DETAILED ACTION
Notice of Pre-AIA or AIA Status
The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 103 which forms the basis for all obviousness rejections set forth in this Office action:
A patent for a claimed invention may not be obtained, notwithstanding that the claimed invention is not identically disclosed as set forth in section 102, if the differences between the claimed invention and the prior art are such that the claimed invention as a whole would have been obvious before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to a person having ordinary skill in the art to which the claimed invention pertains. Patentability shall not be negated by the manner in which the invention was made.
Claims 1-5 and 12-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C.103 as unpatentable over US20120227576 (Nakagawa), hereinafter US’576, in view of US7935876 (West), hereinafter US’876.
Regarding claim 1, US’576 discloses ‘A control device (US’576, ¶[0075]: “an electronic musical instrument in accordance with the invention may be configured as a sound source module”) comprising:
an acquisition part configured to acquire performance information (US’576, ¶[0022]:“the keyboard 2 outputs to the CPU 11 a note-on event (hereafter referred to as a “note on') that is a piece of performance information”);
a tone generation control part configured to generate a musical tone based on the performance information acquired by the acquisition part (US’576, ¶[0026]:“the CPU 11 outputs a tone generation instruction to the sound source 14, thereby rendering the Sound Source 14 to start generation of a tone” and ¶[0031]:“The sound source 14 generates tones … based on tone generation instructions”, ;
a change amount acquisition part configured to acquire a pitch change amount that is a change amount by which a pitch is changed (US’576, ¶[0057]:“the pitch difference between the current note and the previous tone note”; “the pitch of the tone … is changed by the pitch difference”);(US’876, col 12, lines 20-22:”Relative Pitch Change Request: a request for the current pitch of the string to be altered by a specific number of semitones … ”);
and a pitch changing part configured to change a pitch of the musical tone generated by the tone generation (US’576, ¶[0057]:“ an instruction to change the pitch … by the pitch difference … is outputted to the sound source 14”).
US’576 does not expressly disclose ‘a changing string number acquisition part configured to acquire a string number of a string of a stringed instrument that is a pitch change target;
[and]
control part corresponding to the string number acquired by the changing string number acquisition part, on the basis of the pitch change amount acquired by the change amount acquisition part;
However, US’876 discloses ‘a changing string number acquisition part configured to acquire a string number of a string of a stringed instrument that is a pitch change target (US’876 col. 7, lines 30-32:”a plurality of motors driving a plurality of actuators which are connected to a plurality of strings, one motor and one actuator per string”, identifying and controlling individual strings per pitch alteration); and
control part corresponding to the string number acquired by the changing string number acquisition part, on the basis of the pitch change amount acquired by the change amount acquisition part (US’876, col. 7, lines 30-35:”a plurality of motors driving a plurality of actuators which are connected to a plurality of Strings, one motor and one actuator per string. A controller receives multiple incoming relative pitch change requests for a single string, calculates a pitch alteration request, then computes a new motor portion based on at least one compensation”).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art prior to the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the control device of US’576 to incorporate US’876’s string-specific pitch control because US’576 recognizes that a performer may repeatedly pluck the same string and perform pitch-change processing and note-off/silencing processing for the previously generated tone (US’576 ¶¶[0016], [0020], [0050]). US’876 teaches independently identifying and controlling individual strings for real-time pitch alteration. Combining these teachings will have enabled pitch changes to be selectively applied to the intended string while preserving the remaining strings during musical performance.
Regarding claim 2, US’576 (in view of US’876) discloses ‘The control device according to claim 1, as discussed above.
US’576 further discloses ‘wherein the pitch changing part does not change pitches of musical tones that are not being generated (US’576, ¶[0030]:“The note-on map is a map that indicates as to whether or not a tone … is being generated” ; ¶[0057]:”the pitch of the tone corresponding to the previous tone note is changed …. In other words, an output of a tone generation instruction for the current note is prohibited, thereby prohibiting the sound source 14 from generating a tone corresponding to the current note”, changes the pitch of a tone only that is already generated as the previous tone).
Regarding claim 3, US’576 (in view of US’876) discloses ‘The control device according to claim 1, as discussed above.
