JPH07160253A - Key display device of keyboard musical instrument - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To make key display distinct with simple constitution by constituting a key display device in such a manner that the light of a light emission body disposed on a key supporting member side is introduced via a light transmission body to the upper surface of a key. CONSTITUTION:The light emission body 11 consisting of red and green LEs 11A, 11B is disposed near the rear end of the key of a second substrate 10 erected on a keyboard frame 2 supporting the key 1. The slender prism-like transparent light transmission body 12 is fixed to the rear surface of the key 1 and an incident surface 12c formed at the rear end of the projecting part 12b projecting from the rear end of the key is disposed to face the light emission body 11 in proximity thereto so that the light from the light emission body 11 is made incident from the incident surface 12c, is passed through the projecting part 12b and the parallel part 12d, is reflected by a reflection surface 12e and is emitted outside from an exit surface 12a opened atop the key 1.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a key display device for a keyboard instrument, which is provided with a light emitting portion on the keys to display keys required for performance.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, in a keyboard musical instrument, particularly an electronic keyboard musical instrument, a key that is necessary for playing is displayed prior to the key depression for the purpose of self-learning the performance or learning the correspondence between the score and the key. Display devices are known.

The most common type of key display device of this type is one in which a light-emitting diode (LED), a miniature light bulb or the like is provided on a panel plate at the rear of the keyboard in correspondence with each key. There is a problem that it is difficult to understand the correspondence with the key because the key display portion is located away from the key depression portion, which is the attention point of the key.

In order to solve such a point, as disclosed in, for example, Japanese Utility Model Publication No. 38-7039, a key is made of a transparent material such as synthetic resin, and the inside of the key in the vicinity of the key pressing portion is externally connected. It is known that an illuminant that blinks by an operation is provided.

[0005]

However, in such a conventional key display device for a keyboard instrument, since the light emitter is located in the vicinity of the key pressing portion where the stroke of the key is the largest, the tip of the key is Requires a relatively large space, and there is a possibility that the degree of freedom in designing the key guide may be restricted. Further, there is a problem in that when the key is released, the distance between the surface of the key and the light emitter becomes large, the illuminance becomes weak, and the display of the key becomes unclear.

[0006] In order to solve this point, if the brightness of the light emitting body is increased, the light emitting body itself becomes large and the power consumption becomes large, and further, the light of the light emitting body is adjacent to the light via the space with the key. There is a risk that the key to be displayed may also leak light, making it difficult to visually recognize the key to be displayed. Furthermore, since the key must be made of a translucent material, there is a considerable sense of discomfort. For example, the white key may be semi-transparent, but the black key has the disadvantage that it does not look like a black key when the light transmittance is increased. In either case, the switches and boards inside the key are visible, which is not desirable. . The present invention has been made in view of the above-mentioned various points, and an object of the present invention is to provide a key display device which has a simple configuration to make the key display clear and has a high degree of freedom in design.

[0007]

In order to achieve the above object, the present invention has a key display of a keyboard instrument having a plurality of keys and a key support member for swingably supporting the keys at their key fulcrums. In the device, a light-emitting body is provided on the key supporting member facing the key fulcrum portion, and the light guide has an entrance surface facing the light-emitter in close proximity to the key and an exit surface opening on the upper surface of the key. A key display device for a keyboard instrument provided with a body is provided.

[0008]

The key display device of the keyboard instrument according to the present invention is configured as described above, and when the light-emitting body corresponding to the required key is made to emit light, the light from the light-emitting body is emitted from the incident surface of the opposite light guide body. The light enters, passes through the light guide, and is emitted from the emission surface to the outside. Since the exit surface of the light guide body is open to the upper surface of the key, the key display is very clear, and there is no risk of mistaking it as an adjacent key.

[0009]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT An embodiment of the present invention will be specifically described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a side sectional view showing an embodiment in which the present invention is applied to an electronic keyboard instrument, FIG. 2 is a side sectional view showing a key display device having only the white key, and third is only the black key. FIG. 3 is a side sectional view showing the key display device of FIG.

