Did You Know...
...that Charles Goodyear performed some of his experiments on rubber while in debtor's prison? He was there so often he referred to it as his "hotel". Chronically in debt because of poor business sense and ill health, Goodyear depended on the generosity of friends and family. Even after he unlocked the secret to vulcanizing rubber, he was unable to improve his financial situation. When he died, his estate was $200,000 in debt.
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| Number | Title | Issue Date |
| 8022290 | Strike input device for electronic percussion instrument A piezo electric element generates a vibrating voltage in response to a striking force on a pad. The piezo electric element is connected across a series connection of a linear resistor and a nonlinear resistance network. The voltage appearing across the nonlinear re... | 09/20/2011 |
| 7935881 | User controls for synthetic drum sound generator that convolves recorded drum sounds with drum stick impact sensor output Methods and apparatus for simulating the sound of a specific percussion instrument. A first stored waveform representative of the impulse response of the specific percussion instrument is convolved with a second waveform representing of the vibrations produced when ... | 05/03/2011 |
| 7772482 | Electronic musical instrument and computer-readable recording medium An electronic musical instrument includes a performance operation portion that is operated by fingers of a performer, a contact portion that is adapted to be brought into contact with a lower lip of the performer, a contact pressure detection portion that detects th... | 08/10/2010 |
| 7358428 | Dual saddle bridge A stringed musical instrument has a body coupled to a single neck, multiple registers of strings, and a bridge that provides for at least one of acoustic and electronic separation of the multiple registers. The strings are preferrably arranged in paired courses, eac... | 04/15/2008 |
| 7339106 | Electric stringed musical instrument equipped with single vibration sensor provided inside of body An electric contrabass has a bridge structure on a body in which an inner space is defined, and the body is further formed with a slit under the bridge structure so that the lid of the body vibrates like a cantilever; a vibration sensor is provided inside the body, ... | 03/04/2008 |
| 7282633 | Sound augmentation system and method for a drum A sound augmentation system for a drum comprises a wave generator for producing an electrical signal corresponding to a predetermined sound, an amplifier for amplifying the electrical signal to produce an amplified electrical signal, and a driver for translating the... | 10/16/2007 |
| 7019202 | Acoustic guitar with reverberating bridge assembly An acoustic guitar having a reverberating bridge assembly mounted onto the body of the guitar for re-echoing and reverberating the sounds produced by the strings of the guitar, in order to increase the range of sound effects that the guitar is capable of producing. ... | 03/28/2006 |
| 6990435 | Tactile sensing method and system A system for detecting tactile information includes strain-gauge touch sensors and a controller. Based on the sum output from each of tough-sensor sensor units, an analyzer in the controller calculates touch force Fi(t) at each measurement point. An autom... | 01/24/2006 |
| 6867361 | System and method for generating tone in response to movement of portable terminal Operation terminal capable of being carried by a user or human operator is, for example, in the form of a bar or shoe, and detection is made of a movement trajectory of the operation terminal on the basis of movement of the operation terminal. Tone signal is generat... | 03/15/2005 |
| 6822156 | Acoustic guitar under the saddle piezo pickup The present invention 10 has two components that provide the signal that is representative of the guitar sound, a primary pickup device 12 and a secondary pickup device 52. The primary device is the piezoelectric pickup 12 that is situate... | 11/23/2004 |
| 6278047 | Apparatus for tuning stringed instruments A microprocessor-controlled tuning apparatus for a stringed instrument, wherein the tension of a string is detected by a sensor, compared with a reference value, and readjusted if necessary until the detected value conforms with the reference value, there... | 08/21/2001 |
| 6271456 | Transducer and musical instrument employing the same An electrical pickup for use with a stringed musical instrument is disclosed, as well as a stringed musical instrument employing such a pickup. The pickup is formed of a plurality of magnetoresistive elements, whose electrical resistance decreases as the ... | 08/07/2001 |
| 6005181 | Electronic musical instrument A control instrument for a system for generating acoustic output which includes a processor for receiving user input signals and control the acoustic output in response to the user input signals. The control instrument includes an instrument body, and at ... | 12/21/1999 |
| 5854436 | Percussion pads A percussion pad includes an upper surface 28 that may be struck to activate the pad and a lower surface 18 on which is mounted a sensor 20 for detecting when the upper surface 28 is struck. An enclosed cavity 24 is located above the region of the lower s... | 12/29/1998 |
| 5543580 | Tone synthesizer A tone synthesizer, for brass instruments, is equipped with a performance information input device such as a mouthpiece having a contact area sensor for detecting the contact area of the lips, a pressure sensor for detecting the push pressure of the lips,... | 08/06/1996 |
| 5300730 | Device for controlling musical effects on a guitar A musical device comprises a guitar with a neck and a plurality of strings. A pick-up produces electrical output signals related to the frequency and amplitude of vibration of at least one of the strings. An electronic musical effect generator is receptiv... | 04/05/1994 |
| 5288938 | Method and apparatus for controlling electronic tone generation in accordance with a detected type of performance gesture A method and apparatus for controlling electronic tone generation determines a type of gesture used by a player to contact a performance surface provided with an array of pressure sensors. The performance surface repeatedly is scanned to determine which o... | 02/22/1994 |
| 5265516 | Electronic musical instrument with manipulation plate An electronic musical instrument having a manipulator which includes a hand manipulator and manipulation region capable of setting a reference point and/or reference axis, adapted for generating the musical tones of a rubbed string instrument. The distanc... | 11/30/1993 |
| 5147969 | Musical tone control apparatus The musical tone control apparatus detects a movement of a player, such as a holding, touching, beating, depressing, pulling, lifting up or down movement. Then, the musical tone control apparatus generates musical tone control data based on a detecting re... | 09/15/1992 |
| 5099742 | Electronic musical instrument having string bending effect Apparatus for altering the output of an electronic string musical instrum responsive to bending of the string comprises a compressible electrically conductive member which has an electrical resistance which varies with the degree of compression applied a... | 03/31/1992 |
| 5029508 | Musical-tone-control apparatus A musical-tone-control apparatus having finger sensors that detect the bending of each finger and produce on/off signals in response to the bending. One group of outputs of the finger sensors is converted into keycodes that control tone pitches by the use... | 07/09/1991 |
| 4984499 | Electronic harmonica for controlling sound synthesizers A reedless harmonica generates control signals for a sound synthesizer which may, if desired, be situated away from the harmonica. The harmonica body has multiple air passages, each generating different musical notes through a plurality of air flow sensor... | 01/15/1991 |
| 4903566 | Composite pickup apparatus for stringed instruments A pickup for a string under tension of a musical instrument having an improved planar response uses a pair of mechanically independent pressure transducers preferably adjacent to one another which provide independent support to transversely adjacent point... | 02/27/1990 |
| 4484508 | Electroacoustic musical instrument with controlled fade-out A musical instrument with a plurality of vibratile tone generators, whose oscillations are converted into alternating currents by electroacoustic transducers, is provided with a control circuit feeding back a regenerative vibratory signal of progressively... | 11/27/1984 |
| 4292875 | Strain-gauge sound pickup for string instrument The strings of a musical instrument, e.g., a guitar, are individually supported on an instrument body by webs of a hard but elastic polymeric material which are free to vibrate in the longitudinal direction of the strings and carry respective strain gauge... | 10/06/1981 |
| 4228715 | Strain-gauge sound pickup for string instrument A musical instrument such as a guitar or piano has a plurality of elongated strings maintained under longitudinal tension and bearing through a bridge on a sounding element. This sounding element is subdivided by a plurality of slots into a plurality of s... | 10/21/1980 |
