Abstract:
This display is a light-emitting display that is capable of creating unique and/or pleasing visual effects. It incorporates a light-emitting diode (LED) display into a sound-generating portion of a sound-generating system. The two are interactive with each other. The idea behind this product line is to create a circuit that “listens” to the music that is being played, and then changes the output state of several lights or LEDs based on the pulses that are being generated by the music. The lights or LEDs would be embedded directly into the musical instrument or speaker cabinet.

Description:
CROSS REFERENCE 
     This application claims the benefit of provisional application No. 61/404,930 filed Oct. 12, 2010. 
    
    
     FIELD OF THE INVENTION 
     This invention relates to a sound generating system that includes a light-emitting device. The light-emitting device is configured to display illumination or images based on the sounds generated by the sound generating system. 
     BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
     Musicians who have played many gigs in small clubs and other venues, understand the importance of showing a little “flair” during their shows. They also understand that with limited pay for these outings and also little set-up space it can be very difficult to set-up and operate a light show for the musical act. Also the time involved in setting it up and tearing it down also can be a hurdle. 
     A need exists for a series of products that would make a live band&#39;s performance visual stimulating, inexpensive, and simple/automatic to operate. 
     SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
     The present invention is a light-emitting display that is capable of creating unique and/or pleasing visual effects. The present invention incorporates a light-emitting diode (LED) display into a sound-generating portion of sound-generating system. The two are interactive with each other. 
     The idea behind this product line is to create a circuit that “listens” to the music that is being played, and then changes the output state of several lights or LEDs based on the pulses that are being generated by the music. The lights or LEDs would be embedded directly into the musical instrument or speaker cabinet. 
    
    
     
       IN THE DRAWINGS 
         FIG. 1  is a block diagram for a circuit according to this invention. 
         FIG. 2  is a schematic of the HOOPLITE™ LED main board. 
         FIG. 3  is a schematic of the HOOPLITE™ control and light board. 
         FIG. 4  is an illustration of a speaker cabinet with the HOOPLITE™ display thereon. 
         FIG. 5  is an illustration of Strat Style Guitar Pickguard with HOOPLITE™ LEDs displayed thereon. 
         FIG. 6  is an illustration of a drum with the HOOPLITE™ LEDs displayed thereon. 
     
