Walt Disney was no Mickey Mouse inventor. He devised a serious animation camera which he patented. With the device, his company created "Snow White".
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| Number | Title | Issue Date |
| 8134065 | Key speed sensor of electronic instrument A device for accurately detecting key operation speed with a simple configuration in which a plurality of alternating signals, which have mutually differing phases, is supplied to transmission electrodes. From this, capacitance between reception electrodes and the t... | 03/13/2012 |
| 8039725 | Electronic keyboard instrument An electronic keyboard instrument that emits sounds in both upward and downward directions from speakers solely for upward sound emission and from speakers solely for downward sound emission to realize acoustics similar to that of acoustic piano, and constitutes rea... | 10/18/2011 |
| 7674971 | Keyboard attachment for disabled persons A key extender includes an elongated member, e.g., a deformable metal rod, having a first end portion secured to a contact member, e.g., a circular disc having a contact area greater than the available touch plate surface area of the key. An opposite second end port... | 03/09/2010 |
| 7408108 | Multiple-paramenter instrument keyboard combining key-surface touch and key-displacement sensor arrays An invention extending functionality and applications of traditional music keyboards. Individual musical keyboard keys may have individual key displacement sensors measuring key travel. Individual keys may further include surface sensors measuring two additional par... | 08/05/2008 |
| 7394012 | Wind instrument phone A mobile device (160) and method (300) for generating wind instrument sounds is provided. The mobile device can include a microphone (102) for capturing an air turbulence in response to a blowing action, a keypad (104) for selecting a vir... | 07/01/2008 |
| 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 |
| 7348477 | Electronic keyboard musical instrument Casing of an electronic keyboard musical instrument includes two discrete parts: a main casing section; and a rear casing section. The main casing section includes a bottom plate having a keyboard section placed thereon, a keyslip portion extending upward from the b... | 03/25/2008 |
| 7345235 | Keyboard musical instrument having keys equipped with balancers biting into keys and method for securing balancers to keys Keys of an acoustic piano require balancers for cancellation of a part of self weight of the action units/hammers; however, the balancers are liable to be dropped off due to the aged deterioration of the wooden bars; in order to keep the balancers stable in the keys... | 03/18/2008 |
| 7332670 | Automatic player exactly bringing pedal to half point, musical instrument equipped therewith and method used therein An automatic player reenacts a music passage on an acoustic piano without any fingering of a human player; solenoid-operated key actuators and a solenoid-operated pedal actuator is provided for the keys and damper pedal; the automatic player makes the damper pedal t... | 02/19/2008 |
| 7332669 | Acoustic piano with MIDI sensor and selective muting of groups of keys A high technology acoustic piano includes a piano body. A musical keyboard is mounted on the piano body. Keys are connected to the action for operating the hammers to strike strings. Strings adjacent to the hammers are arranged in different groups according to frequ... | 02/19/2008 |
| 7329812 | Electronic musical instrument An electronic musical instrument which has a fallboard unit whose dimension in the longitudinal direction of the instrument is not increased even when the fallboard unit contains a functional component part including electrical wiring. A cover unit has a front cover... | 02/12/2008 |
| 7314995 | Data acquisition system preparing inner force sense data for inner sense controller A data acquisition system is used in the transplantation of the piano key touch from an acoustic piano to an electronic piano, and the function thereof is broken down into a table producer, a motion controller and a servo-controller; a table, which expresses relatio... | 01/01/2008 |
| 7307208 | High-fidelity automatic player musical instrument, automatic player used therein and method employed therein An automatic player piano includes key sensors, solenoid-operated key actuators and a controller, which form a servo-control loop, and the key motion is reproduced under the control of the servo-control loop; the servo-control loop adjusts the driving pulse signal t... | 12/11/2007 |
| 7304232 | Joystick gain control for dual independent audio signals A joystick control (20) mounted on the body (12) of an electric guitar (11) adjacent to the customarily picked section of the strings (16) provides convenient simultaneous independent gain control of two pickup signals. A pick may be held... | 12/04/2007 |
| 7285717 | Electronic musical instrument An electronic musical instrument which has a fallboard unit whose dimension in the longitudinal direction of the instrument is not increased even when the fallboard unit contains a functional component part including electrical wiring. A cover unit has a front cover... | 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 |
| 7268289 | Musical instrument performing artistic visual expression and controlling system incorporated therein A set of formation data codes, which includes action event codes and duration codes, is loaded in an automatic player piano, and a controller interprets the action event codes for driving the solenoid-operated key actuators; since the solenoid-operated key actuators... | 09/11/2007 |
| 7262359 | Digital recording device for electric guitars and the like A digital recording device includes a housing that is engageable with a lower curvature of a guitar's frame. The housing includes an arcuate inner surface, an arcuate outer surface coextensively shaped with the inner surface, and a padded member conjoined to the ext... | 08/28/2007 |
