A musical instrument includes a hollow body with an air inlet to blow air into the body, and an air outlet to allow the air to exit the body. A number of holes are provided which are suitable to be closed by a player. A sensor group includes proximity sensors located near the holes to detect if the holes are closed or open. One control unit is electrically connected to the sensor group, and power supply unit is connected to the sensor group and the control unit to power up the sensor group and the control unit.

In several embodiments of the invention, a pickup saddle for a stringed instrument includes a U-shaped top cap having two legs, each leg including a receiving portion configured to mate with a mating portion of a base, a base fitted to the interior of the top cap, where two surfaces of the base include a mating portion matching with and affixed to a receiving portion of the top cap, a piezoelectric transducer placed between the top cap and the base and electrically connected to the base, a positive wire connected to the piezoelectric transducer, and a ground wire connected to the base.

Provided is a musical instrument including a vibratable body; and a vibrator. The vibrator includes a vibrating body that vibrates in a predetermined direction; and a coupling member coupling the vibrating body and the vibratable body and that transmits vibration of the vibrating body to the vibratable body. The coupling member includes a shaft extending between the vibrating body and the vibratable body; a first wire rod coupling one end portion of the shaft and the vibrating body; and a second wire rod coupling another end portion of the shaft and the vibratable body. A resonance frequency of each of the shaft, the first wire rod, and the second wire rod is at least 10 kHz.

A pickup system for an acoustic instrument having strings. The pickup system includes a mounting device configured to be coupled with an acoustic instrument, a sensing element secured to the mounting device and configured to convert mechanical vibrations produced by strings of the acoustic instrument into an electrical signal, and a secondary element secured to the mounting device and configured to reduce pickup of noise produced by sources other then the strings of the acoustic instrument.

Methods and apparatus to use predicted actions in VR environments are disclosed. An example method includes predicting a predicted time of a predicted virtual contact of a virtual reality controller with a virtual object, determining, based on at least one parameter of the predicted virtual contact, a characteristic of a virtual output the object would make in response to the virtual contact, and initiating producing the virtual output before the predicted time of the virtual contact of the controller with the virtual object.

Methods and apparatus to use predicted actions in VR environments are disclosed. An example method includes predicting a predicted time of a predicted virtual contact of a virtual reality controller with a virtual object, determining, based on at least one parameter of the predicted virtual contact, a characteristic of a virtual output the object would make in response to the virtual contact, and initiating producing the virtual output before the predicted time of the virtual contact of the controller with the virtual object.

The musical instrument includes: a pickup that acquires an electric sound signal corresponding to a sound performed on the musical instrument; effector circuitry that imparts an effect to the acquired electric sound signal; a vibrator that produces mechanical vibration corresponding to the effect-imparted sound signal; and a transmission device that transmits the mechanical vibration, produced by the vibrator, to the body of the musical instrument with a characteristic having a fundamental frequency region of the musical instrument suppressed. The electric sound signal corresponding to the performed sound is imparted with an effect, the vibrator is driven by the effect-imparted sound signal, and a mechanical vibration sound is generated from the body of the musical instrument. The thus-generated mechanical vibration sound is audibly generated from the body as a vibration sound additional to the performed sound, which allows a user to experience a performance feeling that has never existed before.

An electronic musical instrument is equipped with plural series combinations of switches and resistors and a piezoelectric transducer associated with a movable member for producing electric signals representative of player's intentions to music sound to be generated, and a signal processing system processes the signals for generating the music sound; the signal processing system has a voltage discriminator so that the plural series combinations are connected in parallel to the voltage discriminator through a single conductive line; a vibration absorber is inserted between the movable member and the piezoelectric transducer so that the piezoelectric transducer exactly converts the motion of the movable member to the electric signal at each player's manipulation.

A handheld musical instrument for generating percussion sounds, the handheld musical instrument includes a body part with one or more sensors, a set of control buttons to select a type of audio output to be generated by said handheld musical instrument, and a handle part coupled to said body part, the handle part including the set of control buttons and operable between a first position and a second position.

A handheld musical instrument for generating percussion sounds, the handheld musical instrument includes a body part with one or more sensors, a set of control buttons to select a type of audio output to be generated by said handheld musical instrument, and a handle part coupled to said body part, the handle part including the set of control buttons and operable between a first position and a second position.