Abstract:
An apparatus for synchronizing an audio stream beat with a movement tempo enclosed audio device generating an audio stream. The detectors determine the beat per unit time of the audio stream and the tempo of movement of a user. Control input carried on a user&#39;s finger control the play of the audio device and the synchronization operation. In one aspect, the audio device and the control input are carried in a sleeve worn on a user&#39;s finger and wirelessly transmit the synchronized audio stream to headphones worn by a user. In another aspect, the audio device and an accelerometer for detecting user tempo are mounted in the headphone and wirelessly receive control input from the finger mounted control input.

Description:
CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION 
       [0001]    This application claims priority to benefit to U.S. Provisional Patent Application Ser. No. 62/119,867, filed Feb. 24, 2015. 
     
    
     BACKGROUND 
       [0002]    The present apparatus relates, in general, to devices for synchronizing the beat of an audio stream or song with an external exercise tempo or rhythm of a user. 
       SUMMARY 
       [0003]    An audio beat/user tempo synchronization apparatus includes an audio player generating an audio stream. User inputs are carried on a mount that is adapted to be mounted on a user&#39;s finger. An accelerometer determines the user&#39;s tempo in beats per unit time of movement of the user. A control is coupled to the audio player and detects the beats per unit time of the audio stream. The control synchs the beats per unit time of the audio stream to the beats per unit time of the user&#39;s tempo in response to signals from the user input. 
         [0004]    The mount may be a hollow sleeve mountable over a user&#39;s finger, the sleeve carrying the user inputs. 
         [0005]    The user input may include at least one removable button carried by the sleeve for generating input signals to control at least one of the audio player and the synch frequency of the audio stream. The at least one button may include a first button carried by the mount for operating the audio device, and at least one second button carried by the mount for implementing synchronization of the beats per unit time of the audio stream 60 beats per unit time of the user&#39;s tempo. 
         [0006]    Any or both of the first and second button may be in the form of multi-function buttons containing a plurality of independently depressible portion. 
         [0007]    The control transmits the synched beats per unit time of the audio stream to the audio broadcast device. The audio broadcast device includes at least one speaker, such as the speaker headphones adapted to be worn on a user&#39;s head. 
         [0008]    In one aspect, the accelerometer, the control and the audio player are mounted in the sleeve adapted to be worn on the user&#39;s finger. A wireless transmitter is carried by the sleeve and coupled to the control for wirelessly transmitting the synched beats per unit time of the audio stream to a remotely located audio broadcast device. In this aspect, the remote audio broadcast device is headphones carrying an audio output speaker and a wireless receiver. 
         [0009]    In another aspect, the user inputs are coupled to a wireless transmitter carried in the sleeve for wirelessly transmitting the user input signal to the control remotely located from the sleeve. In this aspect, the control, the accelerometer and the audio player may be carried in headphone along with the audio speaker in a wireless receiver. 
         [0010]    In another aspect, the audio beat/user tempo synchronization apparatus includes an audio player generating an audio stream. User inputs are carried in a mount adapted to be mounted on a user&#39;s finger. An accelerometer determines the user&#39;s tempo and beats per unit time of movement of the user. A control is coupled to the audio player detects the beats per unit time of the audio stream. The pairs that control synch the beats per unit time of the audio stream to the beats per unit time of the user&#39;s tempo in response to the user input. An audio output device, which may be in the form of an audio speaker, is carried on headphones adapted to be worn by the user. 
         [0011]    The accelerometer, the control, and the audio player in this aspect are carried by the headphones. A wireless transmitter is coupled to the user input for wirelessly transmitting user input signals. A wireless receiver is carried by the headphones and coupled to the control for receiving the user input. 
         [0012]    The above describes a synchronization apparatus that automatically detects the beats per unit time of audio stream in the tempo of a user&#39;s movement, such as running, walking, etc. The control operates as a tempo modulator to find the difference between the original tempo of the song and the pace tempo set by the user&#39;s movement. This change in audio playback frequency is accomplished without any change in pitch of the broadcast audio stream. 
     
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING 
         [0013]    The various features, advantages and other uses of the present song beat/exercise tempo synchronization apparatus can be had by referring to the following detailed description and drawing. 
           [0014]      FIG. 1  is a perspective view showing the song beat/exercise tempo synchronization apparatus worn on user&#39;s fingers. 
           [0015]      FIG. 2  is a pictorial representation of the circuit boards underlying the push buttons shown in  FIG. 1 . 
           [0016]      FIG. 3  is an enlarged plan view of the apparatus without the attachment sleeve. 