| 7259319 | Performance operator control apparatus A performance operator control apparatus adapted to a player piano comprises a motion control unit and a key drive unit comprising a plurality of key I/O control ICs in connection with keys of a keyboard, which are driven by solenoids so as to realize automatic perf... | 08/21/2007 |
| 7256359 | Key operation detection unit of an electronic keyboard instrument A key operation detection unit of an electronic keyboard instrument that suppresses increase in reaction forces with key depression operation, to improve a key touch feeling. A depression operation of any one of keys of the keyboard instrument is detected by first a... | 08/14/2007 |
| 7253349 | Engineers piano with bisymmetrical manuals and accompanying musical notation system A 2 manual musical keyboard with the pitch progression on one of the manuals reversed. The keys on these manuals are segregated into 2 groups of 2 different heights in the same way as a standard musical keyboard. The key configurations on these manuals have 12 semi-... | 08/07/2007 |
| 7247785 | Electronic musical instrument and method of performing the same The electronic musical instrument comprises a plurality of slide-type faders (1), an interval setup device (5, 6), and a sound synthesis device (20). The slide-type faders are provided correspondingly to a plurality of tones included an interval... | 07/24/2007 |
| 7247788 | Integrated computer and music keyboard module An integrated computer and music keyboard module includes a key assembled base, on a first side of which a plurality of music keys are parallelly arranged. The key assembled base is provided on at least one lateral end with a connecting member for turnably connectin... | 07/24/2007 |
| 7241949 | Electronic musical instrument An electronic musical instrument which has a fallboard unit whose dimension in the longitudinal direction of the instrument is not increased even when the fallboard unit contains a functional component part including electrical wiring. A cover unit has a front cover... | 07/10/2007 |
| 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 |
| 7215328 | Multimedia keyboard A multimedia console incorporating an alphanumeric keyboard, and a musical key-bed is described for generating multimedia work product conveniently when coupled with a digital personal computer or optionally as a stand alone music equipment. The musical key-bed is o... | 05/08/2007 |
| 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 |
| 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 |
| 7166795 | Method and apparatus for simulating a mechanical keyboard action in an electronic keyboard An electronic keyboard simulates the keyboard action of one or more acoustic pianos and/or organs. Sensors associated with each key capture the force exerted on the key, the speed of the key and the position of the key to compute an amount of force to apply in feedb... | 01/23/2007 |
| 7119269 | Electronic musical instrument An electronic musical instrument which can be designed compact in longitudinal size and is excellent in acoustic characteristics. A musical instrument main body (1) has at least one keyboard device (12), and left and right lateral side panels (13 | 10/10/2006 |
| 7105738 | Functional performance of keyboard musical instruments A musical keyboard having associated therewith a alphanumeric keyboard having a plurality of alphanumeric keys, the musical keyboard having a musical keys each being for producing a musical sound, and music function keys for producing musical effects, At least one o... | 09/12/2006 |
| 7075001 | Keyboard guitar musical instrument apparatus A musical instrument apparatus including multiple parallel strings defining a string line and a keyboard overlay positioned at an acute angle to the string line to allow for consistent playing feel by consistently positioning the hammers on the keys while allowing l... | 07/11/2006 |
| 7074998 | Stringed instrument tuner holder A tuner holder for stringed instruments. A first embodiment includes (i) a strut, (ii) a shelf extending substantially perpendicular in a first longitudinal direction from the distal edge of the strut, (iii) a hook extending in a second longitudinal direction from t... | 07/11/2006 |
| 7002070 | Electronic piano An electronic piano is provided in which activation of a keyboard (7) and foot pedals (8) causes sound to be generated and output via a pair of conventional cone loudspeakers (210–212) each comprising a tweeter (214), a woofer (216 | 02/21/2006 |
| 6974903 | Keyboard attachment for disabled persons A key extender includes an elongated member, e.g., a deformable metal rod having a first end portion secured to a contact member, e.g., a circular disc having a contact area greater than the available touch plate surface area of the key. An opposite second end porti... | 12/13/2005 |
| 6965070 | Upright keyboard instrument An upright keyboard instrument comprises a prescribed number of keys that are interlocked with actions, hammer assemblies, and a plate spring unit, which is interlocked with a loud pedal. When the key is depressed, the action is activated to drive the hammer assembl... | 11/15/2005 |
| 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 |
| 6916980 | Acoustic control system for electronic musical instrument An acoustic control system for an electronic musical instrument, which can obtain optimal acoustic characteristics irrespective of whether or not a low range speaker is attached to a body thereof. A piano body has high range and mid range speakers. A low range speak... | 07/12/2005 |
| 6870151 | Shutter, optical sensor system using the same and shutter holder incorporated therein A shutter holder has a frame-like base portion and a tie plate inwardly projecting from a side portion of the base portion in a cantilever fashion, and the tie plate has a rectangular cross section smaller in thickness and/or width, i.e., second moment of inertia th... | 03/22/2005 |