FR2869150A1 - INSTRUMENT OF PILOTAGE OF A MUSICAL EQUIPMENT - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention relates to an instrument for controlling musical equipment, said instrument comprising at least one sensor and means for wireless transmission of a digital signal controlling said musical equipment, characterized in that said instrument comprises an interface for define the control law of said sensor, said interface being configurable and reconfigurable by means of interconnected computer equipment. The present invention also relates to a musical system comprising a control instrument and musical equipment, said instrument comprising at least a sensor and means for wireless transmission of a digital signal controlling said musical equipment, characterized in that said instrument comprises an interface for defining the control law of said sensor, said interface being configurable and reconfigurable via a interconnected computer equipment and in that it further comprises means ns of parameterization of said interface.

Description

INSTRUMENT FOR PILOTING A MUSICAL EQUIPMENT

  The present invention relates to the field of electronic musical instruments.

  It is known in the state of the art to control musical equipment from a keyboard or additional equipment, including analog potentiometers, using a standardized interface, for example a MIDI interface (Musical Digital Interface Instrument).

  The problem that arises is that of the ergonomics of such equipment, and the impossibility of personalizing the ergonomics according to the technical or aesthetic choices of the user.

  The prior art knows, by the patent application PCT WO 01/69399 (Naguy Caillavet and Gilles Moncaubeig), a hardware and software interface of control by MIDI messages. The invention, which is the subject of this PCT patent application, concerns a device for manually controlling, in real time, software application parameters characterized in that it comprises a hardware part composed of potentiometers (linear or rotary) and / or switches. and a configurable software portion generating MIDI-compliant messages (Musical Instrument Digital Interface), both of which are connected by a personal computer connection port.

  The prior art also knows, from US Pat. No. 5,875,257 of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), an instrument for capturing and interpreting the movements of the hands and arms during musical performances. The apparatus described in this US patent includes means adapting to the hand of the user to continuously capture the tempo and intensity. These captured parameters are quantitatively represented and converted into electrical signals representing the values of these parameters. Signals can be used to control variables related to musical composition (or the evolution of any other dynamic system). These signals can also carry information. The signals can, for example, make it possible to interpret the way in which control signals are transmitted in real time from the gestures in accordance with the classical principles of music. The invention of this American MIT patent also makes it possible to capture one or more additional parameters such as speed, the direction (that is to say the trajectory) in three dimensions, an absolute position in three dimensions, the range of the gestures in terms of the spatial distance between different beats, and the placement of a beat pattern in space.

  Also known in the state of the art, by US Patent 4,980,519 (Stanford University in California), a three-dimensional stick and a gesture sensor. An electronic percussion system has at least two sticks, each of said sticks having a transmitter that emits a distinct radio frequency signal at a position in space. The electronic percussion system determines the current X, Y and Z coordinates of each transmitter in each of the sticks. In order to determine the position of each transmitter stick, the percussion system comprises a tablet that has a flat support portion at a predefined position, with at least two pairs of electrodes coupled to said flat support portion. A first pair of electrodes makes it possible to obtain the position of the emitter of the stick along the axis X. Similarly, a second pair of electrodes makes it possible to obtain the position of the emitter of the stick along the axis Y. A processor makes it possible to carry out signal processing. This processor can also predict when each stick will reach the flat part of support and generate a signal so that a music synthesizer generates a sound at the appropriate time.

  The prior art also knows, by PCT patent application WO 02/03373 (Ntech Properties), a musical keyboard comprising several keys for the production of effects. The invention of this document relates to a keyboard comprising keys mounted so as to pivot about a vertical axis and a horizontal axis. The movement of the keys around the vertical axis is detected in order to adjust the sounds produced by the musical instrument by pressing the keys. A selectively solid and liquid substance may be added to the sheaths. An electronic string instrument emulator comprises a string and a bow made from a ferromagnetic material. The invention also relates to a method for playing musical instruments, comprising adjusting the temperament of the instrument during use of the instrument according to the music played. A keyboard instrument can produce sounds using electromagnets suitably arranged in a network.

  The instruments of the prior art are rather the control console, and are therefore not suited to a scenic expression, allowing the user to express his musical sensitivity outside the constraints imposed by preconfigured technical choices.

  The aim of the present invention is to provide a technical solution to this problem, by proposing an instrument for controlling a musical equipment, said instrument comprising at least one sensor and means for wireless transmission of a digital signal controlling said musical equipment, characterized in that said instrument comprises an interface for defining the control law of said sensor, said interface being parameterizable and reconfigurable via an interconnected computer equipment.

