Touchscreen Keyboard Pitch Bending via Key Sliding
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Traditional musical instruments like pianos and guitars lack the ability to generate continuous pitch variations, limiting expressive capabilities, while instruments like the trombone and Theremin offer continuous pitch changes but require high skill to play perfect pitches.
Innovation Solution
A touchscreen-based system with a note processor that decodes key positions and outputs pitch data using MIDI or OSC protocols, allowing for smooth continuous pitch changes by translating key position changes into tonal data, enabling chord playing and independent pitch control.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If traditional piano or guitar keyboards are used, then standard keyboard functionality is maintained, but continuous pitch variation capability is lost
Solution Approach 1:
The patent merges the traditional keyboard interface with continuous pitch control by allowing keys to be pressed and slid horizontally along the keyboard surface. This combination maintains the familiar keyboard layout while adding pitch bend capability through the sliding motion, resolving the contradiction between maintaining standard functionality and adding pitch variation.
Solution Approach 2:
The system transitions from static key positions to dynamic continuous position detection. Instead of discrete key presses only, the keyboard now detects continuous horizontal sliding motion of pressed keys, enabling real-time pitch variation while maintaining the original keyboard structure for standard playing.
2Adaptability or versatility
If continuous pitch variation instruments like Theremin are used, then pitch flexibility is improved, but playing skill requirement increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces an intermediary mechanism where the keyboard acts as a mediator between the player and continuous pitch control. The familiar keyboard provides tactile feedback and discrete note selection, while the sliding motion on the key surface provides continuous pitch adjustment, making pitch control more accessible than direct Theremin-style control.
Solution Approach 2:
The system establishes a neutral pitch start point at each key position before sliding begins. This preliminary action provides a reference pitch that makes subsequent pitch bending more intuitive and easier to control, reducing the skill requirement compared to instruments requiring perfect pitch from the start.
3Adaptability or versatility
If pitch bending is added to electronic keyboards, then expressive capability is improved, but latency or interference between keys may occur
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements independent pitch arrays for each key, allowing each pressed key to have its own neutral pitch start point and independent pitch bending. This segmentation prevents interference between multiple keys being played simultaneously, as each key's pitch variation is calculated and output independently without affecting other keys.
Solution Approach 2:
The system continuously monitors key position during sliding and provides real-time pitch output based on the current position. This feedback mechanism ensures accurate pitch tracking throughout the slide, maintaining reliability and preventing latency by continuously updating the pitch output as the key moves.
Data Source
AI summary
A musical instrument provides the ability to both automatically detect an initial note or chord played on a touchscreen, correct the initial note or chord to neutral tone or tones, as well as to “slide” the note or chord to a new location, providing a continuously variable and continuous pitch to the new location, thereby creating a new type of keyboard instrument. The keyboard is operative to initialize a series of pitch arrays, one for each key, where the pitch array value is computed to provide a lookup or translation from a pressed key into an output pitch with fine granularity which matches the granularity of resolution of the touchscreen.