Graphic/tactile musical keyboard and nomographic music notation2010-03-23 00:00:00adjacent upper and lower row keys 32a, 32c and laterally offset perpendicularly therefrom by one half the distance between the centerlines of said upper and lower row keys.
The keys of the lower row 16 are not extended, allowing the front vertical end surfaces 24c of the keys of the lower row 16 to form a coplanar vertical edge surface 34 facing the player. The keys of the lower row 16 have the same width as the keys of the middle row 14.
As best seen in FIG. 2, the nomographic system of notation marks selected notes 36 with a diagonal slant " " 38, indicating that the key to be struck is located on the upper row 12 or lower row 16 of the three-row whole tone graphic/tactile keyboard 10. Unmarked notes 40 are played on the middle row 14. It is of course possible to reverse the markings of the notes, leaving the notes to be played on the upper row 12 or the lower row 16 unmarked, and marking the notes to be played on the middle row 14 with a diagonal slant " ". It is also possible to mark the marked notes 36 with a graphic mark other than a diagonal slant " ", although the diagonal slant " " is preferred for reasons of clarity and simplicity.
FIG. 3 shows three major scales written in the treble clef using the nomographic notation of the present invention. A two-octave C major scale is shown at the far left of FIG. 3. Ascending from middle C, the first three notes 42 in the C major scale are C, D and E, which are played on the middle row 14 (or 114 as in FIG. 4) of the three-row, whole tone keyboard 10 (or 110 as in FIG. 4). According to the notation system as described above, these notes 42 are left unmarked. Following these first three notes 42 are four notes 44 (F, G, A and B) which are played on the upper row 12 (or 112) or lower row 16 (or 116) of the keyboard 10 (or 110), and which are accordingly graphically marked with a diagonal slant. The second octave of the scale repeats this pattern of three unmarked notes followed by four marked notes, terminating with a final C note. Specifically, notes 44 played on the upper row 12 (or 112) or lower row 16 (or 116) of the keyboard 10 (or 110) are marked with the diagonal slant " ", as at 38. The key signature 46, signifying the key in which the music is scored, is also nomographically augmented. Nomographic augmenting the key signature 46 as well the notes 44 further aids the novice player in locating the correct finger key for a given note in the musical score. To further enhance the readability of the written music, the arrangement of nomographic markings signifying the key of C major is added between the clef sign and the notation, as at 39.
A one-octave G major scale is shown in the center of FIG. 3. The key of G major includes one sharp sign F鈾? and the conventional key signature 46' for G major places a sharp sign "鈾?" 48 on the uppermost line of the treble clef stave to indicate that notes on that line must be raised a half-step, from F to F鈾? The notation system of the present invention augments the conventional notation by adding diagonal slants " ", as at 38', to those notes to be played on the upper row 12 (or 112) or lower row 16 (or 116) of the keyboard 10 (or 110). The key of G major comprises the notes G, A, B, C, D, E, F鈾?and G. Of these notes, G, A and B are played on the upper row 12 (or 112) or lower row 16 (or 116) of the keyboard 10 (or 110). Also, according to the invention, in the key signature 46' the second and third lines from the bottom of the treble clef stave, to
gether with the space therebetween, are marked with the slant " ", as at 39'. The key signature 46' and the nomographic marking 39' thereof cooperate to clearly indicate which keys are to be struck. The sharp sign "鈾?" of the key signature 46', placed on the line corresponding to the note F, indicates the note is to be raised a half-tone to F鈾? At the same time, the lack of a diagonal slant on that line indicates that F鈾?is played on the middle row 14 (or 114) of the keyboard 10 (or 110). To
gether, the key signature 46' and the nomographic markings 39' fully inform the player of how and where the score of music is to be played.
A two octave B鈾?major scale is shown at the far right of FIG. 3. The B鈾?major scale includes the notes B鈾? C, D, E鈾...
