Patent Publication Number: US-9842576-B2

Title: Midi mallet for touch screen devices

Description:
CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS 
     US Patent Documents 
     U.S. Ser. No. 06/665,781 15-1986 Yoshiki Hoshino 
     U.S. Pat. No. 5,009,146 A April 1991 Manabel Hajime 
     U.S. Pat. No. 5,471,008 A November 1995 Akihiro Fujita, Seiji Nakano, Katsushi Ishii 
     US-2011/0132181 A1 June 2011 Kockovic; Neven 
     US-2013/0152768 A1 June 2013 Rapp; John W. 
     US-2016/0203807 A1 July 2016 Nardi; Jason 
     US-2016/0247495 A1 August 2016 Dourmashkin; Steven 
     STATEMENT REGARDING FEDERALLY SPONSORED RESEARCH OR DEVELOPMENT 
     NOT APPLICABLE 
     NAMES OF THE PARTIES TO A JOINT RESEARCH AGREEMENT 
     NOT APPLICABLE 
     INCORPORATION-BY-REFERENCE OF MATERIAL SUBMITTED ON A COMPACT DISC OR AS A TEXT FILE VIA THE OFFICE ELECTRONIC FILING SYSTEM 
     NOT APPLICABLE 
     STATEMENT REGARDING PRIOR DISCLOSURE BY THE INVENTOR OR A JOINT INVENTOR 
     NOT APPLICABLE 
     BACKGROUND OF INVENTION 
     (1) Field of Invention 
     The present invention relates to electronic music production for the purpose of creating a realistic simulation of percussion. Focused mainly on the dynamics, timbre, resonance, and tone of a percussion instrument, this invention focuses on giving the user control of these effects using wireless technology to send digital signals. 
     (2) Description of Related Art 
     Electronic drums have been used and are currently used in many aspects of music production. 
     They fall into two categories: 
     (A) Button FSR Midi Controllers 
     (B) Surface Measuring Electronic Drums 
     In essence the fore mentioned invention combines the two ideas, allowing the feel of playing a drum as with (B) and the digital control as with (A). 
     Electronic drums that are button FSR midi controller (A) commonly referred to as drum machines operate like a keyboard, where force is measured with a force sensitive resistor and a MIDI signal is sent to the computer. 
     An example of a drum machine is in the following patent application: 
     (1) MIDI Control Apparatus, U.S. Pat. No. 5,471,008 A, Akihiro Fujita, Seiji Nakano, Katsushi Ishii 
     Electronic drums that are Surface Measuring Electronic Drums (B) have a special surface that allows the user to use a drum stick and play electronic drums as a normal instrument with sound recordings pre-loaded onto the drum and triggered by striking the surface. 
     An example of a surface measuring electronic drum is in the following patent application: 
     (2) U.S. Ser. No. 06/665,781 15-1986 Yoshiki Hoshino 
     None of the above mentioned inventions are optimized for the use of touchscreen devices while category (A) does send velocity signals it fails to give the user the feel of playing a real percussive instrument, category (A) also does not optimize the use of touchscreen devices to mimic the tension of a drum. Category (B) does allow the user to mimic tension but it also does not optimize the use of a touch screen device or send MIDI signals to music production software. Neither of these categories are inclusive, wireless, force measuring devices that work in coordination with touch screen devices to simulate real percussion instruments. 
     BRIEF SUMMARY OF INVENTION 
     The invention relates to electronic music production, where a small micro controller, a small Bluetooth chip, and a force sensitive resistor have been encased in a xylophone shaped mallet for the purpose of measuring the force when the mallet strikes a surface. The invention has been optimized for a touch screen device such as a tablet or touchscreen phones; when the fore mentioned touchscreen device is struck with the mallet a value based on where the touch screen device was struck is generated and a digital value from the velocity at which it was struck is generated. 
    
    
     
       A BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF SEVERAL VIEWS OF THE DRAWING 
         FIG. 1 a   -Overview of the midi mallet with a spherical head and a cylindrical base 
         FIG. 1 b   —The inner composition consisting of a battery, a micro controller, and a force sensitive resistor 
         FIG. 2 a   —Circuitry of the micro controller to the power source 
         FIG. 2 b   —Circuitry of the micro controller to the Bluetooth Chip 
         FIG. 2 c   —Circuitry of the micro controller to the Force sensitive resistor 
         FIG. 3 a   —Linear shape diagram of the Force Sensitive Resistor 
         FIG. 3 b   —Spherical shape diagram of the Force Sensitive Resistor 
         FIG. 3 c   —Overview of a Force Sensitive Resistor 
         FIG. 4 —Layered Diagram of the MIDI Mallet 
         FIG. 5 a   —Interior core of the Midi Mallet and components 
         FIG. 5 b   —Exterior conductive wrap 
     
    
    
     THE MIDI MALLET 
       FIG. 1 a    is an overview of the invention  FIG. 1 a    ( 1 ) is the head of the mallet which contains the force sensitive resistor and  FIG. 1 a    ( 2 ) is the base which contains the circuitry and battery. 
     The Circuitry 
       FIG. 1 b    show the inner workings of the MIDI mallet,  FIG. 1 b    ( 7 ) show the AAAA battery, which is attached by a conductive wire  FIG. 1 b    ( 6 ) which is attached to an Arduino Micro controller  FIG. 1 b    ( 5 ) with Bluetooth  FIG. 2 b    ( 8 ) which attaches to a Force Sensitive Resistor  FIG. 1 b    ( 3 ). 
     The Design 
     The core of the Midi Mallet ( FIG. 5 a   ) is composed to two separate pieces, the top mallet core  FIG. 5 b   ( 15 ) which contains a male screw helix  FIG. 5 a   ( 16 ) and the base piece  FIG. 5 b   ( 14 ) which contains a female screw helix  FIG. 5 a   ( 17 ) a hole for an on/off switch  FIG. 5 b   ( 18 ) and a sliding battery door compartment  FIG. 5 a   ( 19 ). 
     The mallet core  FIG. 5 a    ( 14 ) is overlapped with a force sensitive resistor  FIG. 4  ( 3 )/ FIG. 3 c   / FIG. 3 a    and attached with a small amount of glue. 
     The outer conductive layer  FIG. 4  ( 13 ),  FIG. 5 b    ( 13 ) is a thin wrap made of an electrically conductive anti-static plastic that conducts electricity; alternatively it can also be a thin plastic wrap  FIG. 5 b    ( 13 ) coated with conductive ink. 
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION 
     The present invention has been made to optimize the use of a touch screen device in professional music production. The current limitations of previous inventions are as follows: devices are large, bulky and must be connected through a USB port. Devices are unable to recreate an effective drum tension that otherwise creates the subtle tone of a drum and USB MIDI controllers play more like a piano than a drum. 
     An object of the present invention is that it is designed to work with a touch screen device which eliminates the use of a bulky box or surface measuring device and at the same time gives the user more control of the subtle dynamics of percussion. Another object of the current invention is the wireless capabilities and that it is battery powered. 
     A further object is that it not only replicates the timber and tone of a real drum, it plays like a real drum in the sense that you are striking something with a mallet. 
     For the fore mentioned invention to adequately simulate a real drum it must work in cooperation with a touch screen device, and a specific software designed with preloaded musical recordings which are called samples that are triggered based on a 3 dimensional grid. 
     The 3 dimensional grid consist of an X and Y coordinate which is based on where the mallet touches the touch screen device and a Z coordinate which is dictated based on the force in which the device is struck. All combined X, Y and Z allows for a larger amount of different samples to be triggered. 
     SEQUENCE LISTING 
     NOT APPLICABLE