US’576 further discloses ‘further comprising: an attenuated tone output part configured to output an attenuated tone, the attenuated tone being a tone in an aspect in which the musical tone being generated is attenuated, when note-off is designated for the musical tone being generated (US’576, ¶[0031]:“the sound Source 14 generates a tone … adds an envelope waveform to the generated tone according to a setting, and outputs the tone”; ¶[0040]: “the note-off received is outputted to the Sound source 14, thereby silencing the tone corresponding to the note of the key that has been key-released”),
wherein the pitch changing part does not change pitches of the musical tone for which note-off (US’576, ¶[0040) is designated and the attenuated tone output by the attenuated tone output part (US’576, ¶[0057]:”the pitch of the tone corresponding to the previous tone note is changed …. In other words, an output of a tone generation instruction for the current note is prohibited, thereby prohibiting the sound source 14 from generating a tone corresponding to the current note”, the pitch-change processing is applied to the active/previous tone, while silencing process occurs based on note-off event).
Regarding claim 4, US’576 (in view of US’876) discloses ‘The control device according to claim 1, as discussed above.
US’576 further discloses ‘comprising: a tone color setting part configured to set a tone color to be generated according to the pitch (US’576, ¶[0031]:”The sound source 14 generates tones with a tone color set by the performer at pitches corresponding to those of the keys”),
wherein the pitch changing part changes the pitch of the musical tone according to the pitch change amount acquired by the change amount acquisition part, and changes the tone color of the musical tone to the tone color set by the tone color setting part according to the pitch of the musical tone (US’576, ¶[0057]:”… with a pitch, a sound volume and a tone color according to the tone generation instruction; “the pitch … is changed by the pitch difference”, changing pitch and changing/setting tone color according to changed pitch).
Regarding claim 5, US’576 (in view of US’876) discloses ‘The control device according to claim 4, as discussed above.
US’576 further discloses ‘wherein the pitch changing part stops the generation of the musical tone before changing the pitch and tone color and then starts the generation of the musical tone after changing the pitch and tone color when changing the pitch of the musical tone according to the pitch change amount acquired by the change amount acquisition part, and changing the tone color of the musical tone to the tone color set by the tone color setting part according to the pitch of the musical tone (US’576, ¶[0056]:“the tone corresponding to the previous tone note that is being generated is forcefully silenced (S22), like the first embodiment. Then, a tone generation process for the current note is executed (S23); ¶[0056]:“the pitch of the tone corresponding to the previous tone note is changed by the pitch difference).
Regarding claim 12, US’576 discloses ‘A musical tone generation method (US’576, ¶[0006]:”an electronic musical instrument, computer storage device, and method for generating tone”) comprising:
an acquisition step of acquiring performance information;
a tone generation control step of generating a musical tone based on the performance information acquired in the acquisition step;
a change amount acquisition step of acquiring a pitch change amount that is a change amount by which a pitch is changed;
a changing string number acquisition step of acquiring a string number of a string of a stringed instrument that is a pitch change target;
and a pitch changing step of changing a pitch of the musical tone generated in the tone generation control step corresponding to the string acquired in the changing string number acquisition step, on the basis of the pitch change amount acquired in the change amount acquisition step. (Claim 12 corresponds to claim 1)
Regarding claim 13, US’576 (in view of US’876) discloses ‘The musical tone generation method according to claim 12, as discussed above.
wherein the pitch changing step includes not changing pitches of musical tones that are not being generated. (Claim 13 corresponds to claim 2)
Regarding claim 14, US’576 (in view of US’876) discloses ‘The musical tone generation method according to claim 12, as discussed above.
comprising: an attenuated tone output step of outputting an attenuated tone, the attenuated tone being a tone in an aspect in which the musical tone being generated is attenuated, when note-off is designated for the musical tone being generated,
wherein the pitch changing step includes not changing pitches of the musical tone for which the note-off is designated and the attenuated tone output in the attenuated tone output step. (Claim 14 corresponds to claim 3)
Regarding claim 15, US’576 (in view of US’876) discloses ‘The musical tone generation method according to claim 12, as discussed above.
comprising: a tone color setting step of setting a tone color to be generated according to the pitch,
wherein the pitch changing step includes changing the pitch of the musical tone according to the pitch change amount acquired in the change amount acquisition step,
and changing the tone color of the musical tone to the tone color set in the tone color setting step according to the pitch of the musical tone. (Claim 15 corresponds to claim 4)
Regarding claim 16, US’576 (in view of US’876) discloses ‘The musical tone generation method according to claim 15, as discussed above.
