ECE 477
Digital Systems Senior Design Project
Rev 9/12
Homework 10: Patent Liability Analysis
Team Code Name: ________Piano Glove_________________________ Group No. __3_
Team Member Completing This Homework: _________Mihir Shah__________________
E-mail Address of Team Member: mushah @ purdue.edu
NOTE: This is the second in a series of four “professional component” homework assignments,
each of which is to be completed by one team member. The body of the report should be 3-5
pages, not including this cover sheet, references, attachments or appendices.
Evaluation:
SEC
DESCRIPTION
MAX
1.0
Introduction
5
2.0
Results of Patent and Product Search
40
3.0
Analysis of Patent Liability
30
4.0
Action Recommended
10
5.0
Summary
5
6.0
List of References
10
TOTAL
100
Comments:
SCORE
ECE 477
Digital Systems Senior Design Project
Rev 9/12
1.0 Introduction
The Piano Glove allows users to simulate playing a piano by using a glove, which will be worn
by the user, and an external processing unit called the stationary unit. The “piano keys” are
simulated by any flat and horizontal surface, which the user will press down onto with his/her
fingertips. The stationary unit is designed to reduce the amount of circuitry built onto the glove
itself as well as the amount of power drawn from the battery. Multiple tasks are assigned to the
stationary unit, the most important of which will be the ability to perform computations of
signals in real time. The stationary unit is also to measure the distance between itself and the
gloves by method of ultrasound. In addition, it will be receiving a wireless signal from a built-in
microcontroller located on the gloves, via Bluetooth.
In this report I have analyzed three patents which substantially perform similar function but in a
different way.
Patent 1- US7378585 - Musical teaching device and method using gloves and virtual keyboard
Patent 2- US7,674,969 B2 – Finger Musical Instrument
Patent 3- US4,635,516-Tone generating glove and associated switches
2.0 Results of Patent and Product Search
Patent 1- - US7378585 - Musical teaching device and method using gloves and virtual
keyboard
Date Filed: November 28th, 2005
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Digital Systems Senior Design Project
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Abstract: This invention consists of two gloves. Each glove contains finger sleeves adapted to fit
the fingers of a user’s hands. There is a display which provides a virtual representation of the
user’s hands in relation to a virtual keyboard which is displayed on a monitor and a control
means to communicate with the finger sleeves to provide control signals that cause the finger
sleeves to strike proper keys on a virtual piano. Goal of this invention is to train the hands of user
to play songs of all difficulty that would take 10 years to play properly can be reduced to matter
of few months. Although, our products have similar functions the goal of our products is
different. Goal of products is to make a low-cost piano glove which would be mainly used by
kids to play.
Key Similarities (possible area for infringement):
1- Sending control signals from the glove to a controller (in this case a laptop).
Claims made by this patent relevant to our project:
1- A controller in communication with said finger sleeves to provide control signals to said
finger sleeves to cause the fingers of a user’s hands to strike a key on said virtual
keyboard necessary to play a segment.
2- An audio circuit connected to the controller for providing the proper sound for said
segment of music being played.
3- A piano teaching interface as set forth in claim 1,wherein said pair of gloves comprise a
pair of sensor gloves including plurality of flexible sensors located at various positions
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ECE 477
Digital Systems Senior Design Project
Rev 9/12
thereon, and said controller includes software that converts data obtained from the sensor
gloves into a graphical hand on said display which directly mimics the movement of the
users hands.
4- Commanding said controller to send signals to said finger sleeves to cause the finger of a
user’s hands to strike at least one virtual key.
5- Commanding said controller to send signals to the audio circuit to play the appropriate
sounds for said musical score.
Patent 2 – US7,674,969 B2 – Finger Musical Instrument
Date Filed: February 13th, 2008
Abstract: The finger musical instrument consists of two gloves. Performance keys are distributed
on the fingertips of each of the gloves, and a sound box positioned at each of the gloves. There is
a combinational key positioned at palm heel of each glove. Apart from the these keys, there are
pair of controllers and a pair of range selection switches used for making a sound higher or lower
by an octave. Each of the controllers is connected with one of the range selection switches..
Claims made by this patent:
1- The sound box plays an accompanying sound under control of the controller.
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Digital Systems Senior Design Project
Rev 9/12
2- A finger musical instrument, comprising: first glove and second glove, some of the
performance keys distributed on the finger tip of each of the gloves and a sound box
positioned at each of the gloves.
3- The finger musical instrument wherein the sound box further includes a housing, a
speaker connected with the controller for giving out a sound and a battery as a power
supply for the controller and speaker.