Suspension of musical instruments2010-03-20 00:00:00from the head end. When the opposite end of the strap is attached to the main body, the attachment can be near the junction of the stringed neck and the main body. When the opposite end of the strap is attached to the head, the attachment can be near the junction of the stringed neck and the head. The intermediate portion of the strap can be attached near the junction of the stringed neck and the main body, but at a position removed from any point of attachment of the strap ends. The intermediate portion of the strap can be attached by means of an intermediate attachment, which consists of a fixed connection, or a loop encircling the strap at the intermediate position.
The length of the intermediate attachment and its position of contact to the strap can be adjustable. In the case where the intermediate connection forms a loop, the circumference of the loop can be made adjustable.
It is often preferred for the strap itself to be relatively flat in the vicinity of the musician's body parts that support the weight of the instrument. For instance, when the strap is hung over the shoulder of the musician, the part of the strap that rests on the shoulder preferably has width larger than thickness. However, other areas of the strap can have other geometries. Thus, the cross sectional shape of the strap need not be constant along the entire length of the strap. For instance, the invention discloses the strap to have circular cross section in the area where the intermediate connection attaches to the strap.
The strap itself can be comprised of more than one separate and distinct segments. Thus, the strap can consist of two smaller straps, each having a first and a second end, with both first ends attached to the instrument at two separate attachment points on the instrument. The two second ends can then be attached to
gether, or attached to a common element, such as a ring. In the former case, the intermediate attachment can attach to the second ends, and in the latter case, the intermediate connection can attach to the common element, and in either case, the intermediate connection will attach to a third separate and distinct attachment point on the instrument. The attachment of such segments to each other or to common elements, and the attachment of the intermediate connection to the strap assembly, can take the form of a vast number of standard methods, including sewing, riveting, looping, hooking, and clipping. Such forms can result in attachings that may or may not allow freedom of movement in angular and/or linear dimensions.
The instrument of the invention can be a guitar and include the step of extending the harness about the neck of the player between two points of connection of the strap to the guitar. A further step includes adjusting a an intermediate connection that attaches to the strap at an intermediate position. The geometry of the intermediat...
Hand-held percussion musical instrument comprising elongate tube shaped as a ring, incorporating dividers, and incoporating contained sound-generating elements2010-03-18 00:00:00an external diameter within a range of about 7 to about 12 inches. The ring includes a plurality of at least 5 or more elongate hollow tubes connected end-to-end, with each tube having a rigid tubular wall and rigid opposite end walls defining a closed hollow tube interior. Loosely contained within the hollow interior of a plurality of said tubes are the plurality of relatively small hard solid masses, whereby the instrument may be hand-held and manipulated so as to cause the solid masses to impact the tubular walls, end walls and each other to create audible percussion sounds, and whereby the instrument may be used to accompany and lend emphasis to singing and/or dancing.
In the preferred embodiment of the invention, the elongate tubes are approximately straight and connected end-to-end as a polygon configured ring, with the tubular walls being sufficiently thin, hard and rigid to act as soundboards for acoustically coupling induced vibrations from said solid masses audibly to the external surrounding atmosphere. The most favorable construction utilizes at least six similar hollow tubes connected to
gether to form a regular hexagon.
Also in the preferred embodiment of the invention, the rigid tubular ring is formed primarily of injection molded hard and rigid plastic material, such as polycarbonate or acrylic plastic. The tubular walls are approximately circular in cross-section about central axes approximately in the same median plane, and the tubular ring is formed in an upper half and lower half having interlocking mating surfaces which extend about the full circumference of the ring and join approximately in such median plane which approximately bisects the ring along and through its entire circumference.
In the preferred embodiment of the invention, the solid masses are metallic and approximately spherical with the diameter of the majority of such masses being within the range of about 1/16 inches to about 4/8 inches; and, the tubular walls and end walls have smooth surfaces with the tubular walls having an external diameter within a range of about 1 to about 13/4 inches, and a wall thickness of about 1/16 to about 3/16 inches.