wherein the pitch changing step includes stopping the generation of the musical tone before changing the pitch and tone color and then starting the generation of the musical tone after changing the pitch and tone color when changing the pitch of the musical tone according to the pitch change amount acquired in the change amount acquisition step,
and changing the tone color of the musical tone to the tone color set in the tone color setting step according to the pitch of the musical tone. (Claim 16 corresponds to claim 5)
Regarding claim 17, US’576 discloses ‘A computer-readable recording medium having a musical tone generation program for causing a computer to execute musical tone generation processing recorded thereon, the musical tone generation program causing the computer to execute (US’576, ¶[0027]:”The ROM12 is a non-rewritable memory, and stores a control program 12a to be executed by the CPU 11”):
an acquisition step of acquiring performance information;
a tone generation control step of generating a musical tone based on the performance information acquired in the acquisition step;
a change amount acquisition step of acquiring a pitch change amount that is a change amount by which a pitch is changed;
a changing string number acquisition step of acquiring a string number of a string of a stringed instrument that is a pitch change target;
and a pitch changing step of changing a pitch of the musical tone generated in the tone generation control step corresponding to the string acquired in the changing string number acquisition step, on the basis of the pitch change amount acquired in the change amount acquisition step. (Claim 17 corresponds to claim 1)
Regarding claim 18, US’576 (in view of US’876) discloses ‘The computer-readable recording medium having a musical tone generation program recorded thereon according to claim 17, as discussed above.
wherein the pitch changing step includes not changing pitches of musical tones that are not being generated. (Claim 18 corresponds to claim 2)
Regarding claim 19, US’576 (in view of US’876) discloses ‘The computer-readable recording medium having a musical tone generation program recorded thereon according to claim 17, as discussed above.
comprising: an attenuated tone output step of outputting an attenuated tone, the attenuated tone being a tone in an aspect in which the musical tone being generated is attenuated, when note-off is designated for the musical tone being generated,
wherein the pitch changing step includes not changing pitches of the musical tone for which the note-off is designated and the attenuated tone output in the attenuated tone output step. (Claim 19 corresponds to claim 3)
Regarding claim 20, US’576 (in view of US’876) discloses ‘The computer-readable recording medium having a musical tone generation program recorded thereon according to claim 17, as discussed above.
comprising: a tone color setting step of setting a tone color to be generated according to the pitch, wherein the pitch changing step includes changing the pitch of the musical tone according to the pitch change amount acquired in the change amount acquisition step,
and changing the tone color of the musical tone to the tone color set in the tone color setting step according to the pitch of the musical tone. (Claim 20 corresponds to claim 4)
Claims 6-11 are rejected under 35 U.S.C.103 as unpatentable over US’576, in view of US’876, in further view of US6995311 (Stevenson), hereinafter US’311.
Regarding claim 6, US’576 (in view of US’876) discloses ‘The control device according to claim 4, as discussed above.
US’576 (in view of US’876) does not expressly disclose ‘wherein the acquisition part acquires performance information based on the stringed instrument, and the tone color setting part sets the tone color to be generated according to a range of frets of the stringed instrument.
However, US’311 discloses ‘wherein the acquisition part acquires performance information based on the stringed instrument (US’311, col. 12, lines 13,16-17 & 20-21:“The transducer has a plurality of sensors”; “Each Sensor in the transducer System is dedicated to an individual String of the instrument”; the module tracks “signals representing the notes as they are played”),
and the tone color setting part sets the tone color to be generated according to a range of frets of the stringed instrument (US’311, col. 12, lines 43-49:“multiple independent pitch regions allocated to the fret board; … notes in the fret board region from 200 to 204 were pitch shifted down … Notes in fret positions 205 to 222 could be tuned conventionally”).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art of prior to the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the control device of US’576 (in view of US’876), to acquire performance information based on a stringed instrument and to set the tone color according to a range of frets of the stringed instrument taught by US’311, because independently processing string performance information according to playing position enables tone generation that more accurately reflects the characteristics of the performed note and improves the realism and expressiveness of the generated musical performance.
Regarding claim 7, US’576 (in view of US’876) discloses ‘The control device according to claim 5, as discussed above.
US’576 (in view of US’876) does not expressly disclose ‘wherein the acquisition part acquires performance information based on the stringed instrument, and the tone color setting part sets the tone color to be generated according to a range of frets of the stringed instrument.