           [0017]      FIG. 4  is a pictorial representation showing an aspect of the apparatus in use. 
           [0018]      FIG. 5  is a pictorial representation of the recharging state of the apparatus depicted in a coupled arrangement with headphones. 
           [0019]      FIG. 6  is a schematic diagram of the apparatus circuitry. 
           [0020]      FIG. 7  is a graph depicting the acceleration wave forms detected by the accelerometer shown in  FIG. 6 . 
           [0021]      FIG. 8  is a graphic representation of an audio stream generated by the apparatus. 
           [0022]      FIG. 9  is a graphic representation of the audio stream shown in  FIG. 8  changed to a different tempo by the apparatus. 
           [0023]      FIG. 10  is a flow chart depicting a sequence of operation of the apparatus. 
           [0024]      FIG. 11  is an enlarged elevational view of the attachment sleeve, similar to the attachment sleeve shown in  FIG. 3 . 
           [0025]      FIG. 12  is a perspective view of headphones incorporating MP3 player and accelerometer in another aspect of the apparatus. 
           [0026]      FIG. 13A  is a schematic block diagram of the headphone music player aspect shown in  FIG. 12 . 
           [0027]      FIG. 13B  is a schematic block diagram of the finger sleeve remote control shown in  FIG. 11 . 
       
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION 
       [0028]      FIGS. 1-6  depict an apparatus  20  for synchronizing the beat of an audio stream or song with an exercise tempo based on the tempo of a user&#39;s arm swings. 
         [0029]    The apparatus  20  includes a user attachment in the form of the cylindrical finger sleeve  22  which can be formed of flexible material. The finger sleeve  22  has opposed open ends  24  and  26  to enable it be easily pulled over or removed from a user&#39;s finger while still being snuggly retained on the finger. 
         [0030]    Alternately, the finger sleeve  22  may be formed of a strapped body with opposed edge fasteners, such as mating Velcro strips, etc. 
         [0031]    The finger sleeve  22  includes two apertures or windows  28  and  30 , which expose the operable buttons of the beat/tempo synchronization device  40 . The buttons do not necessarily need to be exposed by openings in the sleeve. The buttons may be covered by labeled parts of the sleeve, with the buttons raised up and felt by the user through the sleeve. 
         [0032]    One aspect of the device  40  is shown in  FIG. 2 , where two circuit boards  42  and  44  are flexibly connected by conductors or a cable  46 . This allows the user to bend his or her finger as part of an exercise or to grasp a bottle or drink container as shown in  FIG. 4 . The circuit board  42  is part of an audio player, such as a MP3 player  48 ,  FIG. 6 , which may contain a processor, memory and circuitry to play audio streams or songs stored in a memory at user request. 
         [0033]    The MP3 player  48  mounted on the circuit board  42  includes one or more buttons with one large multifunction button  50  as shown in  FIGS. 1 and 2 . The button  50  is depressible along multiple edges as well as at a depressible center portion to effect different functions. The left and right edges of the button  50  may be separately depressed to implement previous songs and next song selections. Plus and minus symbols adjacent the top and bottom edges of the button  50  provide a volume increase and volume decrease controls. The center portion of the button  50  is devised for consecutive depression to implement play/pause functions of the MP3 player  48 . 
         [0034]    As shown in  FIG. 6 , the MP3 player  48  includes a processor or CPU  60  which accesses audio streams stored in a memory  62 . The button  50  controls are connected as inputs to the processor  60 . An onboard power supply  64 , which may be a rechargeable battery, supplies power to the operable elements of the MP3 player  48 . 
         [0035]    An accelerometer  66  is also mounted on the circuit board  42  or may be part of the MP3 player  48  mounted on the circuit board  42 . The accelerometer  66  provides three dimensional x, y and z axis output signals representative of the direction of movement of the MP3 player  48 , and indirectly, the rhythm or tempo of movement of the users&#39; arms, when the MP3 player  48  mounted on a finger of the user. 
         [0036]    The circuit board  44  may support a second button  70 . The button  70  may also be a multifunction button providing, for example, at least three functions. Depression of the center of the button  70  implements the sync beat/tempo function as described hereafter. Consecutive depression of the button may return operation to normal play speed. Either the top and bottom edges or the left and right edges of the button  70  may be depressed to provide a manual tempo change to increase the song beat or to decrease the song beat. 
