2003

• 6,406,348 Musical drinks vessels

  Like U.S. Patent 6,335,691, the inventor proposes adding a light activated sound chip to the end of a bottle. The output transducer is also at the end of the bottle. Such an invention can not only be used to tell the drinker to buy more, but also to sing lullabies to babies.

• 6,411,289 Music visualization system utilizing three dimensional graphical representations of musical characteristics

  A color waterfall plot (i.e., graphical output of the Short Time Fourier Transform) falls into the obvious category, even as long ago as 1997.

• 6,412,594 Water gun with sound effects module

  Water guns need sounds claim the inventors. The solution is to add yet another sound chip that is activated when the trigger is pulled. A large fraction of the patent is devoted to describing the means to waterproof the electronics.

• 6,415,584 Tuning means for tuning stringed instruments, a guitar comprising tuning means and a method of tuning stringed instruments

  Imagine a guitar tuner with robotic control. Starting with the lowest E string, the tuner turns the pegs one by one until the guitar is in tune (according to the controller).

• 6,416,021 Locomotive whistle controlled railroad grade crossing warning system

  Many railroad crossings are still unguarded resulting in fatalities every year. The patent describes a train horn activated crossing that could be solar powered. The inventor prefers this method over track sensors and doesn't say how the train horns are discriminated from other sounds.

• 6,416,381 Motion induced sound and light generating system

  Rocking toys are great for toddlers and other small children. Add a now ubiquitous sound chip and a simple Finite State Machine and you've got more sounds to drive parents crazy.

• 6,416,411 Game machine with random sound effects

  Playing the same arcade game becomes boring so state the inventors. The solution is to use a random sequence generator to change the sound effects thereby enabling the players to "fully enjoy the pleasure of gaming".

• 6,417,435 Audio-acoustic proficiency testing device

  A devious patent, conspicously absent of implementation based detail, is attempting to claim that measuring musical performance can be done via comparison against a reference together with a laundry list of statistical methods. No results are shown or discussed.

• 6,417,436 Hand-operated dancing machine

  It's a short step from automatic music arcade game machines to automatic dance game machines. Basically, the dancer is a percussionist and uses the drum sensors to match the machine's dance rhythm. Naturally, how the scoring works is anyone's guess.

• 6,417,440 Damper formed of powder-containing synthetic resin and keyboard musical instrument equipped with the same

  A piano mechanism is proposed that uses synthetic resin instead of lead weights, thereby making the instrument "free from environmental pollution". If only the Romans had known.

• 6,418,406 Synthesis of high-pitched sounds

  Upsampling and downsampling is a well known technique (Crochiere and Rabiner) for performing rational sampling rate conversion. This can be used to pitch shift voices as well. The inventors have combined pitch shifting with LPC coding but unfortunately, the authors have ignored the effect of shifting formants; these defects were well known in 1996 when this patent was filed. They have also conveniently forgotten that pitch shifting in western scales often demands irrational factors.

• 6,419,256 Noise feedback for training wheels

  Learning to ride a bicycle is often aided and abetted by the addition of training wheels, 30. The inventor proposes the addition of sound generators (such as bells, 40) that sound off when the training wheel touch the ground. This has the added benefit that the child will be easily found - until they learn how to balance.

• 6,420,641 Multimedia keyboard with instrument playing device

  It would seem a reasonable idea to combine the computer keyboard with a musical instrument interface. This patent proposes just that. Using a series of resistive sensors, the keyboard is extended to music. But, the touch and feel of these interfaces are completely unfamiliar to any performer - so this interface is at best a toy.

• 6,421,644 Information apparatus for dispatching output phrase to remote terminal in response to input sound

  Obsfuscation can improve almost any idea, including the one buried in this conceptual patent. Somehow, multiple audio channels are analyzed (the FFT is ubiquitously mentioned) and "commands" are sent to a remote terminal. In contrast to most Yamaha patents, this one is conspicuously short on realistic details and concepts.

• 6,423,889 Regulating button mechanism for easily regulating escape timing, silent system cooperative therewith and keyboard musical instrument equipped therewith

  A silent piano would seem to defeat the purpose, wouldn't it? Not if the piano keyboard is being used as a 88 key sensor. Accordingly, modifications are made to the action so that no sound will be generated.