Patent 3- US4,635,516-Tone generating glove and associated switches
Date Filed: September 17th, 1987
Abstract: A tone generating glove includes switches and a tone generating circuit. The switches
are connected to tone generating circuit. The switches are connected to the tone generating
circuit, and both the switches and the circuit is mounted on the glove. The circuit produces a tone
or tones when one or more switches are pressed. The tone generating glove may include a
transmitter for transmitting the tone or tones that are produced to a FM or AM receiver.
Claims made by this Patent:
1- “A tone generated glove as recited in claim 1, wherein said tone generating means
generates a plurality of tones.
2- “A tone generating glove recited in claim 2, wherein each one of the said switches
uniquely corresponds to each one of the said tones.”
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Digital Systems Senior Design Project
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3- “A tone generating glove recited in claim 1, further comprising transmitter means of
transmitting to a receiver a signal representative of a tone generated by said tone
generating means, said transmitter means being mounted in said glove and being
connected to said tone generating means.”
3.0 Analysis of Patent Liability
In this section, I will compare our design with each of the patents above. I will talk about the
potential liability for infringement.
Patent 1Claim 1- Only possibility for infringement in this claim is that our product also provides
control signals to the controller.
Claim 2- In this claim, the patent filer mentions of the audio circuit connected to the
controller for providing the proper sound for said segment of music being played. This claim
will cause an infringement as our product also uses an audio circuit which is connected to our
sound box to provide the appropriate note for the key pressed on the virtual keyboard.
Claim 3- In this claim, the device consists of pair of sensor gloves including multiple flexible
sensors located at various positions to obtain data of the gloves. The controller includes
software that converts the data obtained from the sensor gloves into a graphical hand. Our
design is not so complex and is much more simple we have pressure sensors on the finger tip
of the glove which sends signals to the sound box via the ultrasonic ping.
Patent 2—
Claim 1- This claim talks more regarding the function of the device and not about the mechanism
behind it. In this patent, this is most likely claim which can cause infringement.
Claim 2- When comparing this claim to our product, only thing which is similar is that there is
some sort of sensor on the finger tip of each glove. While our design uses pressure sensors, this
product uses “performance keys”.
Claim 3- This device consists of sound box , which is connected to the controller on the glove,
which includes a speaker connected with the controller for giving out a sound and a battery as a
power supply for controller and speaker.
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Digital Systems Senior Design Project
Rev 9/12
Our design, although similar is not connected to the glove. The glove sends out signals to our
sound box which also houses a speaker and a controller. Our sound box will be powered with a
5V adapter unlike batteries as used in this design.
Patent 3—
Claim 1-The only similarity to this design is that function-wise both these gloves produce tones.
Only on this basis, I do not feel there is a possibility of infringement as there are lot of devices
which produce tones. The mechanism used by the two devices is different. While our design
uses pressure sensors to sense the taps and produce the appropriate notes, this device uses
switches mounted in the glove. Therefore, the function is the same but the mechanism in which
both these devices achieve these functions is completely different.
Claim 2- As mentioned in the above paragraph, this instrument uses switches to produce the
tones and it’s the actuation of one of these switches. In our design, the user needs to tap on the
surface to play the appropriate tone whereas in this device the user needs to move his fingers as
to close the switches. It is this closure of the switches that cause the tone generator to produce a
tone.
Claim 3- In this claim, the patent filer talks about transmitting the tones from the glove to
another unit. In the description of the patent, he talks about using FM or AM transmitter to do so.
Our design on the other hand uses a ultrasonic ping to transmit the data from the glove to the
stationary unit. While the method of transmitting the signals is different both these go into an
amplifier and then supplied to the speaker.
4.0 Action Recommended
There are only two claims which are liable to be infringements. Although, the claims made are
pretty basic and could be common with any device, if it is proved to be an infringement then we
will obtain licensing from the patent filer. Mechanism of the function can’t be changed as the
manner in which the data is transmitted from the glove to sound box can’t be altered.
5.0 Summary
After analyzing three patents which are similar to our project, first patent is the one which comes
closest to our design as it performs the functions our project performs. However the mechanism
in which it is performed is different. Only two of the many claims made by the three patents are
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Digital Systems Senior Design Project
Rev 9/12
liable to infringement. In case the infringement is proved, we will get a license from the patent
filer.
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Digital Systems Senior Design Project
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6.0 List of References
[1]
“Google Patents – Finger Musical Instrument –Keduan Xu,” March,9 2010. [Online]. Available:
http://www.google.com/patents/US7674969[Accessed: October 31, 2012].
[2]
“Google Patents – Musical teaching device and method using gloves and virtual keyboard –
Rob McGregor,” May,27 2008. [Online]. Available: www.google.com/patents/US7378585
[Accessed: October 31, 2012].
[3]
“Google Patents – Tone generating glove and associated switches –Giancarlo Giannini,”
Jan,13 1987. [Online]. Available: http://www.google.com/patents/US4635516 [Accessed:
October 31, 2012].
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