Patent ID: 8710345

Claim:
A performance apparatus comprising: a performance member which is operable by a player; a storing unit which stores layout information including positions of plural areas set on a virtual plane; an image pickup unit which continuously takes pickup images including the performance member and a region of the virtual plane in which the performance member is operated; a position detecting unit which detects a position of the performance member on the virtual plane in a first pickup image and a position of the performance member on the virtual plane in a second pickup image among the pickup images taken by the image pickup unit, wherein the second pickup image was taken prior to the first pickup image; a present position determining unit which compares the two positions of the performance member detected by the position detecting unit to judge whether the difference between the two positions of the performance member is more than a predetermined value, and which sets the position of the performance member on the virtual plane in the first pickup image as a present position of the performance member when it is determined that the difference between the two positions of the performance member is more than the predetermined value, and sets the position of the performance member on the virtual plane in the second pickup image as the present position of the performance member when it is determined that the difference between the two positions of the performance member is less than the predetermined value; and a sound-generation instructing unit which instructs generation of a musical tone corresponding to an area including the present position of the performance member determined by the present position determining unit, when the difference between the two positions of the performance member detected by the position detecting unit is more than the predetermined value and the present position of the performance member determined by the present position determining unit is included in one of the plural areas whose positions are included in the layout information.