• 6,426,456 Method and apparatus for generating percussive sounds in embedded devices

  FM synthesis, as originally described (and patented) by Chowning in 1967, can be made to do many un-natural acts, including the simulation of percussion. Essentially, this patent is an FM patch together with filtered white noise. What is ignored is the classic FM problem: what are the values of the parameters and how do they relate to real instruments?

• 6,426,919 Portable and hand-held device for making humanly audible sounds responsive to the detecting of ultrasonic sounds

  Considering that handheld ultrasonic to audio converters have been used by the bat research community for many years, it is not clear what the patent offers. The circuit is certainly interesting: the amplified audio input is used as clock input to a 7 bit counter. The output of the counter is also directly amplified and therefore no A/D or D/A conversion is done. The output is surely not as useful as straightforward downconversion.

• 6,427,370 Picture frame with sound and motion producing means

  This patent duplicates the work of recently reviewed U.S. Patent 6,393,401. The only new wrinkle is the addition of the mechanical winding mechanism.

• 6,430,532 Determining an adequate representative sound using two quality criteria, from sound models chosen from a structure including a set of sound models

  Hidden Markov Models are now used habitually for speech recognition (see Rabiner and Huang for example). Although the patent tries to broaden the claims to any class of sounds, all the examples are speech. This omission is notable because the feature slection is critical to any recognition scheme and the inventor says nothing about it.

• 6,444,887 String-plucking type electronic musical instrument with photo sensor for generating signal for sound

  In a gaming guitar for use in man-machine contests, a robust string-less user interface must be offered to the user. Here, the player interrupts an infrared light beam 100 between emitter 11a and sensor 11b. However, in spite of the claims to the contrary, it is no doubt "less natural to play" than a real stringed instrument.

• 6,444,891 Electronic guitar with its keys arranged in complex array

  This patent is based on the premise that karaoke singers can play a piano keyboard - therefore, the central idea is to put black anbd white keys on a guitar form. After all, you can't rock without a guitar in hand.

• 6,445,304 Medical alarm system

  A bleeding or oozing wound site, 18, can be covered with a conductive bandage that will generate an alarm by energizing the output transducer, 24.

• 6,447,359 Memorial novelty doll device having integral sound producing means and kit and method for customizing the same

  A macabre concept: Somehow (not specified in the patent) customize a doll to match a deceased friend or relative's visage. Add a sound chip to store the voice. The inventor claims it will help "keep memories alive".

• 6,448,719 Apparatus and method for pulsating lights in response to an audio signal

  The problem, as stated by the inventors is that existing acoustic control of holiday lighting displays is "monotonous, aesthetically dull, lacking luster, and visual stimulation is absent". The solution is straightforward: use audio filters and triacs. Now, how exactly is this different from existing "color organ" technology?

• 6,449,887 Water globe with touch sensitive sound activation

  One of the wonders of "snow globes" is their delightfully simple operation. This patent would eliminate the fun by adding a stirrer so that it snows as long as the batteries last, and of course, provide audio output.

• 6,452,079 Keyboard musical instrument equipped with hammer stopper promptly driven for rotation by means of rigid link work

  The invention described is a modification of the piano action so that the player can silence the acoustic tones and use electronic tones instead and "not disturb the neighborhood".

• 6,452,081 Stringed instrument finger positioning guide and method for teaching students to read music

  The inventors propose using a thin polymer with light emitters to guide the fingers of guitar novices to the proper place on the keyboard. Nothing more, nothing less.

• 6,452,525 One-bit second order sigma-delta modulator including a polynomial vector quantizer

  The inventor proposes the use of a non-linear operator (specifically, a squarer) inside the feedback loop of a sigma-delta modulator so that the Mean Square Error of the quantization error follows the same decay as higher order modulators.

• 6,453,599 Fishing lure with sound attraction

  In the long running contest between man and fish: the invention uses a striking plate so that clicking or popping sounds are created. Additionally, "the sliding movement of the aft section with respect to the fore section as the lure is pulled through the water produces a `wounded prey' effect".

• 6,454,625 Interactive talking dolls

  A pair of dolls can communicate status via infrared transducers and so they can speak and hold conversations with the other doll. Imagine "Chatty Cathy" with a brother. The patent does include a real schematic and seems entirely plausible.

• 6,454,627 Musical entertainment doll

  Take a plushy bear, add a numbered piano style keyboard and then present a score with numbered notes and you have one frustrated 4 year old.