In FIG. 1, a white key 1A and a black key 1B (hereinafter referred to as "key 1") are integrally molded in a U-shaped cross-section with an open lower surface with a resin or the like, and the keys are formed at the rear part thereof. The fulcrum portion 1a is swingably supported by an edge 2a of a keyboard frame 2 which is a key supporting member. Key 1 and keyboard frame 2
A key return spring 3 is engaged between the key 1 and the key 1 to urge the key 1 in the clockwise direction, and an L-shaped stopper piece 1b is provided vertically on both side walls of the key 1.
The upper limit stopper 4 and the lower limit stopper 5 provided on the lower surface and the upper surface of the keyboard frame 2 are brought into contact with to limit the swing range of the key 1.

A key guide piece 2b corresponding to each key is cut and raised to stand upright on the keyboard frame 2, and a soft resin portion 2c is outserted on the outer periphery thereof to form a key guide portion 2d. A first substrate 6 is fixedly provided on the lower surface of the keyboard frame 2 at a predetermined interval, and one-make and two-make key switches 7a and 7b are provided on the upper surface of the first substrate 6 for each key. , The actuator 1c hung on the lower surface of the key 1 when the key is pressed
The musical tone is generated via a musical tone forming circuit (not shown) by closing the musical instrument by the above. Further, a second substrate 10 is provided upright on the rear portion of the keyboard frame 2, and a light emitting body including, for example, a red light emitting diode (LED) 11A for white key and a green light emitting diode (LED) 11B for black key is provided on the key side surface thereof. 11
To provide. The above color development may be reversed. The lower side of the outer wall of the key rear end portion 1e including the key fulcrum portion 1a is engaged with the key drop prevention member 21 so that the key does not drop from the frame even if force is applied to the key from any direction. .

On the other hand, as shown in FIG. 2, a display hole 1d is formed on the upper surface of the white key 1A, and an elongated prism-shaped transparent resin molding into which the emission surface 12a constituting the key display portion is fitted is formed in the display hole 1d. The light guide 12 made of a product is fixed to the lower surface of the rear upper wall of the white key 1 by a method such as heat caulking, ultrasonic welding, or adhesion. Then, the rear end portion of the light guide 12 is projected rearward from the rear end surface of the white key 1A to form a protruding portion 12b, and a substantially vertical incident surface 12c is formed on the rear end surface of the protruding portion 12b in a key release state. Then, the incident surface 12c is brought close to the light emitting body 11 to face it.

The light guide 12 has a distance from the incident surface 12c to the key fulcrum portion 1a that is much smaller than the distance from the tip of the white key 1A to the key fulcrum portion 1a. The displacement of the incident surface 12c in (1) is made as small as possible, and the area of the incident surface 12c is set so that the light beam from the light emitting body 11 can surely enter even when the incident surface 12c is displaced.

As for the shape of the light guide 12, the protrusion 12b is formed.
The lower surface of the white key 1A is gradually decreased in height from the entrance surface 12c in the direction of the rear end surface of the key, and a parallel portion 12d substantially parallel to the upper surface is formed from the rear end portion to the front end portion of the white key 1A. The upper surface of 12d is tilted slightly upward from the middle, and a reflecting surface 12e is formed on the end surface of the parallel portion 12d on the tip side, which is oblique to the horizontal plane.

Then, after the light beam from the light-emitting body 11 that has entered from the incident surface 12c travels straight in the light guide body 12 or repeats total reflection on the outer surface thereof, it is reflected almost upward by the reflection surface 12e and then emitted. 12a so that the light can be emitted to the outside. Here, it is preferable to appropriately select the angle of the reflecting surface 12e so that the light beam emitted from the emitting surface 12a is directed toward the player.

