Midi mallet for touch screen devices

Abstract

For music production, the velocity values with the purpose of creating dynamic percussion in cooperation with a value measuring surface (a touch screen tablet or touch screen phone) has the ability to simulate the tension of a percussion instrument thus tone values are correlated with X, Y values from a measuring surface and dynamics values are measured with velocity, all inclusive, wireless and cooperative with MIDI software.

Claims

1. An electronic percussion instrument, comprising: a casing in the shape of a mallet; force sensitive resisting sensors that encapsulate the top of the mallet and produce a generated electrical conductivity value when applied with pressure; a programmed microcontroller which calculates a force measurement from the generated electrical conductivity value and outputs a MIDI value through a Bluetooth wireless signal; a personal computer running a software program that receives the MIDI value.

2. An electronic percussion instrument as aforementioned in claim 1 has an electrically conductive coating that covers the entire outer casing of the mallet.

Description

A BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF SEVERAL VIEWS OF THE DRAWING

(1) FIG. 1a-Overview of the midi mallet with a spherical head and a cylindrical base

(2) FIG. 1bThe inner composition consisting of a battery, a micro controller, and a force sensitive resistor

(3) FIG. 2aCircuitry of the micro controller to the power source

(4) FIG. 2bCircuitry of the micro controller to the Bluetooth Chip

(5) FIG. 2cCircuitry of the micro controller to the Force sensitive resistor

(6) FIG. 3aLinear shape diagram of the Force Sensitive Resistor

(7) FIG. 3bSpherical shape diagram of the Force Sensitive Resistor

(8) FIG. 3cOverview of a Force Sensitive Resistor

(9) FIG. 4Layered Diagram of the MIDI Mallet

(10) FIG. 5aInterior core of the Midi Mallet and components

(11) FIG. 5bExterior conductive wrap

THE MIDI MALLET

(12) FIG. 1a is an overview of the invention FIG. 1a (1) is the head of the mallet which contains the force sensitive resistor and FIG. 1a (2) is the base which contains the circuitry and battery.

(13) The Circuitry

(14) FIG. 1b show the inner workings of the MIDI mallet, FIG. 1b (7) show the AAAA battery, which is attached by a conductive wire FIG. 1b (6) which is attached to an Arduino Micro controller FIG. 1b (5) with Bluetooth FIG. 2b (8) which attaches to a Force Sensitive Resistor FIG. 1b (3).

(15) The Design

(16) The core of the Midi Mallet (FIG. 5a) is composed to two separate pieces, the top mallet core FIG. 5b(15) which contains a male screw helix FIG. 5a(16) and the base piece FIG. 5b(14) which contains a female screw helix FIG. 5a(17) a hole for an on/off switch FIG. 5b(18) and a sliding battery door compartment FIG. 5a(19).

(17) The mallet core FIG. 5a (14) is overlapped with a force sensitive resistor FIG. 4 (3)/FIG. 3c/FIG. 3a and attached with a small amount of glue.

(18) The outer conductive layer FIG. 4 (13), FIG. 5b (13) is a thin wrap made of an electrically conductive anti-static plastic that conducts electricity; alternatively it can also be a thin plastic wrap FIG. 5b (13) coated with conductive ink.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

(19) The present invention has been made to optimize the use of a touch screen device in professional music production. The current limitations of previous inventions are as follows: devices are large, bulky and must be connected through a USB port. Devices are unable to recreate an effective drum tension that otherwise creates the subtle tone of a drum and USB MIDI controllers play more like a piano than a drum.

(20) An object of the present invention is that it is designed to work with a touch screen device which eliminates the use of a bulky box or surface measuring device and at the same time gives the user more control of the subtle dynamics of percussion. Another object of the current invention is the wireless capabilities and that it is battery powered.

(21) A further object is that it not only replicates the timber and tone of a real drum, it plays like a real drum in the sense that you are striking something with a mallet.

(22) For the fore mentioned invention to adequately simulate a real drum it must work in cooperation with a touch screen device, and a specific software designed with preloaded musical recordings which are called samples that are triggered based on a 3 dimensional grid.

(23) The 3 dimensional grid consist of an X and Y coordinate which is based on where the mallet touches the touch screen device and a Z coordinate which is dictated based on the force in which the device is struck. All combined X, Y and Z allows for a larger amount of different samples to be triggered.

SEQUENCE LISTING

(24) NOT APPLICABLE