However, US’311 discloses ‘wherein the acquisition part acquires performance information based on the stringed instrument (US’311, col. 12, lines 13,16-17 & 20-21:“The transducer has a plurality of sensors”; “Each Sensor in the transducer System is dedicated to an individual String of the instrument”; the module tracks “signals representing the notes as they are played”),
and the tone color setting part sets the tone color to be generated according to a range of frets of the stringed instrument (US’311, col. 12, lines 43-49:“multiple independent pitch regions allocated to the fret board; … notes in the fret board region from 200 to 204 were pitch shifted down … Notes in fret positions 205 to 222 could be tuned conventionally”).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art prior to the effective filing date of the claimed invention to further modify US’576 (in view of US’876), to acquire performance information based on a stringed instrument and to set the tone color according to a range of frets of the stringed instrument, as taught by US’311, because US’311’s string-based performance acquisition naturally enables processing according to fret position, thereby allowing the generated tone color to vary according to the performed fret range while maintaining the operation of the tone-generation system.
Regarding claim 8, US’576 (in view of US’876) discloses ‘The control device according to claim 1, as discussed above.
US’576 (in view of US’876) does not expressly disclose ‘wherein the acquisition part acquires independent performance information for each string of the stringed instrument.
However, US’311 discloses ‘wherein the acquisition part acquires independent performance information for each string of the stringed instrument (US’311 col.8, lines 8-9:“The System monitors each String Separately”; col. 12, lines 16-17:“Each Sensor in the transducer System is dedicated to an individual String of the instrument”).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art prior to the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the control device of US’576 (in view of US’876), to acquire independent performance information for each string of the stringed instrument, taught by US’311, because US’311 expressly processes the signals of individual strings separately, allowing each string to independently monitored and pitch processed. Incorporating US’311’s independent string acquisition into US’576’s tone-generation control would have improved the accuracy of string-specific pitch modification and tone generation while preserving the known operation of each reference. The combination represents the use of known techniques to improve similar devices in the same field.
Regarding claim 9, US’576 (in view of US’876) discloses ‘The control device according to claim 2, as discussed above.
US’576 (in view of US’876) does not expressly disclose ‘wherein the acquisition part acquires independent performance information for each string of the stringed instrument.
However, US’311 discloses ‘wherein the acquisition part acquires independent performance information for each string of the stringed instrument (US’311 col.8, lines 8-9:“The System monitors each String Separately”).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art prior to the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the control device of US’576 (in view of US’876), to acquire independent performance information for each string of the stringed instrument, taught by US’311, because US’311 expressly processes the signals of individual strings separately, allowing each string to independently monitored and pitch processed. Incorporating US’311’s independent string acquisition into US’576’s tone-generation control would have improved the accuracy of string-specific pitch modification and tone generation while preserving the known operation of each reference. The combination represents the use of known techniques to improve similar devices in the same field.
Regarding claim 10, US’576 (in view of US’876) discloses ‘The control device according to claim 3, as discussed above.
US’576 (in view of US’876) does not expressly disclose ‘wherein the acquisition part acquires independent performance information for each string of the stringed instrument
However, US’311 discloses ‘wherein the acquisition part acquires independent performance information for each string of the stringed instrument (US’311 col.8, lines 8-9:“The System monitors each String Separately”; col. 12, lines 16-17:“Each Sensor in the transducer System is dedicated to an individual String of the instrument”).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art prior to the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the control device of US’576 (in view of US’876), to acquire independent performance information for each string of the stringed instrument, taught by US’311, because US’311 expressly processes the signals of individual strings separately, allowing each string to independently monitored and pitch processed. Incorporating US’311’s independent string acquisition into US’576’s tone-generation control would have improved the accuracy of string-specific pitch modification and tone generation while preserving the known operation of each reference. The combination represents the use of known techniques to improve similar devices in the same field.
Regarding claim 11, US’576 (in view of US’876) discloses ‘The control device according to claim 4, as discussed above.
US’576 (in view of US’876) does not expressly disclose ‘wherein the acquisition part acquires independent.
However, US’311 discloses ‘wherein the acquisition part acquires independent performance information for each string of the stringed instrument (US’311 col.8, lines 8-9:“The System monitors each String Separately”).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art of prior to the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the control device of US’576 (in view of US’876), to acquire performance information based on a stringed instrument and to set the tone color according to a range of frets of the stringed instrument taught by US’311, because independently processing string performance information according to playing position enables tone generation that more accurately reflects the characteristics of the performed note and improves the realism and expressiveness of the generated musical performance.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to NICOLE K GILLESPIE whose telephone number is (571)482-4187. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Friday 7:30-5pm.
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/NICOLE K GILLESPIE/Examiner, Art Unit 2837
/DEDEI K HAMMOND/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2837
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