Patent
Fragment search apparatus and method
| العنوان: | Fragment search apparatus and method |
|---|---|
| Patent Number: | 7,812,240 |
| تاريخ النشر: | October 12, 2010 |
| Appl. No: | 12/287584 |
| Application Filed: | October 10, 2008 |
| مستخلص: | Analysis section divides waveform data of a given music piece into waveform data of a plurality of fragments and divides the waveform data of each of the fragments into one or more events of sound, and obtains a character value indicative of a character of the waveform data pertaining to each of the divided events. Storage section stores respective music piece data and music piece composing data of one or more music pieces. The music piece composing data include a character value indicative of a character of the waveform data pertaining to each of the events of each of the fragments. Search section searches (or retrieves) for, from among the stored music piece composing data, one event or a plurality of successive events having a character value of a high degree of similarity to one or more events included in a designated fragment. |
| Inventors: | Streich, Sebastian (Delft, NL); Bonada, Jordi (Barcelona, ES); Roig, Samuel (Barcelona, ES) |
| Assignees: | Yamaha Corporation (Hamamatsu-shi, JP) |
| Claim: | 1. An apparatus for searching for a fragment of a music piece, which comprises: a storage section that stores respective music piece data and music piece composing data of one or more music pieces, the music piece data of each of the music pieces being waveform data of the music piece, the waveform data of the music piece being managed for each of a plurality of divided fragments of the waveform data and for each of one or more events of sound included in each of the fragments, the music piece composing data of each of the music pieces including, in association with each of the one or more events included in each of the fragments, a character value indicative of a character of waveform data pertaining to the event; a designation section that designates a specific fragment from among the music piece data stored in said storage section; and a search section that searches for, from among the music piece composing data stored in said storage section, one event or a plurality of successive events having a character value of a high degree of similarity to one or more events included in the fragment designated by said designation section, and takes out the waveform data of one event or successive events, searched out thereby, from among the music piece data stored in said storage section. |
| Claim: | 2. The apparatus as claimed in claim 1 wherein each of the events is a section of a sound starting with a rise of the sound. |
| Claim: | 3. The apparatus as claimed in claim 1 wherein the one event or the plurality of successive events to be searched for by said search section is included in one fragment. |
| Claim: | 4. The apparatus as claimed in claim 3 wherein the music piece composing data of each of the music pieces further include, as first management data for managing the waveform data of the music piece divided into the plurality of fragments, data indicative of respective positions, in said storage section, of the waveform data of individual ones of the fragments, and said search section takes out, from among the music piece data stored in said storage section in accordance with said first management data, the waveform data of the fragment including the searched-out one event or successive events. |
| Claim: | 5. The apparatus as claimed in claim 1 wherein the one event or the plurality of successive events to be searched for by said search section stride across a plurality of successive fragments. |
| Claim: | 6. The apparatus as claimed in claim 5 wherein the music piece composing data of each of the music pieces include, as second management data for managing the waveform data of each of the fragments divided into the waveform data of one or more events included in the fragment, data indicative of respective positions, in said storage section, the waveform data of individual ones of the events, and said search section takes out, from among the music piece data stored in said storage section in accordance with at least said second management data, the waveform data of the searched-out one event or successive events. |
| Claim: | 7. The apparatus as claimed in claim 1 wherein the music piece composing data of each of the music pieces include first management data for managing the waveform data of the music piece divided into a plurality of fragments, and second management data for managing the waveform data of each of the fragments divided into waveform data of each of one or more events included in the fragment. |
| Claim: | 8. The apparatus as claimed in claim 1 wherein said storage section has stored therein character values of a plurality of types of character elements as a character value indicative of a character of the waveform of the event. |
| Claim: | 9. The apparatus as claimed in claim 8 wherein said plurality of types of character values include any of sound volume, pitch and timbre. |
| Claim: | 10. The apparatus as claimed in claim 1 wherein each of the fragments is a section defined by dividing a music piece at each time point synchronous with a beat. |
| Claim: | 11. The apparatus as claimed in claim 1 which further comprises an analysis section that analyzes waveform data of a given music piece by dividing the waveform data of the given music piece into waveform data of a plurality of fragments and dividing the waveform data of each of the fragments into one or more events of sound, and obtains a character value indicative of a character of the waveform data pertaining to each of the divided events, and wherein not only the waveform data of the given music piece are stored into said storage section as the music piece data, but also the character value of each of the events pertaining to the waveform data of the given music piece analyzed by said analysis section is stored into said storage section as the music piece composing data. |
| Claim: | 12. The apparatus as claimed in claim 11 wherein said analysis section divides the waveform data of a given event into frames each of a predetermined time length, obtains average waveform data of all frames of the given event, and analyzes the waveform data to generate a character value of the given event. |
| Claim: | 13. The apparatus as claimed in claim 11 wherein, for the waveform data of the given event, said analysis section obtains values of a plurality of types of character elements per frame of the predetermined time length and simplifies the values of the plurality of types of character elements in each of the frames in accordance with simplifying algorithms determined depending on the types of character elements, and wherein said analysis section generates the simplified values as respective character values of the character elements for the given event. |