         [0037]    As shown in  FIG. 6 , the audio output  90  of the MP3 player  48  may be input to circuitry mounted on the circuit board  44 . Such circuitry can include the output terminal connections of the multifunction button  70  which are connected as inputs to the processor  60  of the MP3 player  48 . The audio output  90  of the MP3 player  48  is connected to a wireless transmitter, such as a Bluetooth transmitter  92  mounted on the circuit board  44 . The transmitter  92  is coupled through an antenna  94  to generate a wireless audio stream which is received by a complementary Bluetooth receiver in an audio broadcast device, such as wireless headphones  100  as shown, for example, in  FIG. 5 . 
         [0038]    An alternate arrangement of the apparatus  20  is shown in  FIG. 3  wherein both of the multifunction buttons  50  and  70  are mounted on a single rigid or flexible circuit board  102 . The single circuit board  102  shown in  FIG. 3  and the circuit board  44  shown in the aspect of the apparatus  30  shown in  FIG. 2  may include a jack  104  which provides connectivity to an external recharge cord  106  shown in  FIG. 5  or to wired headphones if the user wishes not to use wireless headphones. A separate cord  108  may also be provided to recharge the wireless headphone  100 . 
         [0039]    In operation, the MP3 player  48  is activated and generates an audio stream or song to the wireless headphones  100 . The accelerometer  66  will detect the user&#39;s tempo or exercise pace, including running or walking pace, by arm swing. The accelerometer  66 , whose input is provided to the processor  60 , generates x, y, and z acceleration waveforms, shown in  FIG. 7 . 
         [0040]    The processor  60  of the MP3 player, executing a control program, determines the beats per unit time, for example, in beats per minutes (BPM) of each song or audio stream as shown in  FIG. 8 . 
         [0041]    The processor or CPU  60 , again executing the control program, can change the BPM of the song or audio stream played by the MP3 player  48 , as shown in  FIG. 8 , to a different tempo or BPM, without changing the pitch of the audio stream as shown in  FIG. 9 . This essentially syncs or matches the BPM of the audio stream generated by the MP3 player  48  with the exercise or movement tempo or beat of the user as determined by the CPU  60  based on the acceleration waveforms. 
         [0042]    As shown in  FIG. 10 , the CPU  60  executes the control program as follows. 
         [0043]    In step  120 , the CPU  60  determines whether or not the audio stream currently being generated by the MP3 player  48  has a beat per minute (BPM). If yes, the CPU  60 , in step  122 , determines BPM of the song, as shown in the waveform of  FIG. 8 . 
         [0044]    In step  124 , the user depresses the sync button  70  on the user&#39;s finger. The button  70  can be programmed to detect a depression only if the button is depressed for a certain length of time, such as five seconds, in order to prevent inadvertent operation of the apparatus  20 . 
         [0045]    After the user has depressed the button  70  in step  124  to indicate that the user wants to sync the song BPM to the user&#39;s movement tempo, the CPU  60 , using the output of the accelerometer  66 , determines the user&#39;s movement tempo via arm swing or running tempo in step  126 . 
         [0046]    The CPU  60  in step  128  then determines if there is a difference between user&#39;s movement tempo and the song BPM. If there is a difference, the CPU  60 , in step  130 , executing the control program, which may utilize a Fourier Transform, changes the frequency of the song BPM to sync with the tempo or BPM of the user&#39;s movements. Such frequency BPM modification is done without changing the pitch of the audio stream. For example, the CPU  60  may initially change the BPM of the song to match or sync with the tempo of the user, and then reverse the pitch of the altered audio stream back to the original pitch of the audio stream or song. 
         [0047]    For example, take a user who swings their arms 60 times per minute during an exercise, such as running, walking, etc. Synchronization of the song BPM to the user&#39;s tempo can be 1:1 or the nearest whole multiple of the user&#39;s tempo, such as 2× or 3×. Thus, for a person who swings their arms 60 times per minute during an exercise movement, the CPU  60  can sync a 127 BPM song to 120 BPM, a 174 BPM song to 180 BPM, and a 70 BPM song to 60 BPM. 
         [0048]    Referring again to  FIG. 10 , if the song does not have a BPM as determined in step  120 , or if the user does not want to sync the BPM in step  124  or if the user still wants to modify or sync the song BPM to the user&#39;s tempo after the CPU  60  has synced the BPM to the user&#39;s tempo, the user, in step  132 , can depress the manual tempo increase or tempo decrease portions of the multifunction button  70  to increase or decrease the song BPM to suit the user&#39;s likes in step  134 . 
         [0049]    If the user ever wishes to return to natural or normal play speed of a song, the user may press the button  70  once and, if the song is not at its natural recorded speed, it will return to its recorded speed. 