Through selection of the ring configuration and materials, as well as the tube lengths, diameters and wall thicknesses, as well as the size and nature of the solid masses loosely contained in the tubes and the number and distribution of such solid masses among the tubes, different percussion effects, and differently-pitched tones, can be achieved. A plural set of differently-tuned such instruments can be provided to the performer for selection and use in accompanying different musical renditions and dance routines.
In one embodiment, mechanical-electrical transducers are associated with the ring and with amplifiers and loudspeakers.
In another embodiment, the ring and contained masses is combined with a drum rim and drumhead, thereby forming a composite percussive instrument capable of a variety of percussive effects.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
The foregoing and other aspects of the present invention will be better understood by reference to the following detailed description of the preferred and other embodiments thereof, made with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:
FIG. 1 is an external perspective view of the preferred embodiment of the instrument of the invention;
Complete transposable notation and keyboard music system for typists2010-03-10 00:00:00issued June 28, 1977, taught a two dimensional keyboard whose keys were arranged in perpendicular rows. THOMPSON designed his keyboard so that all standard music literature could be played on his keyboard. While THOMPSON designed his keyboard instrument primarily for one skilled at playing the THOMPSON keyboard and also skilled in reading music and in correlating the music to the keyboard; the only similarity between the THOMPSON keyboard and the presentinvention is that, on both instruments, a musical score can be played in any key, yet the fingering motions remain the same if the musical score were to be played in a different key. A typist would stil have to learn the THOMPSON keyboard, musicnotation, and correlation between the two to become proficient at making music on his keyboard. Additionally, the THOMPSON keyboard, even if geometrically and identifiably converted to a typewriter keyboard layout would become a confusing system ofnotes. At the same time the THOMPSON keyboard would have approximately half the range of notes as the present invention.
SUMMARY
This invention comprises a method of writing music so that a typist can immediately read the music, and on a typewriter keyboard instrument play the music. To
gether, the method of writing music and the new typewriter instrument comprise amusical instrument system which immediately enables a typist with only a limited knowledge of conventional music notation to pick up a sheet of music and play the score, even if the score was totally foreign to the typist. It will be noticed that anordinary typewriter and most computer and word processor keyboards are not arranged in a perfectly vertical matrix, as is THOMPSON's. Instead because of the normal digital dexterity, from the bottom row to the next higher row on a standard typewriterkeyboard, the keys in the next higher row are displaced one-half key to the left. But from the next to the bottom row of keys, commonly called the home row, to the row above the home row, the keys in the higher row are displaced only about a quarter ofa key to the left. And finally the keys in the top row, commonly called the number row, are displaced a half key to the left of the corresponding key in the row just below the number row. This key arrangement is important because of the normalfingering dexterity, and more importantly, because this is precisely the keyboard that typists in general know automatically. The music which comprises a major portion of the system is written basically so that the frequency, or pitch determining partof the note, hereinafter referred to as the ball of the note, contains the letter, number or other symbol corresponding to the respective key on a standard keyboard which when pressed, sounds that particular note. Thus, the quater-note will have anormal dark ball and staff, and the dark ball will have a white or contrasting letter or other designation within the dark ball, and the half note would have its usual staff and light ball and the light ball would have a black or dark letter or otherdesignation within. Thus it is the main objective of this invention to provide an instrument and a method of musical notation which will enable an ordinary typist, with only a limited knowledge of the conventional musical notation, to immediately take asheet of ...
Method for operating a musical instrument2010-03-08 00:00:00twelve pitches within any octave are represented by a group of seven white keys and five black keys, beginning with the note named "C" and ending with the note named "B." In conventional notation, insufficient space has been allocated on the staff to accommodate a separate position for each of the twelve pitches in an octave. Therefore, the black keys are generally represented using key signature marks or "accidentals," indicating sharps or flats. The use of key signature and "accidentals" is inherently complex.