• 6,457,681 Control, sound, and operating system for model trains

  The increasing complexity of electronics has benefitted the model train community as well as audio visual users. First, it was pulse width modulation of the track voltage to control engine motors. Next, the addition of microprocessors allowed addressable control of different engines and other features. This patent first proposes the use of Spread Spectrum modulation to compensate for the noisy transmission environment. Second, it proposes transmission of digitally encoded sounds and speech to speakers located on the trains. There are other details presented for more "realistic" operation.

• 6,459,024 Structural torsion brace for an acoustic musical instrument

  The inventor seeks to eliminate or reduce electronic feedback in amplified acoustic string instruments due to top plate vibration. Accordingly, he introduces a braces that attaches sparingly to the top plate as shown in the figure. However, given the influence of plate vibration on instrumental timbre, the full impact of this design has not been fully assessed.

• 6,459,028 Performance data modifying method, performance data modifying apparatus, and storage medium

  The issue here is naturalness in a synthetic performance. If the score contains ornaments such as turns, trills and mordants, then the underlying MIDI score must be modified accordingly.

• 6,459,029 Method and apparatus for displaying multiple images of musical score data on screen of display

  Imagine an LCD display mounted above the keyboard on a piano. Now as the score pointer advances from top to bottom, the background color will change for each staff. When the score pointer reaches the end of the "page", the color selection will start from the top again.

• 6,459,030 Method for preventing polyphony shortage in an electronic organ

  Implementing a multivoice/polyphonic on a DSP microprcoessor will eventually result in oscillator starvation as the processor has a fixed number of oscillators for a given sampling rate. The patent is geared towards organs and so the recovery strategy is specific about eliminating stops according to a priority: First comes Flute Celeste II, last comes Blockflo"te 2'.

• 6,464,558 Sports related combined noisemaker and visual display device

  Quite simply, this is a shaker/maracas for use in sporting events. A hollow cavity inside a helmet provides space for vibrating beads or pellets.

• 6,464,585 Sound generating device and video game device using the same

  The mind of Nintendo is partially exposed in this gaming patent. It describes how to use a typical gaming joystick controller to construct a sequence of musical notes. It includes flowcharts and ROM layout for those who wish to understand the internals.

• 6,465,723 Automatic string instrument tuner kit

  Continuing in the automatic tuning vein, the inventor proposes using a tuning wrench, 141, that turns a socket head, 122. The pitch of the string that can be sensed by a pickup, 121 that is fed back to a controller 110.

• 6,466,752 Method of improving sound quality and image formation apparatus

  As anyone who has unjammed a copier knows, today's copiers have increasingly complex paper paths. As the paper makes its way toward the output tray, it traverses many rollers and belts - and this produces noise. The patent begins by describing a numerical evaluation function and then shows how design of noise isolating plates can decrease this function.

• 6,469,237 Apparatus for opening and closing top board of grand piano

  The top board of a grand piano can weigh as much as 40 to 50 kg, which means pianists risk crushed fingers and worse when trying to raise the lid. The inventors simply propose adding a jack instead of the familiar wooden prop.

• 6,471,108 Audio and video effect stapler

  Staplers, a common everyday object could become even more exciting if they were designed with the now ubiquitous sound chip.

• 6,472,591 Portable communication terminal apparatus with music composition capability

  Imagine a cellular telephone that can compose new tunes for use a "ringing" sound. The user can supply either the rhythm or pitch track (or both) and the algorithm described in a separate Japanese patent will fill in the chords or pitches. The algorithm allows for "feelings" of songs to dictate the chord choice. Finally, the user can edit the score using the familiar cell phone keypad.

• 6,472,592 Apparatus for and method of adding sound signal in system having limited number of sound generators

  DSP microprocessors implement a fixed number of voices in a sample period and therefore complex program material can exhaust these finite resources. This patent proposes cutting the resource with the least time remaining, which is naive at best but easy to implement. However, even in 1999, this was obvious to those ``skilled in the art''.

• 6,473,475 Sample rate converter using polynomial interpolation

  It is well known that sampling rate conversion may involve the use of large upsampling rates. The proposed method uses a phase lock loop the find the time difference between the two sampling periods and then use a polynomial interpolator to generate the output sample.