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION 
     This invention is a series of products that would make a live band&#39;s performance visually stimulating, inexpensive, and simple/automatic to operate. 
     This invention creates a circuit that “listens” to the music that is being played, and then changes the output state of several lights or LEDs based on the pulses that are being generated by the music. The lights or LEDs would be embedded directly into the musical instrument or speaker cabinet. 
     With a drum-kit, one embodiment lines the rim of the bass drum hoop with lights or LEDs that are being controlled by the HoopLite™ circuit. As the drums are being played the state of the LEDs or lamps changes automatically with the rhythm that the drummer is playing. 
     Most electric guitars are equipped with pick-guards. Another embodiment integrates the LEDs directly into one of the layers of the pick-guard. Also, in this instance of the invention, either a microphone could pick up the audio changes or the guitar&#39;s pickup could be integrated directly into the circuit eliminating the need for a microphone input. 
     Another embodiment incorporates the circuit into the speaker enclosures. Very often, circular speaker grill covers are used to protect the speakers in guitar amplifiers, bass amplifiers, and other speaker enclosures. Those speaker grill covers could have LEDs or lamps integrated directly into their outer rim. Once again the HoopLite™ circuit could be employed to create a light show automatically making these enclosures a visual part of the show. 
     Often when acoustic guitars are used in live settings, a sound hole plug is used to keep the acoustic guitar from feeding back when using high volumes. The sound hole plug could be altered to incorporate some lights or LEDs and be controlled by the HoopLite™ circuit. With an acoustic guitar, a microphone could be used to pick-up audio signals, or the guitar&#39;s transducer could be the analog input into the HoopLite™ circuit. 
       FIG. 1  is a block diagram for a circuit according to this invention. The HoopLite™ circuit consists of (but is not limited to), a power supply, an analog sensor (microphone, guitar pick-up, piezoelectric transducer, etc.) interface electronics, gain stage, peak detector, digital logic, output drivers, and some form of light (incandescent lamp, LED, etc.). 
     Power Supply: The power for this circuit might be a battery, a DC source (wall-outlet power supply), or AC power that is rectified to suit the circuit. 
     Analog Sensor: Many different sensors could act as the input for this circuit. A microphone, guitar pick-up, or piezoelectric pick-up could all be used very simply with this product. 
     Interface Electronics: The interface electronics exist to couple the analog sensor to the rest of the circuitry. A guitar pickup may be connected almost directly. So, the interface electronics may change slightly based on the device that is capturing the analog (sound) input. 
     Gain Stage: The gain stage on this circuit amplifies the incoming audio signal. The gain stage is adjustable so that the sensitivity of the circuit can be set which controls how active the changes at the output of the device are. The gain stage is also there to start “clipping” the incoming analog signal. The clipping is the first step in the analog signal becoming a DC pulse train. 
     Peak Detector: The peak detector does the rest of the work in converting the “peaks” it sees coming from the gain stage into digital pulses that will become the input into the digital logic stage. 
     Digital Logic: Digital logic is a fairly generic term that covers many devices. In a very simple version of the circuit, the digital logic might be a decade counter where each pulse received from the peak detector changes the output state of the decade counter turning on a different light/LED. 
     The digital logic block might also be replaced with a microprocessor or micro-controller. In this variation of the circuit, the microprocessor might be programmed with one or many different algorithms that would control the output lights/LEDs in different fashions depending upon the algorithm that was currently employed and the input of pulses. 
     Output Lamps: Once again, the lights in this design could be incandescent lamps or LEDs. These lamps or LEDs might be directly on the circuit board or they may be remote so that the multiple circuit boards with lights on them might be spread around a physical structure (i.e. bass drum hoop etc.) enlarging the effect. For a very large effect AC bulbs may need to be used. In this case the Triacs could be employed as the lamp drivers allowing theater style lighting to be used. 
       FIG. 2  is a schematic of the HOOPLITE™ LED main board (master board). 
       FIG. 3  is a schematic of the HOOPLITE™ control and light board (slave board). 
     This invention uses a Master/Slave concept. Where the Master board of  FIG. 2  has the analog listening circuit on it and a microprocessor U 14 . Dip-switches K 1  on the Master board defines the number of boards in the hoop, which pattern to display when sound is heard, and which pattern to display when it is silent. 
     The Slave boards of  FIG. 3  have a microprocessor ICI on them. They also have a dip-switches U 4  to set their address. There is a digital protocol wherein the Master board sends commands to the slave boards as to what state they should be in (which lights should be on and at what intensity). 
     The invention uses the following patterns and protocols. 
     
       
         
               
             
           
               
                   
               
             
             
               
                 HoopLite Patterns 
               
               
                 OFF STATE PATTERNS 
               
               
                 ================== 
               
               
                 off 
               
               
                 Slow Throb 
               
               
                 Fast Throb 
               
               
                 Spin to Fade 
               
               
                 Fast Spin 
               
               
                 Slow Spin 
               
               
                 Even to odd 
               
               
                 Even odd Throb 
               
               
                 ON STATE PATTERNS 
               
               
                 ================= 
               
               
                 Single Spin 
               
               
                 Double Spin 
               
               
                 Odd to Even 
               
               
                 Throb on Pulse 
               
               
                 Spin to Flash 
               
               
                 Flash 
               
               
                 Knight Rider 
               
               
                 Random Address 
               
               
                 Random Pattern 
               
               
                 Page 1 
               
               
                 HoopLite Serial Protocol 
               
               
                 HOOPLITE SERIAL PROTOCOL 
               
               
                 Date: 4-19-11 
               
               
                 Version: 1.0.0 
               
               
                 By: Richard G. Lysaght 
               
               
                 Type: RS485 
               
               
                 Baud: 115.2K 
               
               
                 Data: 8 Data Bits 
               
               
                 Parity: None 
               
               
                 Stop Bits: 1 
               
               
                 Checksum: Two&#39;s Compliment 
               
               
                 Basic Message Structure: 
               
               
                 ======================== 
               
               
                 STX LENGTH COMMAND REDLEVEL BLULEVEL  
               
               
                 GRNLEVEL CHECKSUM COMMANDS: 
               