Confusion is further added by the fact that a note representing a given pitch that appears on a line in one octave, will appear in a space in the next higher or lower octave, and so forth, thereby constantly altering its appearance. Therefore, the musician cannot with complete ease distinguish a pitch by its location on a conventional staff. Complexity in the conventional system is also added because, for the top twenty five or so pitches of a standard keyboard beginning with about "high C," and for the bottom sixteen or so pitches beginning with "low C," notes represented on a conventional staff must include such a large number of ledger lines for representation that musicians commonly
get confused, and in some cases, are forced to stop and count them.
From the foregoing, it can be seen that an operator of a musical instrument using conventional music notation is required to process a significant amount of information using a difficult system in order to produce a musical sound from the musical instrument.
The problems with using conventional notation with musical instruments have long been recognized. Some attempts have been made to provide improvements.
For example, U.S. Pat. No. 104,393 by Wright issued Jun. 14, 1870 proposed the use of a staff having alternating groups of two and three lines with wider spaces between groups than between lines within groups. The lines would correspond to black keys on a keyboard and the spaces would correspond to white keys on a keyboard. Several alternating groups of two and three lines could be used to accommodate multiple octaves of interest for any particular piece of music.
Joseph Matthias Hauer, Report of the First Conference of the Music Notation Modernization Association, 1988 (July 1991), presents a "Zwolftonschrift" (twelve tone script) that is the staff disclosed by Wright, but having conventional notation drawn on it.
Several problems, however, exist with the staff proposed by Wright, and the use of conventional notation on that staff as proposed by Joseph Matthias Hauer.
First, and foremost, although the conventional staff and notation on the staff are awkward, use of the conventional system is deeply ingrained in the music profession. A multitude of music has been written using the conventional system and practitioners are familiar with the system. There is a tremendous amount of momentum to retain the conventional system.
The repeating group of alternating two and three lines proposed by Wright is similar enough to the standard staff consisting of five lines that a musician could easily confuse the staff for a conventional staff. In such a case the musician trained to use a conventional staff would not be benefitted by the use of Wright's staff. The potential for confusing Wright's staff with the conventional staff is amplified by the use of conventional notation as proposed by Joseph Matthias Hauer. The unwary musician who is concentrating on translating written music during reading may confuse Wright's staff with the conventional system.
Second, the staff proposed by Wright is awkward. For example, for a piano composition that crosses several octaves, many alternating groups of two and three lines would be required to show all of the notes. Reading music from such a large number of staff lines could be just as awkward and confusing as dealing with large numbers of ledger lines used in the conventional system.
Third, the Wright scale requires that the musician must adjust to the visual movement up or down across twelve positions on the staff of Wright to accomplish the same change in pitch accomplished by moving up or down only seven positions on the conventional staff. Therefore, the musician who is used to the conventional notation system could become confused when attempting to read music from the staff of Wright.
A need exists for an improved method for operating a musical instrument to produce musical sounds which avoids the awkwardness and complexity involved with using the conventional notation system.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention provides a method for operating a musical instrument to produce a sound in which a new music notation system is used to provide an easily identifiable correspondence between the music notation and the musical instrument being operated, especially when the musical instrument is a keyboard instrument, such as a piano.
In one embodiment, a keyboard instrument is provided having both black and white keys, such as would be found on a standard piano k...
Method and apparatus for automatic variable articulation and timbre assignment for an electronic musical instrument2010-03-06 00:00:00transmit note-on messages on key depress and note-off on key release. This permits great flexibility in articulation, but can also work to the disadvantage of some players, who may have difficulty performing fast passages where notes "smear" because the keys are not released quickly enough.