• 6,476,301 Bagpipe drones

  The inventor, comfortably situated in Edinboro, proposes changing the drine pipes of a bag pipe so that the instrument can be practiced indoors. His improvements include: reduction of pipe diameter and use of brass instead of wood.

• 6,476,306 Method and a system for recognizing a melody

  Automatic recognition of songs has become a hot research area; here, the inventors propose adding word recognition to aid melody recognition. The patent is very high level and leaves too much to the imagination. Critical references to the song search literature (such as McNab) are conspicuously absent.

• 6,476,711 Sounding-body driving circuit and operating sound generating apparatus using the same

  The basic premise is simple enough: the sound of a relay is a comforting signal to a machine operator. So, the patent illustrates a very simple all digital method of generating this sound.

• 6,478,152 Beverage package with sound effects

  Continuing in the vein of noisy beverages (such as previously reviewed 6,335,691), this patent concerns a beverage container that sounds off when a bottle (or can) is placed inside it.

• 6,479,738 Piano tuner

  This piano tuner is attached to the adjacent strings adnt eh pitchi s determined by finding the reciprocal of the zero crossing rate. While an analog filter is used to extract the fundamental, a DSP approach would be easier to implement.

• 6,479,740 Digital reverse tape effect apparatus

  The use of reversing tape to use the attack as the decay (and vice versa) dates back to the earliest use of magnetic tape. This patent proposes a digital version of the same by detecting note on and off events in a recording memory and playing the memory backwards. The reversed waveform is spliced in by predicting where the envelope is at midpoint. The algorithm depends critically on an exponentially damped sound - electric guitars are mentioned specifically. The technology described in the patent is curiously old fashioned for the filing date (2001).

• 6,479,742 Audio system in electronic musical instrument

  The issue here is the acoustic environment of an electric piano: The inventors propose infrared sensing to detect a back wall; if detected, then a high pass filter is used to compensate for the attenuation of the wall.

• 6,486,387 Fingering information analyzer, electronic musical instrument including fingering information analysis and method therefore

  Allocation of a fixed resource is always problematic. In this case, the resource is fingers. The algorithm presented allocates fingers (and hands) in a piano score. The algorithm presented is ad hoc and probably works up to a point.

• 6,488,558 Vehicle noisemaker

  Will the inventive mind never cease? What could be more useful than a flatulent vehicle? Use a gas storage bladder together with a membrane in addition to a display board (flatulence isn't sufficient to convey your opinion) and you too can tell the driver following you new expressions of gratitude. Curiously, the inventor did not propose using the car exhaust as source of the gas.

• 6,489,546 Musical instrument and method of making same

  The existing cowbell percussion instrument has two halves welded together. The inventors claim that not only do the welds break under repeated usage, but the welds are deletarious to the sound quality. So, form a single fan shaped piece of metal, fold 5 times and you have a single seam. The results are said to last longer and sound better (of course).

• 6,490,241 Sound carrier for a sound illustrated book

  Inverting the design of a record player of ancient yore, the inventor advocates a fixed spiral track and a movable pickup for application in illustrated books. The player/readout is not discussed or illustrated.

• 6,493,687 Apparatus and method for detecting glass break

  In a building with many windows, it is infeasible to place piezoelectric transducers on each window as an intruder alarm. So, the inventors describe a fairly simple neural network based classifier that identifies the sound of broken glass.

• 6,495,748 System for electronically emulating musical instrument

  This vacuous patent describes how a synthetic/plastic instrument (such as a guitar with resistive sensors) could be made to sound like an acoustic model. No details are given and the prior art is extensive and not studied, contemplated or referenced.

• 6,496,115 System and method for analyzing baby cries

  Parents learn to be good judges of baby cries. In this invention, parents are replaced with the FFT and heuristics. The system identifies hungry, painful and sleepy cries. The heuristics depend on periodicity (via the cepstrum) and spectrum evolution over time. If it works, nurses and babysitters will rejoice.

• 6,473,375 Method for recording data on a recording medium and for deleting a silent portion of the recorded data

  One way to compress speech or audio data is the detection of silent periods. The patent proposes using the separate control block in a CD to signal the presence of silence. Silence is defined as a signal being less than 80 dB for 20 seconds.