  To this end, the present invention relates, in its most general sense, to an instrument for controlling a musical equipment, said instrument comprising at least one sensor and means for wireless transmission of a digital signal controlling said musical equipment, characterized in that said instrument comprises an interface for defining the control law of said sensor, said interface being configurable and reconfigurable via an interconnected computer equipment.

  Preferably, the instrument comprises a plurality of sensors, the control law of each of the sensors being configurable and reconfigurable via an interconnected computer equipment.

  Advantageously, the instrument comprises at least one binary sensor.

  Preferably, the instrument comprises at least one continuously variable sensor.

  According to a particularly advantageous embodiment, the instrument comprises at least one control element with several degrees of freedom acting on a plurality of configurable and reconfigurable sensors each via an interconnected computer equipment.

  Preferably, the instrument comprises a combination of binary sensors, continuously variable sensors and multi-degree of freedom sensors.

  The invention relates to various embodiments of an instrument taking the form of: a housing having a section of between 150 millimeters and 400 millimeters, having a movable control knob according to at least one of translational movement and in rotation to control at least one sensor. Advantageously, said control knob has a hemispherical shape with a cross section of between 10 millimeters and 300 millimeters. a housing with a section of between 150 millimeters and 400 millimeters, having a tactile surface; a housing having a section of between 150 millimeters and 400 millimeters, the upper surface of the housing having at least one telemetric detector; a housing with a section of between 150 millimeters and 400 millimeters, the upper surface of the housing having at least two telemetry detectors; a housing comprising a sensor constituted by a microphone delivering a control signal according to a characteristic of the detected acoustic signal (amplitude, frequency range, pulsation, etc.); two complementary boxes equipped with at least one telemetric detector delivering a control signal depending on the relative distance of said housings. According to a particular embodiment, the two complementary boxes are equipped with permanent magnets creating a repulsive force between said housings; - a complementary box equipped with a potentiometer assigned to control the overall volume of all modules, an on / off control, and a small joystick to remotely control the selection functions, opening and loading digital files from an operating system.

  The invention also relates to a musical system comprising a plurality of piloting instruments and musical equipment, said instruments comprising at least one sensor and means for wireless transmission of a digital signal controlling said musical equipment, some of said piloting instruments being associated with a reproduction equipment comprising a loudspeaker, said equipment receiving musical equipment a signal corresponding to the superposition of the signals coming from all the piloting instruments, with a positive weighting of the signal coming from the piloting instrument associated with the playback equipment Preferably, the transmission of the signals is carried out according to a protocol comprising steps of acknowledgment of the reception by the musical equipment of the information packets transmitted by the instrument.

  According to a preferred embodiment, the instrument comprises a buffer memory for recording information packets from said parameterizable interface and a control circuit for erasing said memory as a function of said acknowledgment signals.

  According to one particular variant, the values of the sensors are digitized and are transmitted to the musical equipment in a format other than the MIDI format.

  Preferably, the values of the sensors are digitized and are transmitted to the musical equipment in a configurable and reconfigurable format.

  Advantageously, the signals are transmitted between the instrument and the equipment according to at least two distinct channels.

  The invention also relates to a musical system comprising a piloting instrument and musical equipment, said instrument comprising at least one sensor and means for wireless transmission of a digital signal controlling said musical equipment, characterized in that said instrument comprises an interface for defining the control law of said sensor, said interface being configurable and reconfigurable via an interconnected computer equipment and in that it further comprises means for parameterizing said interface.

  The invention will be better understood from the following description, given purely for explanatory purposes, of one embodiment of the invention, with reference to the appended figures in which: FIG. musical according to the invention schematically; Figure 2 shows a view of a system comprising a plurality of instruments; FIG. 3 represents a control instrument consisting of two housings each having a handle, and FIGS. 4 and 5 show a variant according to which several housings can be connected via a connecting piece.

  It has been developed a high frequency data transmission protocol in order to meet the mobility needs and freedom of movement of the musicians using the instrument according to the present invention and the declination of the range of associated instruments.

  Each instrument is equipped with a half-duplex (half-duplex) high-frequency transceiver module for bi-lateral data exchange. Only one frequency is used; it is shared by all the online instruments One receiver is sufficient for several instruments (the number depends on the quantity of variables generated by the type of instrument) The formatting, the coding, the verification of the validity of the code received and an anti-collision function are performed directly by the HF module block and are transparent to the detailed protocol below.