Percussive controllers, such as drum pads/triggers or marimba-like arrays of pads respond only to the initial stroke and note duration is controlled indirectly by automatically sending a note-off after some time interval has elapsed. The interval is either fixed or velocity-sensitive (i.e., the duration of the note is a function of the speed at which the drumstick strikes the pad), and is determined at the time of initial gesture and unchangeable thereafter. Fast musical passages can result in blurred sound where many notes of fixed duration overlap.
In current practice, it is common to achieve a legato effect by controlling the attack and decay rates of the amplitude envelope, or by connecting notes in a monophonic fashion, allowing only one tone to sound at a time.
Many continuous and percussive controllers can measure the velocity of the initiating note-on gesture (speed of key-down or mallet stroke, puff of air) and the tone generator can use this data to control rate of attack. Some keyboard controllers can sense the speed of note release and use this information to control release rate. In both cases, the effect is determined at the time of the initiating gesture and applies only to the note associated with that gesture.
The duration of a tone depends on the player's ability to control the moment of note-off (i.e., when the release segment of the envelope begins) and is limited by the affordance of the particular controller being used. In particular, keyboard-like controllers send a note-off signal upon key release, and percussive controllers predetermine note duration at the time of note-on.
Current practice either imposes no constraints on the number of notes with legato envelopes that can sound simultaneously or limits legato to strictly monophonic mode where one tone sounds at a time. When a legato passage is played it is useful to allow only two notes to be sounding at the same time in order to have some amount of overlap while avoiding a blurred effect. The amount of overlap should be adjusted to account for the speed of consecutive notes in a musical passage.
When an electronic instrument allows variable articulative control over envelope and duration, it is always on a note-by-note basis. This can be a problem when a group of notes is performed to
gether in a chord. Individual notes may have different envelopes resulting in an unpleasant balance, or the duration of notes may differ so that the chord is released in a ragged way, each note at a different time.
The Studio Vision sequencer program from Opcode has a legato mode operation that can be applied to a selected range of notes in a sequence. This program will change the duration of each selected note so that it extends a given percentage of the way to the next note. This feature is an editing operation that must be applied to a recorded sequence out of real time; it cannot be used while actually playing.
The Kurzweil K2500 tone generator has a "Legato Play" mode. In this mode a note will play the attack segment of its amplitude envelope only when all other notes have been released. The K2500 also has a legato switch which causes the instrument to behave in a monophonic fashion: whenever a new note is begun, the previously sounding note is immediately terminated.
The "malletKAT" is a MIDI (musical instrument digital interface) controller that resembles a xylophone. It has a mono mode overlap feature which provides a fixed overlap interval between successive notes; when a new note is started the previous note is terminated after the fixed interval has elapsed. The overlap interval does not change and the feature is available only when the controller is in monophonic mode; thus, chordal or polyphonic performance of many simultaneous tones is impossible.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,142,960 describes a keyboard instrument that produces a legato-type envelope depending on a predetermined playing style and instrument timbre. The legato effect is strictly monophonic; it is produced when a new note-on is received and another note its still sounding. The release of the old note and attack of the new note are forced to be coincident and shaped by a predetermined amplitude envelope with relatively small attack for the new note. No overlapping of the two notes occurs.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,332,183 describes a keyboard instrument which distinguishes between two states, legato and non-legato, depending on the speed of successive key-down signals, and applies legato or non-legato ADSR envelopes on a note-by-note basis. The duration of notes is not controlled, the overlapping of successive legato notes is not controlled, and the number of simultaneously sounding legato notes is not constrained. All non-legato notes are treated the same, whether they are part of a chord or a polyphonic passage.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,424,731 describes a device for selecting one of two fixed durations for percussive tones such that when many keys are played in quick succession the duration is set shorter to avoid excessive overlap. This device concerns percussive tones with fixed durations and which are incapable of being sustained indefinitely.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,365,019 describes a touch controller that adjusts the note-on velocities according to playing speed. The time interval from the immediately preceding note-off or note-on is used to adjust the touch velocity so that the degree of responsiveness to force of touch varies with playing speed. The disclosed device includes means for altering the touch effects of a new note when a note-on is received. It does not control the duration of a tone or affect any attributes of previous notes.
