/2009 |
| 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 |
| 7361828 | Automatic player musical instrument, automatic player incorporated therein and method used therein An automatic player piano is fabricated on the basis of an acoustic piano, and an automatic player is expected to give rise to key motion for reenacting performance with solenoid-operated key actuators; since the hammers of acoustic piano are different in mass, the ... | 04/22/2008 |
| 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 |
| 7339105 | Automatic musical performance device Provide an automatic musical performance device, which is capable of giving a concert magic function in an acoustic instrument with a feeling of normally playing the acoustic instrument. A time period Tv between two points, and a tempo Tmp found based on a ti... | 03/04/2008 |
| 7312390 | Automatic music playing apparatus and computer program therefor An external storage device stores automatic music playing data files, each file including data of a progression of musical notes constituting a performance of a music piece, and registration data files, each file including data of a set of parameters to determine th... | 12/25/2007 |
| 7285715 | Velocity estimator for manipulators and musical instrument using the same An automatic player piano is a combination between an acoustic piano and an electronic system serving as a recorder and an automatic player; while a user is fingering a piece of music on the acoustic piano, the player strongly depresses some keys and softly depresse... | 10/23/2007 |
| 7285718 | Keyboard musical instrument and other-type musical instrument, and method for generating tone-generation instructing information Detector detects movement of a hammer (driven member) that strikes a string (abutted member) by moving in response to operation of a key. On the basis of detection outputs of the detector and a given abutment-presuming reference value, it is presumed that the hammer... | 10/23/2007 |
| 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 |
| 7235727 | Automatic piano, and method and program for automatically operating a key In order to define movement of a particular key to be automatically operated, first-order trajectory data are generated, on the basis of performance information, which are indicative of variation over time of position, velocity and acceleration components of the par... | 06/26/2007 |
| 7227069 | Insertable piano/keyboard strip for sensing key movement A portable modular device for the purpose of sensing key movement of a piano or keyboard, processing key movement information, and communicating at least key-note ON/OFF and key-note velocity information. A portion of the modular device, the key sensor strip, insert... | 06/05/2007 |
| 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 |
| 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 |
| 7132643 | Optical transducer having optical modulator in the vicinity of rotational axis of moving object and musical instrument using the same An optical transducer includes a photo-electric converter supported by a shank flange rail and optical modulators respectively attached to hammers of an automatic player piano; since a neck portion makes a photo-modulating pattern closer to the rotational axis of ea... | 11/07/2006 |
| 7034215 | Performance apparatus There is provided a performance apparatus that can reduce energy consumption while allowing sounding elements to appropriately generate sound. A CPU supplies driving energy to an actuator to drivingly control the same based on pulse width modulation. A rotary pick i... | 04/25/2006 |
| 6992241 | Automatic player musical instrument for exactly reproducing performance and automatic player incorporated therein An automatic player piano has a feedback control loop for each of the black/white keys; the controller firstly determines a reference trajectory, i.e., a target key position varied with time for each key to be moved in the play-back, and calculates a target key velo... | 01/31/2006 |
| 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 |
| 6940005 | Keyboard musical instrument for exactly producing tones and hammer sensor varying output signal exactly representing physical quantity of hammer A hammer sensor includes a photo-filter plate movable together with a hammer assembly and having a base plate fixed to the hammer shank and an arc pattern formed on the base plate and different in transparency from the base plate, a photo radiating element radiating... | 09/06/2005 |
| 6472589 | Method and apparatus for sensing, controlling and recording key motion in a keyboard musical instrument A device and related method for detecting, controlling, and recording keyboard motion in which individual magnets, sensors and actuators associated with each key capture and re-produce key motion with a high degree of accuracy. The method uses a non-conta... | 10/29/2002 |
| 6403872 | Keyboard musical instrument faithfully reproducing original performance without complicated tuning and music data generating system incorporated therein An automatic player piano is an acoustic piano equipped with a data acquisition system and a playback system, and the data acquisition system monitors the hammers with hammer sensors for producing a set of music data codes representative of a performance ... | 06/11/2002 |