  The format used is the byte, sent by packet.

  2869150 8 Two modes of transmission are selectable according to the disturbances and the risks of radio stalls linked to the environment where the musician is located: - healthy environment mode: only the variables that change are transmitted.

  - difficult environment mode: all the variables of the instrument are transmitted.

  The default mode is the healthy environment mode because it consumes less bandwidth and less power.

  The user can very easily switch from one mode to another.

  Each send is composed of a status byte and is followed by data.

  The status byte contains the following information: 1-bit information type; battery status of the instrument on 1 bit; 3-bit instrument type; 20 instrument number on 3 bits.

  The following number of data bytes depends on the type of instrument and the type of transmission.

  The receiver recognizes the transmission mode (healthy or hard environment) to the number of data bytes following the status.

  In the case of healthy environment mode: 2 bytes of data follow: the 1st contains the controller number and the second one its value.

  In the case of transmission in harsh environment, the number of bytes of data is equal to the number of controllers on the instrument (which is declared in the status bit). The first data byte corresponds to controller 1, the second to controller 2, and so on. Since the values are encoded on 7 bits in the MIDI protocol, the eighth bit (the most significant bit) is used to encode bits of binary information such as switch on / off.

  Thus, by filtering the data bytes, we get switch on / off information in the same way as the controllers: the most significant bit of the data byte 1 contains the state of the switch on / off 1, the bit high byte of data byte 2 contains the state of the switch on / off 2, and so on. The 3 bits forming the instrument number are used to route the received information to the correct MIDI channel (instrument 1 is routed to channel 1, instrument 2 is routed to channel 2, etc.) The status bit The battery can warn the user of the weakness of the instrument's battery by sending a specific MIDI code to the computer.

  The information type bit makes it possible to switch from the game mode to the programming mode. In game mode, the exchange of information is done as described above.

  The programming mode is used to set the instrument.

  The mode called programming mode is activated to manage the following operations: change of the allocation of the channel number of the instrument, calibration of the continuous sensors, choice of the curves on the continuous sensors, change of the mode of transmission, verification of the embedded software version in the microcontroller 2869150 10 the instrument, serial number of the instrument, test of the instrument (non-exhaustive list ...) The byte following the status byte indicates the operation to be performed (ie 256 possible operations) The following bytes contain the data. The progress of each operation is preprogrammed in the instrument and is tracked on the computer to which the receiver is connected. A specific computer application is necessary.

  Figure 2 shows a view of a system comprising a plurality of instruments.

  The steering instruments (1 to 8) consist of parallelepipedic boxes whose side is 250 millimeters and the height of 150 millimeters. The housings are intended to be placed on the floor, on a table, or manipulated by the user freely. A first series of instruments (1), 5 has a touch surface (11) delivering information as a function of the displacement or the position of the user's finger on that surface, in a direction or in the plane.

  The second series of instrument (2, 3, 6, 7) has on its upper surface a hemispherical dome (12, 13) movable in translation along an axis perpendicular to the main surface, and / or in rotation with respect to this axis perpendicular, and / or tilting along an axis or pivot. The displacement can be binary, or proportional.

  The third series of instruments (4, 8) has on its upper surface telemetric sensors, for example ultrasonic transducers (14) detecting the distance between the upper surface of the housing and an obstacle, for example the hand of the user. The signal delivered by this sensor will be a function of the distance between the hand and the housing.

  The 4ke series has on its upper surface, 2 rotary potentiometers, a joystick, and 2 on / off.

  In the case of a plurality of sensors (14), the signal can take into account not only the distance of the hand, but also its orientation, by detecting the relative distance of two parts of the hand.

  The system comprises a central unit (20) communicating with the control instruments (1 to 8) via a wireless link.

  Each user has a reproduction equipment (21 to 28) associated with one of the piloting equipment (1 to 8). It is equipped with an RF receiver, an amplifier and a speaker.

  The sound signal comprises a first component corresponding to the addition of the sound signals resulting from the controls of all the piloting equipment (1 to 8), and a second component corresponding to the sound signal resulting from the piloting equipment associated with the refund equipment considered.

  The level of the second component is greater than the level of the first component to allow the user to follow his own creation.

  FIG. 3 represents a control instrument consisting of two housings (31, 32) each having a handle (33). Telemetry sensors (34) detect the relative distance of the two housings to generate the driving signal. Optionally, permanent magnets create a magnetic field defining a particular law of force to give sensations determined to the user.

