# US 5,708,227 A · Electronic musical instrument

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- Number: US 5,708,227 A
- Document ID: US5708227A
- Status: Granted
- Kind: A
- Application number: 08/747,994
- Filed: 1996-11-12
- Granted: 1998-01-13
- Earliest claimed: 1993-12-28
- Assignees: Kabushiki Kaisha Kawai Gakki Seisakusho
- Inventors: Taichi Kosugi
- Web page: https://patentgrep.com/patent/US5708227A

## CPC

- G10H 1/181: {Suppression of switching-noise}
- H03M 11/20: Dynamic coding, i.e. by key scanning (H03M11/26 takes precedence)
- G10H: ELECTROPHONIC MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS; INSTRUMENTS IN WHICH THE TONES ARE GENERATED BY ELECTROMECHANICAL MEANS OR ELECTRONIC GENERATORS, OR IN WHICH THE TONES ARE SYNTHESISED FROM A DATA STORE
- H03M: CODING; DECODING; CODE CONVERSION IN GENERAL (using fluidic means F15C4/00; optical analogue/digital converters G02F7/00; coding, decoding or code conversion, specially adapted for particular applications, see the relevant subclasses, e.g. G01D, G01R, G06F, G06T, G09G, G10L, G11B, G11C, H04B, H04L, H04M, H04N; ciphering or deciphering for cryptography or other purposes involving the need for secrecy G09C)

## Abstract

In an electronic musical instrument which generates musical tone signals based on playing information input from a key switch circuit 10, a key scan circuit 11 includes a decode circuit 22 to which the current status information and the previous status information read out from a scan data memory 21 are input, and if status information which cannot be processed is input, the decode circuit 22 converts it to status information which can be processed, and if there is no empty space in an output data buffer 24, the decode circuit 22 detects no status change. Such construction allows malfunction to be prevented with a simple construction.

## Claims

### Claim 1

An electronic musical instrument which generates musical tone signals based on playing information input from a keyboard having a plurality of keys, each key being provided with a first and second switches, the first switch operating first at the time of key-on, the second switch operating first at the time of key-off, the electronic musical instrument comprising:
a scan means for sequentially generating current status information on the first and second switches,
a memory means for storing the status information on the first and second switches,
a decode means for being supplied, for each key, with a current status information generated by the scan means and the previous status information read out from the memory means, and if the current status information being physically irrational is supplied, converting it to a physically logical status and outputting as a corrected status information avoiding outputting malfunctions due to noise,
wherein the memory means stores the output status information from the decode means for each key as the previous status information, and
a playing information generation means for outputting playing information based on the output information from the decode means.

### Claim 2 (depends on 1)

An electronic musical instrument as set forth in claim 1 wherein each key has two switches operating at different timings, and
the decode means is such that, if status information is input which indicates that the first switch operating first is off and the second switch operating later is on, it outputs status information indicating that both switches are on if the previous status information indicates both switches being on, otherwise it outputs status information indicating that both switches are off.

### Claim 3 (depends on 1)

An electronic musical instrument as set forth in claim 1 wherein each key has two switches operating at different timings, and
the decode means is such that, if status information is input which indicates that the first switch operating first and the second switch operating later simultaneously turn to on, it outputs status information indicating that only the first switch is on.

### Claim 4 (depends on 1)

An electronic musical instrument as set forth in claim 1 further comprising an output buffer means for storing playing information which is the output from said playing information generation means, and outputting no-empty information to the decode means if there is no empty space, and wherein
the decode means, upon receipt of the no-empty information, outputs the previous status information read out from the memory means as output status information, without making any change.

### Claim 5 (depends on 1)

An electronic musical instrument as set forth in claim 1 wherein said memory means stores touch information calculation data and calculation data for chattering removal for each key, and includes as arithmetic circuit for performing the time sharing processing of at least two calculations of the calculation of touch data, the calculation for chattering removal and the address calculation of the output buffer means for each key.