| 6384305 | Method and apparatus for sensing key movement in a musical keyboard A method and apparatus for measuring and recording keyboard motion in which an array of magnets and sensors capture key movement with high accuracy. This method uses a non-contact sensing and assembly technique that requires no mechanical or electrical co... | 05/07/2002 |
| 6380469 | Keyboard musical instrument equipped with key actuators accurately controlling key motion A keyboard musical instrument is equipped with solenoid-operated key actuators for guiding a player in fingering on the keyboard, and the solenoid-operated key actuators stop the keys at terminative positions on the way to the end positions, wherein key s... | 04/30/2002 |
| 6365820 | Keyboard assembly for electronic musical instruments capable of receiving key touch inputs and generating musical tones that reflect a player's power of expression A keyboard assembly for an electronic musical instrument is provided, which is capable of having touch inputs to a key from a finger of a player reflected in his power of expression with higher fidelity even when the single key is successively depressed t... | 04/02/2002 |
| 6271447 | Velocity calculating system for moving object widely varied in velocity method for correcting velocity and keyboard musical instrument equipped with the velocity calculating system for accurately determining loudness of sounds An automatic player piano determines the loudness of an acoustic tone to be reproduced in a playback on the basis of a hammer velocity, and the hammer velocity is calculated on the basis of a long distance defined in a shutter plate attached to each of th... | 08/07/2001 |
| 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 |
| 6051762 | Data converter for producing individual music data from standard music data on the basis of the individuality of an automatic player piano learned before conversion An ideal automatic player piano is assumed to reproduce an original performance from fundamental data representative of a fundamental forward key trajectory and a backward key trajectory; however, if an actual automatic player piano reproduces a forward k... | 04/18/2000 |
| 5925844 | Piano with built-in electronic musical instrument The invention was developed in order to play an electronic piano in the same manner as when playing an acoustic piano without feeling any sense of incompatibility. At S100, the key velocity (key stroke strength) is detected by key sensors 33 and 35. At S1... | 07/20/1999 |
| 5880389 | Keyboard musical instrument having key-touch generator changing load exerted on keys depending upon sounds to be produced A keyboard musical instrument is fabricated on the basis of an upright piano, and an electronic sound generating system is incorporated therein so as to selectively generate an acoustic piano sound and an electronic sound; a plurality of leaf spring membe... | 03/09/1999 |
| 5880393 | Keyboard musical instrument and recorder/playback controller incorporated therein An acoustic piano, solenoid-operated key actuators for moving black/white keys in response to a driving signal and an electric system form in combination a keyboard musical instrument, and the electric system previously establishes first relations between... | 03/09/1999 |
| 5731530 | Automatic player piano exactly reproducing special touches An automatic player piano records not only regular key-on event/impact event/regular key-off event representative of a regular key motion between a rest position and an end position but also irregular key-on event/irregular key-off event representative of... | 03/24/1998 |
| 5691489 | Automatic player piano exactly reproducing half stroke in playback An automatic player piano controls a solenoid-operated key actuator so as to move a key along a quadratic curve around a turning point where the key changes the direction of the motion, and the solenoid-operated key actuator faithfully reproduce a half st... | 11/25/1997 |
| 5679914 | Keyboard device for an electronic instrument and an electronic piano A keyboard for an electronic instrument and an electronic piano providing a key touch and a key touch response similar to those of an acoustic piano and stabilizing the key touch response for each key. Two detection positions of a key stroke are detected ... | 10/21/1997 |
| 5652399 | Automatic player piano and estimator for acceleration of depressed key incorporated in the automatic player piano An automatic player piano controls keys to be rotated by solenoid-operated actuator units in such a manner as to pass a reference point on a trajectory of the key at a reference velocity in a playback mode, and a hammer driven by the depressed key strikes... | 07/29/1997 |
| 5650580 | Automatic playing system for acoustic musical instrument An automatic playing system sequentially rotates keys of an acoustic piano for reproducing a performance, and a controlling unit supplies a preliminary section and a post-treatment section to a solenoid coil of an actuator unit before and after a main sec... | 07/22/1997 |