  Figures 4 and 5 show a variant according to which several housings (1, 4) can be connected via a connecting piece (42). This connecting piece (42) has a section of "8". This piece is housed in the grooves (41, 44) having a complementary section, and then comes to associate the two adjacent housings. This solution makes it possible to produce more complete control instruments by associating elementary instruments.

Claims (19)

  1 - Instrument for controlling a musical equipment, said instrument comprising at least one sensor and means for wireless transmission of a digital signal controlling said musical equipment, characterized in that said instrument comprises an interface for defining the control law said sensor, said interface being configurable and reconfigurable via an interconnected computer equipment.   2 - Instrument according to claim 1, characterized in that it comprises a plurality of sensors, the control law of each of the sensors being configurable and reconfigurable via an interconnected computer equipment.   3 - Instrument according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in that it comprises at least one binary sensor.   4 - Instrument according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in that it comprises at least one continuously variable sensor.   5 - Instrument according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in that it comprises at least one control member with several degrees of freedom acting on a plurality of configurable and reconfigurable sensors each via an interconnected computer equipment.   6 - Instrument according to at least one of the preceding claims, characterized in that it consists of a housing with a section between 150 millimeters and 400 millimeters, having a movable control button according to at least one of the displacements in translation and in rotation for controlling at least one sensor.   7 - Instrument according to the preceding claim characterized in that said control knob has a hemispherical shape with a section between 10 millimeters and 300 millimeters.   8 - Instrument according to at least one of claims 1 to 5, characterized in that it consists of a housing with a section between 150 millimeters and 400 millimeters, having a touch surface.   9 - Instrument according to at least one of claims 1 to 5, characterized in that it consists of a housing with a section between 150 millimeters and 400 millimeters, the upper surface of the housing having at least one telemetric detector.   10 - Instrument according to at least one of claims 1 to 5, characterized in that it consists of a housing with a section between 150 millimeters and 400 millimeters, the upper surface of the housing having at least two telemetry detectors.   11 - Instrument according to at least one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the transmission of the signals is performed according to a protocol comprising steps of acknowledgment of the reception by the musical equipment information packets issued by the instrument .   12 - Instrument according to the preceding claim, characterized in that the instrument comprises a buffer memory for recording information packets from said parameterizable interface and a control circuit for the erasure of said memory according to said signals of 'acquittal.   13 - Instrument according to at least one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the values of the sensors are digitized and are transmitted to the musical equipment in a format other than the MIDI format.   14 - Instrument according to at least one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the values of the sensors are digitized and are transmitted to the musical equipment in a configurable and reconfigurable format.   - Instrument according to at least one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the signals are transmitted between the instrument and the equipment in at least two separate channels.   16 - Instrument according to claim 1, characterized in that said sensor is constituted by a microphone delivering a control signal according to a characteristic of the detected acoustic signal (amplitude, frequency range, pulsation, ...).   17 - Instrument according to at least one of the preceding claims, characterized in that it has a connecting means with a complementary instrument.   18 - Instrument according to claim 17, characterized in that said connecting means is constituted by grooves (41, 44) having a section complementary to that of a connecting piece (42) has a section-shaped "8" .   19 - Instrument according to claim 1, characterized in that it consists of two complementary boxes equipped with at least one telemetric detector delivering a control signal function of the relative distance of said housings.   - Instrument according to claim 19, characterized in that the two complementary housings are equipped with permanent magnets creating a repulsive force between said housings.   21. Instrument according to claim 1 characterized in that it consists of a complementary housing equipped with a potentiometer assigned to the control of the general volume of all modules, an on / off control, and a small joystick for remotely controlling the functions for selecting, opening and loading digital files of an operating system 22 - Music system comprising at least one control instrument and musical equipment, said instruments comprising at least one sensor and wireless transmission means of a digital signal controlling said musical equipment, characterized in that said instruments comprise an interface for defining the control law of said sensor, said interface being configurable and reconfigurable via a computer equipment interconnected and in that it further comprises means for parameterizing said interface.   23 - A musical system comprising a plurality of control instruments according to at least one of claims 1 to 20 and a musical equipment, said instruments comprising at least one sensor and wireless transmission means of a digital signal controlling said musical equipment, some of said piloting instruments being associated with playback equipment including a loudspeaker, said equipment receiving musical equipment a signal corresponding to the superposition of the signals from all the piloting instruments, with a positive weight of the signal from the flight instrument associated with the restitution equipment.