Since the height of the black key 1B is higher than that of the white key 1A, the parallel portion 12d 'of the light guide 12' is formed.
As shown in FIG. 3, the tip side of the light guide 12 is curved and lifted gently. However, other than that, the light guide 12 on the white key 1A side has the same configuration as that of the light guide 12, and in this case, the light emitter 11 A light beam incident on the incident surface 12c 'from the light guide 1
After passing through the protruding portion 12b 'of 2'and repeating the total reflection on the surface of the parallel portion 12d', it is reflected by the reflecting surface 12e 'and emitted from the emitting surface 12a'. Thus, the black key 1
The light guide 12 'on the B side has a slightly different shape, but its basic configuration is the same as that of the white key 1A, so the operation will be described below with the white key 1A as a representative.

Since this embodiment has the above-mentioned configuration, when this is used as a key depression instruction, for example, a red LED 11A or green of the light emitter 11 corresponding to the key to be pressed by a light emitter control circuit (not shown). The LED 11B is made to emit light. Alternatively, only the red LED 11A of the light emitting body 11 corresponding to the key to be pressed and supported is caused to emit light to instruct the emission surface 12a on the key 1 to be displayed in red.
B is made to emit light together for yellow display, only the green LED 11B is made to emit light for green display at the time of full stroke key depression, that is, the key switch is closed, and both red LED 11A and green LED 11B are extinguished at key release.

Instead of the key display as described above, the key depression instruction may be red and the key depression display may be green. Depending on the strength of the touch during key depression or automatic performance, red, yellow,
It can also be displayed in green. In addition, the light emitter 11 is set to 3
It is also possible to provide more than one display for more complicated display or change the display according to the touch speed.
The light emitting body may be replaced with an LED and a miniature electric bulb may be used.

According to this embodiment, since the light emitter 11 is provided outside the key 1, the arrangement of the key guide is not restricted by the light emitter, and the degree of freedom in designing the keyboard device is increased. Increase. Moreover, by changing the shape of the light guide 12, the position of the key display portion on the key can be freely selected.

Further, since the incident surface 12c of the light guide body 12 is provided close to the light emitting body 11, the scattering of light until it enters the light guide body 12 is small, and the light entering the light guide body 12 is small. Since the light reaches the emission surface by straight traveling or total reflection with almost no loss, clear key display is possible with small power consumption, and light leakage from the light emitter 11 to the light guide of the adjacent key is extremely small. Even if there is a leak of light, the angle of the light ray that enters the light guide member facing surface is small.
Since it is much larger than the critical angle between the resin and the air that composes, the amount of light that passes through almost the entire amount of light and is guided to the emission surface becomes almost zero, and light leakage to the adjacent key display part is substantially prevented. It

Although the above embodiment has been described with respect to a case where the present invention is applied to an electronic keyboard musical instrument, the present invention is not limited to this, and can be carried out on a general keyboard musical instrument such as a piano or an organ without any trouble. You can

[0022]

As described above, in the key display device of the keyboard instrument according to the present invention, the light of the light-emitting body provided on the key supporting member side is guided to the upper surface of the key through the light guide body. Since the body can be provided outside the key, the structure is simplified, and the position of the key display portion can be arbitrarily selected only by changing the shape of the light guide, which increases the degree of freedom in design.

Further, since the light-emitting body is provided near the end of the key supporting member on the side closer to the key fulcrum, and the light-entering surface of the light-guiding body is opposed to the light-emitting body in the vicinity of the key-supporting portion, the key-pressing member is depressed. The amount of displacement of the incident surface can be made small and its area can be made small, which enables clear key display with low power consumption, and can significantly reduce light leakage to the key display part of an adjacent key. .

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a side sectional view showing an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a side sectional view showing a key display device having only the white key.

FIG. 3 is a side sectional view showing the key display device having only the black key.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 ... key, 1A ... white key, 1B ... black key, 1a ... key fulcrum part, 2
… Keyboard frame, 11… Light emitter, 12… Light guide

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A key display device for a keyboard instrument, comprising: a plurality of keys; and a key support member that supports the keys in a swingable manner at the key support points, the key support member facing portion of the key support member. Is equipped with a luminous body,
A key display device for a keyboard instrument, wherein the key is provided with a light guide body having an entrance surface facing closely to the light emitter and an exit surface opening on an upper surface of the key.