• 6,476,308 Method and apparatus for classifying a musical piece containing plural notes

  To classify a musical piece, the following steps are proposed: (1) detect note onsets via rectification and filtering (2) detect harmonic partials (3) Compute spectral features like brightness (4) normalize to even the spectrum (5) classify notes using a neural network and finally (6) Classify the piece of music.

• 6,505,734 Container with light and sound emitting function

  Another entry in the audible beverage category; this time, it includes both light and a level sensor to detect tipping.

• 6,506,092 Method and apparatus for enhancing an applause

  Fifty figures and ten claims later, it can be discovered that a beverage holder can be used to enhance applause by forming a horn.

• 6,506,967 Prerecorded musical arrangement teaching assembly and method

  Four part acapella singing requires good coordination --- just ask the Temptations. To assist in training singers in multipart harmonies, the inventor proposes storing multiple version of a song with each voice being eliminated, one by one. The whole scheme is reminiscent of "Music Minus One" except for four voices. But then why not just store each voice separately and then mix them at rehersal time?

• 6,507,820 Speech band sampling rate expansion

  After interpolating, the resulting spectrum will have aliases up and down. As shown, the inventor proposes the use of a "shaping filter" to offer a frequency weighted attenuation. He also uses a compressor so that unvoiced signals are not unduly filtered.

• 6,509,517 Grand piano action

  The problem at hand is the lack of full dynamic control in a piano. A conventional piano can shift the hammer to not hit as many strings, but then the touch is not the same. Accordingly, the inventor proposes the use of new action that uses an adjustable fulcrum.

• 6,512,727 Talking straw with guide ridge

  Imagine a straw with a sound track (ST) that can be pulled across a point (embedded in a lid) to play it back. Now, how long is this recording?

• 6,515,209 Add-on headstock mass device for a stringed musical instrument

  The inventor claims "It has been recognized that the quality of sound is influenced by the effective mass in the instrument in the vicinity of the string support...at either end of the string". For the past 25 years or more, folk theory says that adding a C clamp on the headstock will increase sustain in plucked stringed instruments. Finally, someone has decided to patent a version of it. But since the weight of the proposed clamp is only 3.8 oz, wouldn't it be better to use depleted uranium?

• 6,515,214 Pickup unit incorporated in stringed instrument for converting vibrations of string to electric signal in good fidelity

  Electronic pickups for amplification can either be electromagnetic (if the strings are metallic) or microphones. Another proposed method is to use a piezoelectric transducer on each string and placed inside the bridge, as originally proposed by Barbera in 1989 (U.S. Patent 4,867,027). However, the inventor of this patent claims that the output of the piezoelectric sensors are too attenuated from the true signal. Accordingly, the transducers are modified so that the bimorph elements, 40, are separated from the bridge, 10 via the "mediator", 20 and the plastic coupling, 42.

• 6,515,608 Digital-analog converter and method, and data interpolation device and method

  The issue is the output of a Digital-Analog-Converter: It uses an interpolation method at the final output as shown in the figure: the output from the waveform section, 10, is oversampled and then given to an 8 sample sliding window, 7, which is then used to form the output sample and given to the final D/A converter, 30. Effectively, this is equivalent to a moving average filter applied to the digital input.

• 6,515,944 Disk playback device and method of continuously playing back disks without a break in sound reproduction

  Readers of a certain age will recall turntables with spindles that dropped the next disk on top of current disk for long playing recordings (like Beethoven's Ninth Symphony). Here, the inventors extend the idea of a read ahead memory to provide a window where a new audio CD can be inserted in a single disk playback system and the playback would continue uninterrupted.

• 6,525,249 Drumhead and muting structure for acoustic and electronic percussion instruments

  There are two threads in this patent: First, drum heads should be made so they can be used fairly silently but without differences of "feeling". Second, such a drum could also be used as an electronic drum transducer. In the first usage, the head is porous, thereby changing the rebound; in the second, shown in the figure below, a sensor, 51 is connected to a support plate, 21 that forms a sandwich with the head membrane 11. The absorption layer, 22 serves to dampen the hit.

• 6,525,256 Method of compressing a midi file

  MIDI is a popular form of electronic score consisting principally of "note on" and "note off" commands. The patent proposes to compress a MIDI score for transmission. You might wonder why, given that MIDI is already fairly compressed. The answer lies in the target application: cellular telephony. Also included is a discussion of what to do when the limits of polyphony are reached at the terminal end.