Changing the attack and release rates of amplitude envelopes modifies the timbre of a note slightly, but the tone is still recognized as a variant of the same instrument. Some electronic musical instruments provide mechanisms for selecting and mixing multiple i...
Music Processing System Including Device for Converting Guitar Sounds to Midi Commands2010-03-03 00:00:00curve is the point in time where positive signal half period duration measurement starts. Positive half period duration measurement ends at the next negative trigger level and input signal curve cross-point. During the positive half period duration measurement, the next positive trigger value is calculated. The measured positive half period is stored to a first free memory location. The cross-point of the negative trigger level and the signal curve is the point in time where the negative signal half period duration measurement starts. Negative half period duration measurement ends at the next cross-point of the positive trigger value and the input signal curve. During the negative half period measurement, the next negative trigger value is calculated. The measured negative half period is then stored to the next free memory location, after the positive signal half period. The positive half period measuring and then the negative half period measuring can be repeated several times.
[0034]The method disclosed in U.S. application Ser. No. 11/873,970 calculates the period by calculating two sums (S1 and S2) of the consecutive positive and negative half periods durations with an equal number of addends but with at least one different addend. Memory associated with each microcontroller will store the first measured positive half period duration in the first free memory location, the next negative half period duration in the next free memory location, the next positive half period duration in the next free memory location, the next negative half period duration in the next free memory location, and so on until signal loss is detected. Thus, as the positive and then negative half period durations appear in time with the input signal, they appear in memory in the same sequence. In other words, labeling the positive half period duration with P and the negative half period duration with N, the values are stored in memory in the order P1, N1, P2, N2, P3, N3, P4, N4, P5, and N5. P1 and N1 to
gether form the first signal period duration. P2 and N2 to
gether form the second signal period duration. P3 and N3 form third signal period duration. In accordance with the method and using one different addend when calculating the sum S1 and S2, the sum S1 may equal the sum of P1 N1 P2 N2. The sum S2 may be calculated as: (a) S2=N1 P2 N2 P3; (b) S2=P3 N3 P4 N4; or (c) S2=P2 N2 P3 N3. Although both sums S1 and S2 have 4 addends, sum S1 has at least one different addend. If the sum difference (S1-S2) is small enough, then any of two sums can be taken as a multiple signal period duration. The initial value of the positive trigger is above a minimum positive trigger value, which is above the input signal's DC component value. The initial negative trigger is under the maximum negative trigger value which is under the input signal DC component value. If during the half period duration measurement, the half period duration becomes greater than the maximum half period duration, then the measurement is stopped and signal loss is detected.
[0035]FIG. 1a shows typical waveforms which will be used to describe the principles of the adaptive triggers method. In FIG. 1a, the amplitude of the input signal is shown with strong high harmonics and is plotted on the coordinate s(t), and a DC component level is plotting on the "t" coordinate (the "t" coordinate overlaps the DC component). In this method, the input signal maximum measuring starts when the input signal level becomes higher than the positive trigger level and ends when the input signal level becomes lower than the negative trigger level. FIG. 1b shows the wave form associated with the calculation of the maximum signal input and the minimum signal input as the functions max(s(t)) and min(s(t)). FIG. 1c shows the initial positive trigger value on the ordinate po(t) as value POM above the DC signal component level. FIG. 1c shows the minimum positive trigger value MPO which is lower and under the initial positive trigger value POM, and above the signal's DC component value. The next positive trigger value is calculated as a scaled down difference between the input signal maximum value and a DC signal component value added to the DC signal component value. If the calculation provides a positive trigger value less then minimum positive trigger value MPO, then the positive trigger value is set to minimum positive trigger value MPO. The next positive value can be calculated as a scaled down difference between the input signal maximum value and minimum positive trigger value MPO, which is then added to the minimum positive trigger value MPO. The points on the ordinate t1, t3, t5 are time points when the input signal value s(t) is higher (or higher or equal) than the positive trigger value po(t). If the positive trigger value po(t) is calculated concurrently with the maximum signal level calculation one may obtain a graph of positive trigger values as shown in FIG. 1c. When lower calculation power is important, the positive trigger values calculation can be performed in time periods when the input signal value becomes lower than the negative trigger value. The obtained value becomes the next positive trigger value. The last positive trigger value calculation principle is shown on FIG. 1D with the label Positive trigger 2.