| Claim: | 14. The apparatus as claimed in claim 13 wherein said plurality of types of character elements are sound volume, pitch and timbre, and wherein said analysis section generates character values of the given event by: determining, as a simplified sound volume, a maximum value of sound volumes of all of the frames in the given event and generating the determined simplified sound volume as a character value of the sound volume; determining, as a simplified pitch, a weighted average of instantaneous pitches of all of the frames in the given event calculated using a weighting coefficient corresponding to a product between an instantaneous sound volume and instantaneous pitch clearness of each of the frames in the given event and generating the determined simplified pitch as a character value of the pitch; and determining, as a simplified timbre, an instantaneous timbre of a predetermined number of frames starting at a start point of the given event and generating the determined simplified timbre as a character value of the timbre. |
| Claim: | 15. The apparatus as claimed in claim 1 which further comprises a synthesis section that uses the waveform data of the one event or successive events, taken out by said search section, for editing of music piece data or creation of new music piece data. |
| Claim: | 16. A method for execution by a computer for searching for a fragment of a music piece by use of a storage section that stores respective music piece data and music piece composing data of one or more music pieces, the music piece data of each of the music pieces being waveform data of the music piece, the waveform data of the music piece being managed for each of a plurality of divided fragments of the waveform data and for each of one or more events of sound included in each of the fragments, the music piece composing data of each of the music pieces including, in association with each of the one or more events included in each of the fragments, a character value indicative of a character of waveform data pertaining to the event, said method comprising: a step of designating a specific fragment from among the music piece data stored in the storage section; and a step of searching for, from among the music piece composing data stored in the storage section, one event or a plurality of successive events having a character value of a high degree of similarity to one or more events included in the fragment designated by said step of designating, and taking out the waveform data of one event or successive events, searched out by said step of searching, from among the music piece data stored in the storage section. |
| Claim: | 17. The method as claimed in claim 16 which further comprises: a step of analyzing waveform data of a given music piece by dividing the waveform data of the given music piece into waveform data of a plurality of fragments and dividing the waveform data of each of the fragments into one or more events of sound, and obtaining a character value indicative of a character of the waveform data pertaining to each of the divided events, and a step of not only storing the waveform data of the given music piece into the storage section as the music piece data but also storing the character value of each of the events pertaining to the waveform data of the given music piece, analyzed by said step of analyzing, into the storage section as the music piece composing data. |
| Claim: | 18. A computer-readable storage medium containing a program for searching for a fragment of a music piece by use of a storage section that stores respective music piece data and music piece composing data of one or more music pieces, the music piece data of each of the music pieces being waveform data of the music piece, the waveform data of the music piece being managed for each of a plurality of divided fragments of the waveform data and for each of one or more events of sound included in each of the fragments, the music piece composing data of each of the music pieces including, in association with each of the one or more events included in each of the fragments, a character value indicative of a character of waveform data pertaining to the event, said program comprising: a step of designating a specific fragment from among the music piece data stored in the storage section; and a step of searching for, from among the music piece composing data stored in the storage section, one event or a plurality of successive events having a character value of a high degree of similarity to one or more events included in the fragment designated by said step of designating, and taking out the waveform data of one event or successive events, searched out by said step of searching, from among the music piece data stored in the storage section. |
| Claim: | 19. The computer-readable storage medium as claimed in claim 18 wherein said program further comprises: a step of analyzing waveform data of a given music piece by dividing the waveform data of the given music piece into waveform data of a plurality of fragments and dividing the waveform data of each of the fragments into one or more events of sound, and obtaining a character value indicative of a character of the waveform data pertaining to each of the divided events, and a step of not only storing the waveform data of the given music piece into the storage section as the music piece data but also storing the character value of each of the events pertaining to the waveform data of the given music piece, analyzed by said step of analyzing, into the storage section as the music piece composing data. |
| Current U.S. Class: | 84/609 |
| Patent References Cited: | 5877445 March 1999 Hufford et al. 7576278 August 2009 Urata 7696426 April 2010 Cope 2007/0291958 December 2007 Jehan 2008/0115658 May 2008 Fujishima et al. 1 923 863 May 2008 WO 99/42990 August 1999 WO 2007/029002 March 2007 WO 2007/029002 March 2007 |
| Other References: | European Patent Office: Extended European Search Report for Patent Application No. 08166301.5 (Dated: Jan. 7, 2009; 9 pgs.). cited by other Kris West and Stephen Cox, “Finding an Optimal Segmentation for Audio Genre Classification”, (2005, Queen Mary, University of London; 4 pgs.). cited by other Kris West, Stephen Cox and Paul Lamere, “Incorporating Machine-Learning into Music Similarity Estimation”, (Oct. 27, 2006, Santa Barbara, California; 5 pgs.). cited by other Tristan Jehan, “Creating Music by Listening,” Massachusetts Institue of Technology, p. 1-137, (Sep. 2005). cited by other Deimo Schwarz, “A System for Data-Driven Concatenative Sound Synthesis,” Proceeding of the COST G-6 Conference on Digital Audio Effects (DAFX-00), p. 1-6, (Dec. 9, 2000). cited by other Ari Lazier, et al., “Mosievius: Feature Driven Interactive Audio Mosaicing,” Proceedings of the 6th International Conference on Digital Audio Effects (DAFX-03), Department of Computer Science (and Music) Princeton University (London, UK), p. 1-6, (Aug. 11, 2003). cited by other Aymeric Zils, et al., “Musical Mosaicing,” Proceeding of the COST G-6 Conference on Digital Audio Effects (DAFX-01), Sony Computer Science Laboratory (Limerik, Ireland), p. 1-6, (Jun. 8, 2001). cited by other |
| Primary Examiner: | Qin, Jianchun |
| Attorney, Agent or Firm: | Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP |
| رقم الانضمام: | edspgr.07812240 |
| قاعدة البيانات: | USPTO Patent Grants |
| الوصف غير متاح. |