Method and apparatus for facilitating group musical interaction over a network

(54) METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR
FACILITATING GROUP MUSICAL
INTERACTION OVER A NETWORK

(75) Inventors: Dan Schmidt, Cambridge; Jonathon
Bell, Brookline; Eran Egozy,
Cambridge; Michael James,
Somerville; Greg LoPiccolo, Brookline;
Alexander Rigopulos, Arlington, all of
MA (US)

(73) Assignee: Harmonix Music Systems, Inc.,

Cambridge, MA (US)

( * ) Notice: Subject to any disclaimer, the term of this patent is extended or adjusted under 35 U.S.C. 154(b) by 0 days.

(21) Appl. No.: 09/459,737

(22) Filed: Dec. 10, 1999

(51) Int. CI.7 G10H 7/00; G06F 15/16

(52) U.S. CI 84/609; 84/600; 84/645;

709/200; 709/201; 709/204; 709/217; 709/231

(58) Field of Search 84/600-602, 609-612,

84/622-625, 634-636, 645; 707/205; 709/200-207, 213, 217-219, 223-226, 230-232, 241;

370/413

(56) References Cited

U.S. PATENT DOCUMENTS

5,054,360 A 10/1991 Lisle et al 84/645

5,393,926 A 2/1995 Johnson 84/610

5,689,641 A * 11/1997 Ludwig et al 709/241

5,916,302 A * 6/1999 Dunn et al 709/204

OTHER PUBLICATIONS

The Distributed Real-Time Groove Network (DRGN), Matthew D. Moller and Canton Becker, 1995.*

* cited by examiner

Primary Examiner—Marlon T. Fletcher

(74) Attorney, Agent, or Firm—Testa, Hurwitz & Thibeault,

LLP

(57) ABSTRACT

Described are a system and method for achieving near real-time musical collaboration by a group of users using computers connected by a network. Each computer system plays a stream of musical data to each user. The musical data stream played to each user corresponds to the musical collaboration produced by the users. The playing of the musical data streams is staggered such that each user is located at a different time in the musical collaboration than every other user. This staggering separates any two users by a temporal offset that exceeds the maximum time required to transmit musical data from one user to another user over the network. Each user is allowed to modify the portion of the musical data stream that is currently being played to that user. Such musical data modifications are transmitted to other users over the network to become incorporated into the musical data streams played to those other users. Because the musical data streams are staggered by a temporal offset that exceeds the maximum latency of the network, those other users to receive the musical data modifications with sufficient time to incorporate them into the locally played musical data streams.

34 Claims, 9 Drawing Sheets