• 6,529,611 Multifunction acoustic device

  This transducer is a combination cell phone vibrator and loudspeaker. The resonant point of the permanent magnet vibrator is set by the compliance of the diaphagm and the spring plate.

• 6,529,843 Beat rate tuning system and methods of using same

  It is well known that piano strings exhibit inharmonicity. This invention is designed to detect the inharmonic partials of each piano note and offer corrections by creating a beat display. The patent is well written and appears viable.

• 6,530,526 Device for transmitting information by means of acoustic signals

  Magnetic stripes are fickle - they wear out due to rubbing, they can easily be demagnetized, etc. So, instead of a magnetic stripe, a column of raised bumps could be used with a microphone.

• 6,532,005 Audio positioning mechanism for a display

  The audio user interface is particularly simple: volume in Y, frequency in X. Given the lack of prior patent citations, this suggests the inventor is unaware of the audio display community.

• 6,534,697 Cantilevered tail block/tailpiece for an acoustic guitar

  Given the stress created by the string tension, guitars and other stringed instruments are susceptible to breakage and or bending. The inventor proposes adding a cantilevered tail as shown.

• 6,535,462 Digital sound-signal broadcaster

  Scratching, or ``turntable music'' revolves around the use of a second turntable that can be used to introduce new sounds (like scratches) to an existing track. This patent proposes a second turntable that acts as a speed sensor (e.g., via a shaft encoder). This is given to the DSP which can use time compression and expansion algorithms.

• 6,538,183 Composite stringed musical instrument, and method of making the same

  The bulk density/modulus of a material is an important aspect of an instrument's sound quality. The question here is how to create a totally artificial acoustic stringed instrument such as a guitar. Accordingly, the inventor proposes three layers: a matrix epoxy on the outside, with carbon fiber reinforcement and elastomeric inner layer. As with any layer cake, the proof is in the eating. The inventor claims ``exceptionally pleasing sound quality''.

• 6,538,570 Glass-break detector and method of alarm discrimination

  As described earlier in U.S. Patent 6493687, an acoustic alarm system based on the signature of glass breaking can offer a simpler technique than attaching sensors to each window. However, when the glass is laminated the signature is different. This invention describes a analog chip architecture to detect such events.

• 6,540,613 Video game apparatus, background sound output setting method in video game, and computer-readable recording medium storing background sound output setting program

  Simply put, background sound should depend on the circumstances of the computer game. Accordingly, depending on the position of the viewpoint, the sounds should change in loudness and character. Only then will the listener have ``a game full of feeling''. Surely this is obvious to those ``skilled in the art''.

• 6,542,564 Method and apparatus for compensating reproduced audio signals of an optical disc

  Due to the increased recording density of the DVD, audio date is recorded at irregular intervals on the disk. So, the playback system must have buffers of sufficient size to store the data during playback. Furthermore, errors could cause buffer underflow and overflow if not detected and corrected.

• 6,542,613 Electronic sound generator attachment for children's slides

  The inventor states that ``over time, some children become bored because of the repetitiveness of this play activity'' (sliding down a slide). The solution? Yet Another Sound Chip. This one exorts the child to continue playing.

• 6,544,099 Suspendable talking apparatus

  Trash talking is one way to rile your boxing opponent. But don't single practitioners of the pugilistic arts feel left out? Don't they need to be verbally abused to increase their output? Just put the Ubiquitous Sound Chip in the punching bag, suspend it from the ceiling, add appropriate force sensors and you're ready. Don't forget the battery.

• 6,544,122 Background-sound control system for a video game apparatus

  A video game has multiple virtual sound background sources. This patent proposes precomputed fade functions. This is clearly obvious.

• 6,545,210 Musical sound generator

  When the patent examiner supplies all the past work you know the patent is in trouble. Here, Sony attempts to patent mixed musical note and sound effects with a particular attention to their implementation. But surely the notion of variable pointers to sound data is obvious, even to those not "skilled in the art".

• 6,545,595 CD quality wireless door chime

  Ordinary door bells are well, just too ordinary. So why not replace them with a high quality recording of your favorite greeting? The possibilities are endless.

• 6,546,370 Recording medium with audio data from coder using constant bitrate real-time lossless encoding by moving excess data amounts

  The issue here is frame packing for a lossless encoder. Somehow the obvious idea of reallocating frames that exceed the constant bitrate limit has been granted. And how exactly is this different from any other coder with a bitrate ceiling?

