PATENT CLAIM ANALYSIS

Application Number: 16156509
Application Type: Utility
Filing Date: 2018-10
Publication Date: 2019-02
Patent Classification: ["084", "726000"]

Abstract:
This invention discloses and claims means and methods for producing a continuous range of humbucking vibration signals from matched sensors, from bright to warm tones, using variable gains, with either manual control or automatic control by a digital micro-computing device and system. It shows how electronic circuits can control the linear combination of tones from humbucking pairs of sensors, based upon simulating humbucking basis vectors.

Claim (Index 11):
The circuit in  claim 1  wherein the scalars are simulated by digital potentiometers, controlled by a digital computing device, which is part of a system comprised of the following parts, performing the following functions:\n a. a programmable digital computing device, such as a micro-controller, a micro-processor, a micro-computer or a digital signal processor, which includes at least the following:\n i. read-only and random access memory, suitable for programs and variables, and \n ii. a control section for following programmed instructions, and \n iii. a section for computing mathematical operations, including binary, integer, fixed point and floating point operations, with at least add, subtract, multiply, divide and square root functions, preferably including trigonometric functions and fast fourier transform operations, and \n iv. digital binary input-output control lines, suitable for controlling digital peripherals, and \n v. at least one analog-to-digital converter, suitable for taking rapid and simultaneous or near-simultaneous samples of two or more sensor voltage signals in at least the audio frequency range, and \n vi. at least one digital-to-analog converter, suitable for presenting the inverse spectral transform, of a computed linear combination of spectral transforms, to an audio output for user information, and \n vii. timer functions, and \n viii. suitable functions for a Real-Time Operating System, and \n ix. at least one serial input-output port, and \n x. installed programming such that at least:\n 1. humbucking pairs of said vibration sensors may, when excited in a standard fashion, such as strumming one or more strings at ones, or strumming one or more strings in a chord, be sampled near-simultaneously, at a rate rapid enough for the construction of complex frequency spectra, with such methods as Fast Fourier Transforms, over the working range of the sensors, in both frequency and amplitude, and \n 2. the mean or sum of the amplitudes of such spectra may be summed over the frequency range to determine the inherent signal strength of said humbucking pairs, and \n 3. said signal strength be used to equalize the outputs of various linear combinations of the signals of said humbucking pairs, and \n 4. said spectra be modified by psychoacoustic functions to assess the audible tones of various linear combinations of the signals of said humbucking pairs, and \n 5. the components of said spectra be used to compute the means and moments of said spectra, and \n 6. said calculations from said spectra be used to order the tones of said linear combinations of said signals of said humbucking pairs into near-monotonic gradations from bright to warm, for the purpose of allowing user controls to shift from bright to warm tones and back, without the user ever needing to know which signals were used in what combinations, and \n 7. the order of such gradations be presented to the user for approval or modification, including the use of audible representations of tones obtained from inverse spectral transformations and fed to the instrument output via a digital-to-analog converter feeding into the final output amplifier of said system, and \n 8. allowing external devices to connect to said system for the purposes of updating and re-programming, testing and control of said system, and \n 9. driving all input and output peripherals, and \n \n xi. plus any other controls and functions suitable for accomplishing this claim, and \n \n b. two or more of matched said vibration sensors, having the same internal impendance, electrical characteristics and responses to external signals interfering with said vibrations, or hum, all of said sensors connected to a system ground by their terminals having the same phase of hum voltage, and \n c. a pickup amplifying system, capable of electronically simulating a humbucking basis