Designers and manufacturers of musical equipment, such as electronic pianos, are constantly striving to improve the musical equipment. For example, designers and manufacturers continue striving to make electronic instruments perform and feel like non-electronic musical instruments. One difference between electronic instruments and non-electronic instruments is that many electronic instruments typically provide little to no realistic haptic effects. As a result, musicians playing many electronic instruments can only hear the music and cannot feel a satisfactory response to the music. In other words, pressing down on a key on an electronic keyboard feels differently than pressing down on a key on a piano, as there is generally no appreciable vibration from the key on the electronic keyboard and/or no appreciable resistance from the key on the electronic keyboard that is usable in an effective manner by most users of electronic musical instruments.
Another area for improvement is teaching musical instruments. Traditionally, a student watches a teacher play an instrument, and the student learns visual and acoustically. Piano lessons are typically taught with a student sitting next to a teacher with the teacher playing the piano thus demonstrating how to play a particular melody. Since the student does not have their fingers on the keyboard, the student cannot feel haptic feedback on the keys of the piano. Thus, the student cannot feel, in an effective and efficient manner, the instructor pressing down harder on one key than the other keys.
Thus, a need exists for methods and systems for providing haptic effects to a musical instrument.
USPTO Backgrounds
USPTO Backgrounds