• 6,547,627 Game calling device having adjustable pitch, intensity, tone and inflection

  While acoustic musical instruments are rather fixed in their principles of operation, apparatus for calling games to hunters is not. In this invention, the combination of a single reed (18),an elastic skin (14) and a control rod (12) allows the instrumentalist (or hunter) to control various aspects of game vocalization timbre.

• 6,548,749 Electronic musical instrument and tone volume control method

  The filter, 201, has a inverse Fletcher-Munson response and can be mixed with the original by control of the multipliers (204a and 204b) and adder (205). Ideally, this is all controlled by a CPU with a single potentiometer, which is digitized and used to generate the proper mixing curves.

• 6,552,251 Actuating device easily assembled and keyboard musical instrument equipped therewith

  This Yamaha patent improves on the previous Disklavier patents (previously reviewed in this journal) by making the assembly easier to assemble and repair by placing the solenoids in a retaining frame.

• 6,553,436 Apparatus and method for playback of waveform sample data and sequence playback of waveform sample data

  In digital multichannel playback and recording, samples must be buffered before being placed on the processor bus for transfer to memory. This is particularly important when the bus speeds are so high and burst mode transfers are de rigeur. The patent is highly specific to an unnamed Yamaha chip where the DSP and codecs are connected to the PCI bus.

• 6,555,736 Rhythm shaker

  Simply, the idea is to provide an enclosed volume whereby one surface is reactive to solid pellets and the others damped. This is, unfortunately, obvious, even to those "trained in the art".

• 6,555,979 System and method for controlling electrical current flow as a function of detected sound volume

  The idea is simple enough: amplify and filter the output of a microphone and use it to control a device, for example, an electric motor in a child's toy. The patent shows a very simple implementation using one op amp and a few discrete components.

• 6,557,728 Musical toothpaste tube closure

  Another invasion of your private auditory space comes from the inventors at Colgate-Palmolive, who propose adding the Ubiquitous Sound Chip to a toothpaste tube. The possibilities are endless...

• 6,559,369 Apparatus and method for self-tuning a piano

  As the inventor notes, the piano is virtually the only instrument not typically tuned by the owener. So, the proposal is to apply a voltage across the strings to use thermal expansion to tune the string which in turn is monitored by a microcontroller. Small complications arise, such as the windings on bass strings which decrease electrical resistance to a near short. The inventor's solution is to wind the strings with insulated magnetic wire. This was also mentioned in the "New Scientist" as reported by the Winter 2003 Society's "Echoes".

• 6,560,349 Audio monitoring using steganographic information

  Steganography, or "covered writing" (from the Greek), is the process of covering a secret message inside ordinary material. In this extensive patent (there are more than 2 pages of patent references), the basic idea is to generate a noise-like signal that can be embedded in program material. Although audio encoding is mentioned, most of the patent is devoted to video encoding methods. However, in contrast to many patents granted these days, this patent writer knows what prior art is.

• 6,565,107 Motorbike sound simulator

  Like U.S. Patent 6394875, reviewed previously, playing cards aren't good enough for faux moto-bicycle sounds. The inventor proposes replacing a playing card with a stiff plastic strap. Ruins all the fun.

• 6,565,407 Talking doll having head movement responsive to external sound

  A plush toy can exhibit binaural hearing. The left microphone (31) is connected toa c omparator with the right microphone (not shown). Depending on the signal, a motor located in the body swivels from left to right to face the speaker. Bouncing is not specified.

• 6,568,123 Blood-sucking insect control station

  The inventors fervently believe that adding a heartbeat sound makes a biting insect trap all the more attractive. Accordingly, imagine a combination speaker, CO2 dispenser, heater, ...

• 6,570,077 Training device for musical instruments

  The inventor believes that developing sufficient wond pressue to support the reed oscillation is an important issue with beginning players. Accordingly, imagine a separate air channel 12 that leads to a diaphragm 100 that pushes on a sprint switch 102 lighting LED 106 (note battery 104). While this reviewer acknowledges the importance of breath support, particularly with double reeds, looking down at the binary output of an LED is not going to help the myriad other issues of playing reed instruments. And how do you clean the saliva from the air channel?