vector equation, generated from said sensors, comprised of:\n i. solid-state analog switches, controlled by said computational device, connected to the output terminals of said sensors, such that the outputs of any number of said sensors can be shorted to ground, and \n ii. fully differential amplifiers, preferably of gain=2, connected to sequential pairs of said sensors, such that sensors A, B, C, D, . . . , have hum signals at least of (A\u2212B), (B\u2212C), (C\u2212D), . . . , or preferably of 2(A\u2212B), 2(B\u2212C), 2(C\u2212D), . . . , across the differential outputs of said amplifiers, where the phases of the vibration signals may be either in-phase (As+Bs) or out-of-phase (As\u2212Bs), where As and Bs represent said vibration signals, according their phase relations with hum signals, and \n iii. solid-state analog switches, controlled by said computational device, connected to one of the output terminals of said differential amplifiers, preferably the positive output terminals, wired to divert the output signal on digital command from the rest of the amplifying system to one or more of said analog-to-digital converters of said computational device, and \n iv. solid-state potentiometers, controlled by said computational device, wired to modify the gain and attenuation of the outputs of said differential amplifiers, to simulate scalar multipliers, such as s, u, v, . . . , of the outputs of said sensors wired into buffer amplifiers of gain 1 or more, such that sensors A, B, C, D, . . . , produce buffer outputs of s(A\u2212B), u(B\u2212C), v(C\u2212D), . . . , and \n \n d. said summing amplifier with a gain, set by a digitally controlled pot in the output circuit, which at the least produces an output of V=G*[s(A\u2212B)+u(B\u2212C), +v(C\u2212D), . . . ], and preferably has additional buffers and digitally controlled potentiometers arranged and connected such that the squares of the scalars equal a constant, such as (s 2 +u 2 +v 2 + . . . )=1, accomplished by a set of orthogonal functions, such as [( . . . (((s=cos 2 (\u03b8 1 ))+(u=sin 2 (\u03b8 1 )))cos 2 (\u03b8 2 )+(v=sin 2 (\u03b8 2 ))) . . . ) cos 2 (\u03b8 J-2 )+(z J-1 =sin 2 (\u03b8 J-2 ))]=1, where J is the number of said sensors and the \u03b8j are control variables, computed by said computational device along with said orthogonal functions, and \n e. a connection from the output of said summing amplifier to a said analog-to-digital converter in said computational device, for the purpose of monitoring and sampling said output, and \n f. a section of analog signal conditioning between said summing amplifier, and the final output, with a switch, controlled by said computational device, to change the input from said summing amplifier to said digital-to-analog converter in said computational device, and \n g. a provision for using external flash memory to extend the program and storage of program variables and digital signal samples, interfaced with and controlled by said computational device, and \n h. interface circuits to connect said serial input-output port to external devices, via such interfaces as USB and BlueTooth, to provide for test, programming and control of the entire system, and \n i. a status display to inform the user of the states of signal output, such as a programmed sequence of tones for switching, modes of test and operation, comprised of one or more of the following:\n i. binary status lights, and \n ii. alpha-numeric displays, and \n iii. digital images displays, and \n \n j. operator input devices, comprised of one or more of the following:\n i. an up-down shift switch, used to change tones and modes of operation, and \n ii. a mouse-like wheel with click switches, for the same purposes, and \n iii. a tap and swipe panel, much like a smart phone device, for the same purposes.

Metadata:
- Claim Count in Document: 23.0
- Percentile: 97.0
- Lexical Diversity: 1.31481
- Patent Class: 84.0
- Transitional Phrase Type: open
- Component Type: 1
- Foreign Priority: False
- Related Applications: ['15616396', '16139027', '14338373', '13183084', '14310439']

Analysis Scores:
- 35 USC 101 Eligibility (BERT): 0.6082995688323899
- 35 USC 102 Novelty (BERT): 0.533963965667986
- Combined Prediction Score: 0.6008660085159495
- Mean Citation Score: 307.966594
- Max Citation Score: 393.4882
- Similarity Product: 262.8998327410221

Labels:
- Claim Label 101: 1
- Claim Label 102: 1
- Claim Label 103: 1
- Claim Label 112: 0
- Combined Label: 1
- Label 101 Adjusted: 1

Dataset: test