Electronic device to detect and generate music from biological microvariations in a living organism2010-03-02 00:00:00content. This invention is different from all of the above because it uses a living organism itself as the signal source of the sensor and the user of the signal it produces.
SUMMARY
A method and apparatus are provided for using micro-variations of a biological living organism (such as a plant) to generate pleasing environmental conditions perceptible through one of the human senses, such as by generating music, controlling mood lighting, etc. One embodiment of the present invention includes the steps of detecting microvariations within a living organism, and using data from those microvariations as input to a microprocessor-based musical code generator which plays music through a MIDI music synthesizer.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
FIG. 1 depicts a block diagram of a system for controlling the environment of a living organism in accordance with an illustrated embodiment of the invention;
FIG. 2 depicts a direct-contact example of the Interface block in FIG. 1, including a first-order electrical model of an organism;
FIG. 2a depicts a resistive divider excitation source for use in exciting the direct-contact interface shown in FIG. 2;
FIG. 2b depicts a current source excitation for use in exciting the direct-contact interface shown in FIG. 2;
FIG. 3 depicts an optical embodiment of organism interface 3 in FIG. 2, where light is shined through a portion of a living organism, and microvariations in opacity are measured;
FIG. 4 depicts a capacitive embodiment of organism interface 3 in FIG. 2, where an electric field is applied to a portion of a living organism, and microvariations in the dielectric constant of that portion of the organism are measured;
FIGS. 5a and 5b to
gether comprise the analog circuitry portion of a detailed schematic of a preferred embodiment of the present invention;
FIGS. 5c and 5d to
gether comprise a detailed schematic diagram of the digital circuitry portion of a preferred embodiment of the present invention; and
APPENDIX I provides object code that may be used by the microcontroller of FIG. 5d.
DETAILED DESCRIPTIONS OF SOME PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS
Disclosed herein are methods and apparatus that may be used to detect microvariations in a biologic living organism, and generate a sequence of changes perceptible through the human senses (e.g., sight, sound, temperature, humidity, etc.) in the environment surrounding that organism or a human participant based on those microvariations. As used herein, the term "biologic living organism" means a plant or a non-human animal. The term "microvariations", as used in this document, shall be construed to include any measurable minute variation within a living organism. Such microvariations can be in electrical impedance, dielectric constant, chemical concentrations, electrochemical potential, electrochemical current, mechanical tension, force, pressure, optical transmisivity, optical reflectivity, reflected or transmitted chromatic value, magnetic or electrical permeability, etc. The term "microvariations" does not mean bio-frequency spectrum signals emanating from the living organism.
One embodiment of the disclosed invention has been found effective in detecting microvariations in a living organism and generating pleasing melodies based on these microvariations. Living organisms, including plants, are believed capable of varying their internal bio-chemical and bio-electric state as a consequence of external situations. Plants are, therefore, capable of some sort of rudimentary "feelings".
FIG. 1 shows a block diagram of the apparatus of the present invention. Signal conditioning electronics 1 connects to living organism 2 through interface 3. Microvariations within organism 2 produce analog signal 4 which feeds signal conditioning electronics 1. In some preferred embodiments, excitation electronics 5 applies an excitation signal 15 to organism 2, and microvariations in the response of organism 2 to excitation signal 15 are measured through analog signal 4. In preferred embodiments utilizing purely pas...