• 6,570,079 Recording and reproducing apparatus, recording and reproducing method, and data processing apparatus

  Sony let the examiner do the legwork on this one. Suppose a audio CD owner wishes to make a copy. If a lossy copy is chosen, then the user is just struck with a bad fidelity copy but not a bill. If the high fidelity copy is chosen, then the "accounting system" is involved and the owner charged. This patent doesn't address any of the wider issues regarding music distribution.

• 6,570,521 Multistage scrambler for a digital to analog converter

  It is well known that the nonlinear transfer function of Digital to Analog Converters lead to harmonic distortion. Here, the inventor proposes using a multistage network that scrambles data bits with a linear feedback shift register so that the error is whitened.

• 6,573,441 Drum pillow and method for using same

  It is common practice to add a pillow in front of the bass drum membrane to deaden the sound, particularly for garage or studio environments. The inventor proposes an annular pillow sothat the "higher harmmonics generated at the edge" are attenuated. Drum head vibrations are not that simple, but the invention will perform more or less as the inventor intended.

• 6,574,441 System for adding sound to pictures

  Still pictures not only lack motion - they also lack sound. The inventor proposes adding a sound recorder (100) that eventually produces a bar coded sound strip.

• 6,576,826 Tone generation apparatus and method for simulating tone effect imparted by damper pedal

  Use of the damper pedal in an acoustic piano permits the string vibrations to continue until the pedal is released. The question is: how is an electronic piano supposed to accomplish the same action? In addition to the normal tone, the inventors propose storing the additive damper pedal tone, the tone after the pedal is released and the additional "key off" tone. By analysing where the pedal is depressed with respect to the key on event, these additional tones can be blended in to create a more realistic pedal tone.

• 6,576,827 Music sound synthesis with waveform caching by prediction

  This patent combines two ideas: First, the musical instrument parameters can be analyzed (but not disclosed in the patent) and the converted to vectors (also not disclosed). Then, during playback, these vectors must be interpreted. Naturally, if you cache the vectors then there is less bus traffic, less disk traffic and the overall system is faster. However, the encoding scheme is reminiscent of Vector Quantization and the caching of waveform data is well known (also see U.S. Patent 6365816, previously reviewed).

• 6,578,527 Sound generating pet toy

  Another entry in the use of the ubiquitous sound chip: the pet toy. Now authentically squeaky mice can entertain your cat instead of a bell.

• 6,580,374 Audible communication system

  An ultrasonic projector is propsed as an adjunct for safety by placing them at crosswalks, dangerous intersections and the like. According to the inventor, the demodulation of the ultrasonic beam can be accomplished by a windscreen (windshield) of a automobile. The remainder of the patent explores these possibilities.

• 6,580,796 Sound effect imparting apparatus

  You can't tell from the title that the patent covers a reverberation algorithm that emulates the classic sound of a mechanical reverb. The explanation of the signal flow graph is surprisingly coherent but like all artificial reverberators in the Schroeder class, it is still ad hoc in design.

• 6,580,805 Method and recognizing music and computer-readable recording medium having music-recognizing program recorded therein

  This is a unique Optical Character Recognition (OCR) patent specifically concerning the recognition of musical scores. The algorithm is threhold based but will only work for very simple scores. Notably missing are references to all of the score reading programs, algorithms and literature of years past.

• 6,586,667 Musical sound generator

  Considering this was filed in 2001, this patent is remarkably vacuous. The system described converts MIDI like events to sound, i.e. a synthesizer. Like the patent claims, the prior art cited is also severely lacking.

• 6,587,404 Optical storage device capable of recording a set of sound tracks on a compact disc

  The inventors describe a standalone device for "ripping" audio inputs onto CD-R blanks. Internally, they propose using a "PC compatible motherboard" to control the whole system. If you're going to go that way, why bother with a standalone system and just use your tower or laptop? It's difficult to believe this was novel when it was filed in 2000.

• 6,588,585 Musical presentation and storage box

  Remember that toy box with the hand that reaches out and grabs the coin and then turns off? This "extends" this toy to play a tune while hiding the ring or other valuable object.

• 6,589,116 Game with sounds and systems for its implementation

  Imagine a computerized musical blocks game, whereby the blocks can either be arranged by moving them on the screen or arranging them on a board. The blocks contain musical fragments and can be arranged in any order to create a reference. And the computer can offer hints too.