               
                 ========= 
               
               
                 0x21 ALL BOARDS RESPOND 
               
               
                 0x2B ONLY EVEN NUMBERS RESPOND 
               
               
                 0x2D ONLY ODD NUMBERS RESPOND 
               
               
                 0x30 BOARD 0 RESPOND 
               
               
                 0x31 BOARD 1 RESPOND 
               
               
                 0x32 BOARD 2 RESPOND 
               
               
                 0x33 BOARD 3 RESPOND 
               
               
                 0x34 BOARD 4 RESPOND 
               
               
                 0x35 BOARD 5 RESPOND 
               
               
                 0x36 BOARD 6 RESPOND 
               
               
                 0x37 BOARD 7 RESPOND 
               
               
                 0x38 BOARD 8 RESPOND 
               
               
                 0x39 BOARD 9 RESPOND 
               
               
                 0x3C BOARDS LESS THAN ADDRESS ON 
               
               
                 0x3E BOARDS GREATER THAN ADDRESS ON 
               
               
                 ALL BOARDS COMMAND: 
               
               
                 =================== 
               
               
                 STX 0x02 
               
               
                 LENGTH 0x07 
               
               
                 COMMAND 0x21 
               
               
                 REDLEVEL 0x00 
               
               
                 BLULEVEL 0xFF 
               
               
                 GRNLEVEL 0x00 
               
               
                 CHECKSUM 0xD7 
               
               
                 Note: This command would turn all boards blue led completely on. 
               
               
                 EVEN NUMBERS COMMAND: 
               
               
                 ===================== 
               
               
                 STX 0x02 
               
               
                 LENGTH 0x07 
               
               
                 COMMAND 0x2B 
               
               
                 REDLEVEL 0xFF 
               
               
                 BLULEVEL 0x00 
               
               
                 GRNLEVEL 0x00 
               
               
                 CHECKSUM 0xCD 
               
               
                 Note: This command would turn even numbered boards red led 
               
               
                 completely on. 
               
               
                 ODD NUMBERS COMMAND: 
               
               
                 ===================== 
               
               
                 STX 0x02 
               
               
                 LENGTH 0x07 
               
               
                 COMMAND 0x2D 
               
               
                 REDLEVEL 0x00 
               
               
                 BLULEVEL 0x00 
               
               
                 GRNLEVEL 0xFF 
               
               
                 CHECKSUM 0xCB 
               
               
                 Note: This command would turn odd numbered boards green led 
               
               
                 completely on. 
               
               
                 ADDRESSED COMMAND: 
               
               
                 ================== 
               
               
                 STX 0x02 
               
               
                 LENGTH 0x07 
               
               
                 COMMAND 0x33 
               
               
                 REDLEVEL 0x00 
               
               
                 BLULEVEL 0x80 
               
               
                 Page 1 
               
               
                 HoopLite Serial Protocol 
               
               
                 GRNLEVEL 0x00 
               
               
                 CHECKSUM 0x44 
               
               
                 Note: This command would turn board +#3&#39;s blue led half on. 
               
               
                 LESS THAN COMMAND: 
               
               
                 ================== 
               
               
                 STX 0x02 
               
               
                 LENGTH 0x08 
               
               
                 COMMAND 0x3c 
               
               
                 ADDRESS 0x35 
               
               
                 REDLEVEL 0x00 
               
               
                 BLULEVEL 0xFF 
               
               
                 GRNLEVEL 0x00 
               
               
                 CHECKSUM 0x86 
               
               
                 Note: This command would turn board #1-4&#39;s blue led completely on. 
               
               
                 GREATER THAN COMMAND: 
               
               
                 ===================== 
               
               
                 STX 0x02 
               
               
                 LENGTH 0x08 
               
               
                 COMMAND 0x3E 
               
               
                   
               
             
          
         
       
     
     The concept of this product could be employed in several different ways. This effect could add to visual performances by automatically creating a light show that is integrated directly into an instrument, speaker cabinet, or amplifier. The patterns and colors generated by this effect are only limited by the imagination of the designer. 
       FIG. 4  is an illustration of a speaker cabinet with the HOOPLITE™ display thereon. 
       FIG. 5  is an illustration of Strat Style Guitar Pickguard with HOOPLITE™ LEDs displayed thereon. 
     The instruments in  FIGS. 4-6  have 8 “ON” state patterns that the user can select from when the circuit is actively “hearing” sounds. 
     They also have 8 “OFF” state patterns that the user can select to have displayed when the circuit is at rest (not “hearing” any sounds). 
     In addition to these embodiments, persons skilled in the art can see that numerous modifications and changes may be made to the above invention without departing from the intended spirit and scope thereof. 
     The above detailed description of the present invention is given for explanatory purposes. It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that numerous changes and modifications can be made without departing from the scope of the invention. Accordingly, the whole of the foregoing description is to be construed in an illustrative and not a limitative sense, the scope of the invention being defined solely by the appended claims.