         [0050]    Refer now to  FIGS. 11-13B , there is depicted another aspect of the present apparatus.  FIG. 11  depicts the finger sleeve  22  which is essentially the same as the finger sleeve  22  shown in  FIGS. 1-3 . The finger sleeve  22  supports two multi-function push buttons  50  and  70 , which can be depressible in multiple locations to provide different function output from each button  50  and  70  to a Bluetooth transmitter. For example, button  50  includes a center depressible area  150  which can be depressed or pushed to down state to sync the song speed to the tempo beat of the user. The center portion  150  of the button  70  can also be quickly tapped to return to the normal song beat. Opposed depressible portions  152  and  154  respectively provide skipping to the next fullest sync speed, for example, from 1× to 0.5× for the depressible portion  152  or skipping to the next fastest sync speed, for example, from 1× to 2× when the depressible portion  154  is depressed. The immediate depressible portions  160  and  162  respectively allow the user to speed up the song beat by depressing portion  160  or to slow the song beat down by depressing portion  162 . 
         [0051]    The multi-function button  50  likewise has a plurality of separately and independently depressible portions including an elevated central portion  170  which provides play and the pause of the audio device or MP3 player with alternate taps. Opposed depressible portions  172  and  174  respectively allow the user to select the previous song by depressing portion  172  or advancing to the next song by depressing portion  174 . Depressible portions  176  and  178  respectively allow the user to turn the audio volume up or down. 
         [0052]    It will be understood that each of the buttons  50  and  70  may be provided with an individual Bluetooth transmitter and power supply. Alternately, the above described functions of the buttons  50  and  70  or additional functions may be provided by combining the button  50  and  70  into a single button with multiple depressible portions, such as five depressible portions, for example, and providing the processor coupled to the single button with the capability to recognize single or double taps or depressions of each depressible portion to implement different functions. For example, in the single button, all of the functions of button  50  can be activated by a single tap of each different portion. The functions of button  70  can be accessed by double taps of the depressible portions of the single button. 
         [0053]    The button functionality can be 10 functions, for example: 1) Play/Pause, 2) Song skip forward, 3) song skip backwards, 4) Volume increase, 5) Volume decrease, 6) Synch play speed to accelerometer rate, 7) Play speed increase, 8) Play speed decrease, 9) Return to normal play speed, and 10) Bluetooth synch. The first five would be for one button face or the single tap functions and 6-10 would be for the other button face or the press and hold or double tap functions. 
         [0054]    In this aspect, an MP3 player  193  and an accelerometer  194  are mounted in headphones  190  worn about the head of the user. For example, the MP3 player  193  and the accelerometer  194 , as well as the additional circuit elements shown in  FIG. 13A  can be mounted in the enlarged rear portion  192  of the headphone  190 . 
         [0055]    In this aspect, the mounting of the accelerometer  194 ,  FIG. 13A , in the headphone  190  captures the tempo of the user by detecting movement of the user of during each step taken by the user. 
         [0056]    Operative control elements mounted in the headphone  190  include an MP3 processor  200  with internal memory, such as RAM  202 , which stores the music or other audio media. An input antenna  204  captures the Bluetooth signal from the finger sleeve  22 . The antenna  204  is coupled to a Bluetooth receiver  206  which is connected as an input to the processor  200 . The processor  200  syncs the beat per unit time of the audio stream to the beat per unit time of the user&#39;s tempo as described above. 
         [0057]    Additional memory  208 , such as a memory in the form of a flash memory, can also be coupled to the processor  200  for additional audio media storage. Outputs from the processor  200  are coupled to a power management integrated circuit  210 , a USB transceiver  212 , and an audio output  214 , all of which are coupled to a pin connector  216 . The pin connector  216  is in turn connected to the three axis accelerometer  194 , an internal power source  218  for all of the operative elements contained in the headphones  190 , a micro USB port  220 , headphone speakers  222  for audio output, data management CPU  224 , and a micro USB port(s)  226 , receiving the micro USB card which may contain audio media. 
         [0058]    Control inputs to the MP3 player processor  200  are transmitted from the finger sleeve  22  by a Bluetooth transceiver  230  through an antenna  232 . A CPU  234  is coupled to and controls the Bluetooth transceiver  230 . An internal power source  236  is mounted in the finger sleeve  22  and coupled to the CPU  234  for powering the circuit element powered in the finger sleeve  22 . Analog control signals  238  are input to the CPU  234 . Such audio input signals include signals generated by any of the depressible portions of the push buttons  50  and  70  or the above described optional single push button.